Queenstown $600k annual sweetener for $2 bus fares

The Orbus network: more passengers, less drivers. (Image: BusinessDesk)

Wed, 11 Jan 2023

One of Queenstown Lakes district council (QLDC) mayor Jim Boult’s key planks, when he took office in 2016, was to bring in cheaper and better public transport. Prior to his arrival, bus fares had been, as he said, “infrequent and unreliable”. It was also expensive, as high as $8 one-way from Queenstown to Lake Hayes, scarcely a 20-minute commute. Under Boult’s early tenure, the QLDC lobbied for a $2 uniform fare, a move deeply resisted by the Otago regional council (ORC), the manager of both the Whakatipu and D...

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