Tapawera Community Transport Pilot – 9 April 2024 to 17 April 2025.
The six-seater Serena bus, purchased by the Nelson Tasman Community Transport Trust (NTCTT), was reassigned to Tapawera for a community transport pilot service that commenced on 9 April 2024.
Following research done in Tapawera by the NTCTT, it was agreed to have a weekly passenger service to Richmond on Tuesdays to coincide with pension day, and on Wednesdays to Motueka. The service left the Tapawera Community Centre at 9:30am and departed Richmond or Motueka at 2pm. The service to Motueka was, after community consultation, changed to a Thursday service departing Tapawera Community Centre at 9:30am and returning from Motueka at 1pm from 1 December 2024.
It was also agreed to trial cash fares from 1 December 2024 through to 9 March 2025. The Serena vehicle, based in Tapawera, was also available for community hire. An example of this was the Nelson return trips for social outings to festivals, with six people this cost $60 return, i.e. $10 per person. The vehicle is still available for group hire until the Trust has made a decision on where it will be redeployed. We would like to thank members of the Tapawera community who used the transport services. Unfortunately, the patronage has been mostly just one or two passengers per trip, and sometimes no bookings at all.
The Tapawera Community Transport Pilot has now completed a full 12 months and we will be bringing it to a close with our last service to Motueka on Thursday 17 April 2025. The NTCTT would like to thank the Motueka i-SITE for handling the bookings with our customers on these Tapawera services.
Whilst this volunteer driver passenger weekly bus service hasn’t proved popular enough to retain, transport to town for some of our local residents is lacking. The Trust hopes that there is scope to use our local existing resources and vehicles to share rides and reduce both financial and carbon emission costs. The NTCTT will be getting behind a new campaign launch to support shared transport (rideshare) in July 2025.
We would also like to acknowledge the huge community contribution our volunteer drivers have made over the course of the year. We have really appreciated all of the support, positive energy and of course safe driving you have done on behalf of NTCTT and for the community.
Ngā mihi nui. Jude
