Nelson Tasman residents have embraced the future of public transport with enthusiasm, taking 931,328 journeys on the new eBus service in its first year.
The fleet of 17 new Foton electric buses rolled out on 1 August 2023.
There has been strong growth in patronage since the eBus service was introduced, with the number of journeys jumping from 462,055 in the final year of the former NBus service, to 931,328 in the first year of eBus – a 101% increase.
The region can be hugely proud of having the first electric bus service of this scale. The expansion of the bus frequency and destinations to cover 3885 kilometres each day has helped drive the doubling of usage.
The goal is to further grow the service to achieve a million journeys a year and we’re currently doing a review to look at how it can be further improved.
While Nelson previously had a bus service, public transport in this format is new to Tasman.
Mayor Tim King says eBus has had a massive impact for our communities.
“More than 70,000 journeys across the Motueka and Wakefield routes is a testament to how essential these routes are for us.”
He says add to that, the peak hour overflow buses and the Motueka bus at capacity in the school holidays, and you can see a real appetite for public transport in Tasman.