Intercity (New Zealand)

Intercity Holdings Limited is a passenger transport and tourism company and operates New Zealand's largest coach transportation network as well as ferry and cruise businesses in the Bay of Islands. It has several brands:
* InterCity Coachlines New Zealand's largest coach network servicing around 600 towns and communities daily
* the slightly more up-market Newmans Coach Lines between major cities and major tourist centres
* Intercity Link on secondary feeder routes
* Great Sights sightseeing coach services
* AwesomeNZ sightseeing tours and boat cruises for the more intrepid traveller
* Fullers Bay of Islands coach and boat sighteeing services in New Zealand's Far North District
* Kings Dolphin Cruises dolphin tours and boat cruises

History

InterCity is usually seen as the successor to the New Zealand Railways Road Services but the history is a little more complicated. New Zealand Railways' rail and road services were combined in 1985 as the Passenger Services Division of New Zealand Railways Corporation. "InterCity" began in 1985 as the brand for long-distance rail and road services. In 1991 the rail-based assets were transferred to New Zealand Rail Limited and the long-distance road business and "InterCity" name were bought in 1991 by InterCity Group New Zealand Limited [http://www.intercitycoach.co.nz] , a group of four of the country's largest private coach companies - Ritchies Coachlines, Tranzit, PTL Route Services and Nelson SBL.

On 1st December 2007 Tourism Holdings Ltd entered into a joint venture with the owners of Intercity Group. A new company Intercity Holdings Limited was formed which added the THL businesses of Great Sights and Fullers Bay of Islands to the InterCity businesses of Kings and Intercity Coachlines [http://www.thlnz.co.nz/Default.aspx?DN=6,1,Documents "Financial & Investor Information"] from www.thlnz.co.nz, retrieved 21 December 2007] .

Newmans Coach Lines

Newmans Coach Lines began in 1879 with brothers Tom and Harry Newmans offering a horse-drawn coach service delivering mail around the Nelson region. The business grew rapidly and expanded to include passenger services, at first throughout the South Island and later into the North Island. In 1911 the first motor vehicle - a 4 cylinder Cadillac - was introduced and in 1918 the last horse-drawn carriage was retired from service.

Newmans remained a family owned business until 1972 when it merged with Transport (Nelson) Ltd, a trucking and mining conglomerate. There followed a further period of expansion where the Newmans brand expanded to encompass tours, rental cars and campervans as well a short-lived airline.

In 1988 Corporate Investments Limited took over the business however the business suffered and several routes were withdrawn. In 1991 an agreement was reached where competitor Mount Cook Group ceased operating in the North Island and in return Newmans ceased operating in the South Island. Even this drastic step was not enough however and in 1992 a consortium of four coach operators took over Newmans Coach Lines. By 1994 two of the consortium had withdrawn and the remaining two shareholders Tranzit and Ritchies integrated Newmans into the InterCity Group business.

Carbon neutral

In May 2007 Intercity announced its intention to become a carbon neutral company over the next three years, using carbon credits from Landcare Research's carboNZero programme [ [http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0705/S00305.htm scoop.co.nz] ] .

External links

* [http://www.intercitycoach.co.nz Intercity website]
* [http://www.newmanscoach.co.nz Newmans website]
** [http://www.newmanscoach.co.nz/waitomo-caves.php Waitomo Caves]
* [http://www.destinationcarbonneutral.co.nz/ Intercity destination carbon neutral website]
* [http://www.carbonzero.co.nz carboNZero programme website]
* [http://www.greatsights.co.nz/ Great Sights website]
* [http://www.fboi.co.nz/ Fullers Bay of Islands website]
* [http://www.dolphincruises.co.nz/ Kings website]

References