City Clipper bus service to end

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 6

City Clipper bus service to end

The City Clipper bus service will carry its last passengers on Friday evening. The service will be discontinued from June 1. "f

Rising costs and - falling patronage have forced the Christchurch Transport Board to.withdraw the black and yellow buses from service.

“The City Clipper is costing too much and with our plans to economise where possible this looks an obvious place to start.”, said Mr T.N. D. Anderson at yesterday s board meeting. When the service was introduced almost six years dgo to ferry inner-city shoppers throughout the business district it had a number of sponsors who paid for the greater part of the running costs. . -

These sponsors have nowdropped away; and the total cost is left to the board. Two months ago the board decided to charge partons 10c a ride, but this has accelerated the drop-off . in patronage. Before the 10c levy, the Clipper carried an average of 2951 people a month. Over the last eight weeks the average figure is .only 890. Patronage during the school holidays was 1245. Three old buses are used for the service which runs at 10-minute intervals along some of the main streets.

Mr M. G. Taylor, the board’s general manager, said that the service was staffed at present by five-to-six drivers who ran the Clipper between regular duties.

“By moving a driver into

charter work and cutting down on overtime we should not have to drop a staff member.” Mr Taylor said.

A further recommendation by Mr Anderson to implement an inner-city fare of 10c for travel along and within the four avenues on the city side of Hagley Park w-as opposed.

It was decided that the decision involving an alternative service be left to the finance committee to decide before passing it back to the board for final approval.

The board’s chairman. Mr J. Mathison, said there were many questions that needed answering concerning a new service and it should be discussed by the finance committee before being left to the board for a final decision.