Ritchies Transport

Ritchies Transport was established in 1972 and describes itself on its website as "the largest privately owned bus and coach transport operator in New Zealand" with a fleet of "over 1500" vehicles[1] spread across depots nationwide.

Ritchies is a significant shareholder in InterCity.

It owns 46% of the InterCity coach and tourism company.[2]

Ritchies' website says Ritchies was "formed in Temuka 80 years ago by John Ritchie (Senior) and is still owned by the Ritchie family."[3] and that its head office "was located in Timaru but at the beginning of December 2003 relocated to Christchurch." The company "expanded into the North Island 20 years ago and now has a large operation in Auckland in addition to branches in Helensville, Dargaville, Whangarei, Rotorua, Blenheim, Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru, Dunedin, Balclutha, Queenstown, Gore, Ruakaka, Wanaka, and Chatham Islands."

Tourism services

Richies operates coach services for several package tour operators.

Urban services (past and present)
  • Auckland. Ritchies' main urban bus operations are in Auckland, operating out of depots in Swanson and Albany servicing West Auckland including Helensville and the North Shore. Ritchies also operates high-speed Northern Express NX1 services on the Northern Busway on Auckland's North Shore, under contract to Auckland Transport.
  • Blenheim. Ritchies operate the local bus service in Blenheim under contract to the Marlborough District Council. There are two loops that service the town.
  • Timaru and Temuka. Ritchies was founded in this small South Canterbury city. They have operated four Timaru urban bus routes contracted to Metro since 28 June 2010, previously operated by Christchurch Bus Services Ltd. They also run the Timaru–Temuka bus route.
  • Christchurch. With deregulation of bus services Ritchies entered the Christchurch urban market with a number of routes using various buses purchased from other companies, including the Auckland Regional Authority, Invercargill City Transport, Timaru City Transport and New Plymouth City Buses. In January 1997, Ritchies sold its Christchurch urban contracts to Christchurch Transport Ltd but retained ownership of the buses. It was announced on 4 November that Ritchies has purchased the assets of Red Bus Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Red Bus operates a number of urban services from the airport area to the south east of the city.
  • Queenstown. In 2016, Ritchies took over Connectabus, Queenstown's privately owned public transport service and continues to run the services. In 2017, Ritchies bought out Alpine Connexions in Wanaka, integrating their Queenstown–Wanaka services into its own.
  • Dunedin. Ritchies amalgamated Dunedin bus lines Turnbull Motors, Peninsular Motor Services and Southern Services in 1975.[4] Since then, Ritchies has operated urban services in Dunedin from time to time. From 1 July 2011, it has operated the Opoho-Shiel Hill, Pine Hill-Lookout Point, and University-Concord routes.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Ritchies fleet". Ritchies – ritchies.co.nz. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  2. "InterCity Holdings Ltd (2060513) Registered". Companies Office. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  3. "About us". Ritchies – ritchies.co.nz. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  4. Nissan Nomad TC81 on NZ Omnibus Society website, viewed 2011-05-31
  5. Munro, Bruce (25 March 2011). "Christchurch firm wins Dunedin bus routes". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 5 November 2011.

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