Direct Orbus service into CBD from Shotover/LHE finally happening

After many months of public complaints, the Otago Regional Council is finally looking at a direct, peak hour bus service from Lake Hayes Estate and Shotover Country into the Queenstown CBD.

Currently passengers have to change buses at the Frankton bus hub. That lengthens the journey time considerably and also adds to congestion on the buses.

 Crux has received this statement from the ORC's Gerard Collings:

"We’ve heard really clearly that Lake Hayes Estate and Shotover Country residents would like to be able to access Queenstown without transferring between services at the Frankton Hub. We’ve been investigating how we can best address this. In discussion with the operator, we’re working through the potential for a direct service to and from Queenstown during the morning and afternoon peak"

"The current service, running between Lake Hayes Estate/Shotover Country and Jack’s Point (with a transfer point at the Frankton Hub) would continue. Alongside this, services would be added on-peak for the Lake Hayes Estate/Shotover Country - Queenstown corridor. These more direct services would still run via the hub, with the potential to pick up additional passengers there, but wouldn’t necessitate a transfer at that point. A key advantage to this approach is that it would also add some needed overall capacity to this corridor.”

It's understood that under the new scheme, which has yet to be officially confirmed, every second bus service during peak hours would be direct - Shotover/LHE - CBD - Shotover/LHE.

So - two pieces of good news ... more buses running on a more direct route into town during peak hours.