Public transport in the Otago Region

The public transport system of Otago centres around the cities of Dunedin and Queenstown, under the brand name Orbus. Public transport in the region is provided using buses and ferries. Despite sharing a name, the systems in Dunedin and Queenstown are isolated from one another.

The Otago Regional Council designs routes and schedules, and contracts operation of bus services to two bus companies, Go Bus Transport and Ritchies Transport. The majority of bus routes in Dunedin normally operate at 30 minute headways, with 8 and 63 operating at 15 minute frequencies. All buses in Queenstown run at 60 minute headways, except for route 1, which operates every 15 minutes. In Dunedin, Services on evenings, weekends and holidays operate at about half the normal weekday frequency and there are no services on late Sunday or holiday evenings, nor on Christmas Day, Good Friday or Easter Sunday.

Bus fares in both cities are paid for by cash or by the electronic ticketing system Bee Card. The Bee Card replaced GoCards on 1 September 2020. Prior to GoCards, multi-trip paper tickets were used until November 2007.

Buses in Otago carried 4,050,282 passengers per year from 2022 to 2023.

Dunedin bus routes
Most routes are cross-city routes via the Dunedin city centre. Longer-distance routes terminate in the centre. Semi-orbital route 15 Ridge Runner links most inner suburbs but avoids the centre. The Mosgiel 77 semi-express service has a branch route 70 connecting at Green Island and a figure-8-shaped 80/81 Mosgiel Loop connecting on Mosgiel's main street, Gordon Rd. Transferring between routes, historically not a feature of Dunedin bus services, is more favourable under the current fare regime.


 * Wheelchair symbol.svg All routes use wheelchair-accessible buses
 * Bike-icon.svg All routes use buses fitted with bike racks

Fares
Fares in Dunedin and Queenstown are paid with either cash or a fare card called the Bee Card. In both cities, cash fares are more expensive than Bee; $4 in Queenstown and $3 in Dunedin. Additionally, fare concessions (reduced fare prices) only apply to Bee cards. All fares in both cities are flat fares, and transfers are free.

Bee cards were introduced to Otago buses in September 2020, and to Queenstown Ferries in 26 October 2022 following other regional councils who agreed to use it. Bee ended zone-based fares in Dunedin, after consultations with the public. Queenstown already had flat fares before Bee.

Prior to the Bee Card, Dunedin used GoCards for fare payment.

In the future, the National Ticketing Solution is supposed to replace the Bee card in Otago by 2026, as well as all other fare cards in New Zealand.

Organising bus routes in Dunedin
Dunedin's bus network is designed and managed by the Otago Regional Council. Fares are levied to cover about half of operating cost with the balance subsidised by Otago Regional Council ratepayers (about a quarter) and New Zealand Transport Agency (the remaining quarter; funded by fuel tax and road user charges). Buses use the individual companies' livery with Otago Regional Council stickers added. Until 2015, all services operated under the brand Gobus; this ended when a bus company with a similar name began serving the city. The regional council intends to introduce a new brand Orbus to the network Safety standards are regulated by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA). The Dunedin City Council has no administrative role other than as provider of the road infrastructure (with the exception of State Highways, for which NZTA is the provider), street furniture such as signs and seats and regulation of parking at bus stops. However, the city council is involved in discussions with the regional council over taking over the management of public transport.

History of public transport in Otago
The Dunedin City Council operated and managed most public transport until 1986 including the Dunedin cable tramway system (similar to the famous San Francisco cable car system) between 1881 and 1957, electric trams from 1900 to 1956, trolleybuses from 1950 to 1982 and motor buses from 22 April 1925 to 1986. From 1986, management of bus services became the responsibility of the Otago Regional Council. Otago Regional Council allowed any company to bid on routes and services, and Citibus, the city council owned bus company, won many of the routes tendered and had the best quality vehicles, compared to the private operators.

Citibus would go on to be privatised in 2011, after Dunedin City Council voted to sell it, with the mayor at the time summarising by saying that it was "hemorrhaging money". There was concern by some critics, like Labour MP Clare Curran, that this move would worsen driver working conditions.

New Zealand Railways (NZR) operated commuter trains from the Dunedin railway station to Port Chalmers and to Wingatui and Mosgiel until 1979 and 1982, respectively. Reintroduction of rail services is suggested from time to time NZR, through its Road Services division, from 1985 known as Cityline, also operated motor buses to the suburbs of Warrington, Cherry Farm, Brighton, Outram and Mosgiel until Cityline was privatised in 1991 – the Dunedin fleet was sold to Newtons Coachways. All the above-mentioned train or bus routes except Warrington and Outram continue to be served by the present bus system.

In early times, there were ferries connecting the central city to Port Chalmers and Portobello, but these ceased between the 1930s and 2018 as road connections along the harbour's edge were improved.

Former privately owned public transport operators in Dunedin included Turnbulls (Dunedin to Portobello); Newtons (Dunedin to Waverley), Otago Road Services (Dunedin to Green Island, Abbotsford and Fairfield), all of whom operated services over several decades from the 1950s to the 1980s and 1990s. From the late 1980s onwards, Cesta Travel (later called Southeastern) and Dunedin Passenger Transport operated a wide range of routes on various short-term contracts.

In late January 2020, the Dunedin City Council voted to reduce bus fares while exploring the re-establishment of a commuter rail link between Mosgiel and the Dunedin city centre. This includes allocating $600,000 to bus subsidies.

In July 2023, the Otago Daily Times reported that the Go Bus Transport company would be shifting its bus depot from Princes Street to the former PlaceMakers site on Portsmouth Drive in early 2024. Earlier in July 2022, the Dunedin City Council had explored selling the Princes Street bus depot to enable Kāinga Ora to develop housing. In response, Dunedin Tramways Union branch president Alan Savell had defended retaining the bus depot at Princes Street.

In early February 2024, Ritchies introduced 11 Yutong E10 battery electric buses to its fleet in Dunedin, which were originally planned to enter service in October 2023. Each bus cost between $500,000 and $700 000, and operate on some of the city's steepest routes. There was initially slight concern about how much charging the buses would need, but this concern was eliminated when the buses proved to be able to run all day on a single charge, although Ritchie's says it can charge them midday if needed. Prior to this, for the month of October in 2021 Otago Regional Council trialled an electric bus in Dunedin, to test its abilities on steep terrain and on the motorway.

From March 2024 onward, live electronic arrivals boards will be installed in Dunedin and Queenstown.

Airport buses


There are no conventional airport bus services to Dunedin Airport: this airport is served by a large fleet of shuttle vans provided by several operators including most of the local taxi companies. Airport shuttle vans typically stop several times en route to pick up or let off booked passengers.

Orbus runs bus route 1 to Queenstown Airport from other parts of Queenstown.