NZ Bus, formerly Stagecoach New Zealand, is New Zealand's largest bus company, operating in Auckland and Wellington, with a combined fleet of around 1,000 vehicles. It also owns 96% of Fullers Ferries Auckland. It is owned by Infratil.
Contents |
History
Stagecoach New Zealand was part of the British Stagecoach Group, and began operations when the firm acquired in 1992 Stagecoach expanded Wellington operations by purchasing Wellington City Transport, the largest bus operator in Wellington, from the Wellington City Council. WCT had just recently purchased the Auckland and Hutt Valley suburban bus operations of the New Zealand Railways Road Services, then branded CityLine prior to the Stagecoach takeover. Stagecoach then greatly expanded its Auckland operations in 1998 by purchasing Transportation Auckland Corporation (trading as The Yellow Bus Company) from the Auckland Regional Council.
NZ Bus is owned by infrastructure investment company Infratil, which bought the firm from Stagecoach in November 2005. The Stagecoach Group has agreed to let Infratil use the name and livery for five years from the sale.
Company rebranding
In November 2006 Infratil announced rebrands of some Stagecoach services.
- Buses operating out of the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast depots are being rebranded North Star, announced on 4 December 2006. The rebranding of the rest of Stagecoach Auckland is yet to be announced.
- In November 2006, Infratil announced that Stagecoach Wellington services would begin operating under the new GOWellington brand from early 2007, with updated yellow and black livery.
- Cityline Hutt Valley services was rebranded as Valley Flyer on 21 November 2007. The bus with purple and yellow livery feature "a tui in full flight. The tail of the tui depicts the Hutt River flowing through the valley, while the wings capture the shapes of our hills and mountains. The orange swish on the buses represent the Valley itself."
