The buses are currently listed at $8000. Photo / Stephen Tate
The buses are currently listed at $8000. Photo / Stephen Tate
A Motueka man is selling two old Wellington trolley buses for people to repurpose into tiny homes.
Stephen Tate lives in the South Island, just outside the town of Motueka, and has listed the two old-school trolley buses on Trade Me for people to come and take off his hands.
He told the Herald he purchased the buses two years ago from a man in the North Island who had bought “about 30 of them” in bulk when they were decommissioned.
A spokesperson for NZ Bus told the Herald they sold the trolley buses several years ago as a lot of 54 buses and “have not seen them since”.
Tate’s plan for the buses was to convert them to homes for people to buy.
“I was looking to convert them into tiny houses, seeing that people had a big demand for them. I thought all these would be ideal.”
The interior of the bus. Photo / Stephen Tate
But his original plan fell by the wayside when he decided to “listen to reality”.
“I’ve had a career change in the sense I’ve decided not to take on bigger projects and so I’m selling them on now - I was going to develop them into tiny houses, but reality suggested otherwise and I decided to listen to reality for once.”
He said the two buses have received a lot of interest, but so far no serious buyers.
If someone were to buy one of the buses they would need to tow it from the field it’s currently in, as they were designed to run on Wellington’s electric tramline which was decommissioned in 2017.
“That was its power source,” Tate said.
The motor is still in there in the back of the bus, but since there is no overhead tram lines anywhere in this district it would have to be towed.”
Once towed, Tate says they would make fabulous tiny homes.
“They would make an extremely enjoyable tiny home. They’re already made full of glass and aluminium bodies with very little maintenance and they’re a bargain at half the price.”
The buses were taken out of service in 2017, after 60 years of taking Wellingtonians from A to B. One year, all the trolley bus cables in the central city had to be lifted to make way for Zuri the giraffe as she travelled to her new home at Wellington Zoo.
The 1-year-old was driven from Auckland to the capital in 2016, with the height of her crate dictating the route.
On the final day of the trolley buses being in service, a “wake” was organised at the bus stop outside Unity Books on Willis St in the hope it would prompt a last-minute stay of execution.
A trolley-bus on Lambton Quay, Wellington, 10 September, 2008. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Regional transport committee chairwoman at the time, Barbara Donaldson, said the council could not back down and change its mind because all of the planning and contracts were in place.
She said at the time she was looking forward to a new modern fleet providing improved services.
“Wellington is growing and Metlink has to grow with it, by creating a better service for public transport users and investing in the future, not holding onto the past.”
Greater Wellington Regional Council voted in 2014 to stop funding the trolleys.
New diesel and electric buses began service in July 2018.
If you’re interested in buying one of the old buses, they’re currently listed on Trade Me at $8000 a pop.
Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.
