New Zealand Railways Road Services

The New Zealand Railways Road Services was a branch of the New Zealand Railways Department and later the New Zealand Railways Corporation. It operated long-distance, tourist and suburban bus services and freight trucking and parcel services.

History

The first bus operation by NZR began on 1 October 1907, between Culverden on the Waiau Branch and Waiau Ferry in Canterbury. By the 1920s NZR was noticing a considerable downturn in rail passenger traffic on many lines due to increasing ownership of private cars, and from 1923 it began to co-ordinate rail passenger services with private bus services. In November 1926 NZR purchased a private bus firm operating between Hastings and Napier in the Hawke's Bay region. NZR then acquired various other bus services in Dunedin and the Hutt Valley, and by 1928 was operating 56 buses. In 1931 Parliament passed the Transport Licensing Act, which regulated local bus services to ensure that services would not compete with NZR. This further increased acquisitions by NZR of small bus companies.

There was a certain amount of rivalry within NZR between NZRRS and the rail Traffic Branch and in many ways they competed with rather than complemented each other.^[1] For example, many cities had bus terminals some distance from railway stations and many NZRRS routes ran parallel to and at similar times to trains.^[1]

Restructuring

In 1985 the land operations of NZRC was restructured into market-based bi-modal (road and rail) business groups, rather than branches based on mode of transport,.^[1] and as part of the new Passenger Business Group, NZRRS was split into three brands:

• InterCity, long-haul passenger services
• Cityline, urban passenger services
• Speedlink, parcels services

The freight trucking business was combined with rail freight into the Freight Business Group, branded Railfreight Systems.^[1]

Privatisation

Road and rail services were separated in 1991 when the rail and ferry operations of New Zealand Railways Corporation were transferred to New Zealand Rail and the road transport operations were sold:^[1]

• InterCity in 1991 to InterCity Management Limited,^[2] a group of seven of the largest private coach companies - Whangarei Bus Company, Bayline Group, Ritchies Transport Holdings, Tranzit Group, Pacific Tourways, Gutherys Coachlines and Nelson SBL
• Cityline in Wellington and Auckland to Wellington City Transport and subsequently to Stagecoach New Zealand; in Dunedin to Newton's Coachways; New Plymouth to Waitara taken over by Withatruck Coachlines
• Speedlink Parcels to New Zealand Post.

See also

• Transport in New Zealand
• New Zealand Railways Department
• New Zealand Railways Corporation
• Intercity (New Zealand)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony (1991 reprint). The Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History. HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand). 
2. ^ "From $1 | Bus Tickets | Cheap Bus Tickets | Bus Passes - InterCity From $1 | Bus Tickets | Cheap Bus Tickets | Bus Passes". Intercitycoach.co.nz. http://www.intercitycoach.co.nz. Retrieved 2011-10-03.