23 November 2011

Free buses make Christmas shopping a breeze

Horizons Regional Council is encouraging shoppers to save their parking pennies by hopping on a free weekend bus in the lead up to Christmas.

To help reduce the stress of finding a park this silly season, all Palmerston North buses supported by Horizons will be free on the weekends of 3-4, 10-11 and 17-18 December as well as Christmas Eve.

Free buses will also operate in Wanganui and Feilding on the Saturdays of these weekends and additional home-only services will operate in Palmerston North after the Christmas Parade, Saturday 3 December.

Horizons transport manager Anne Redgrave is encouraging people to make use of the free service.

“It’s a great opportunity for those yet to try the public bus services to jump on board and see just how easy it is to travel by bus. It’s also a nice little gift for our regular passengers,” she said.

Ms Redgrave said the number of people using public transport in both Manawatu and Wanganui is steadily increasing.

“We’ve been making continual improvements to our public transport networks over the last few years and this is reflected in higher passenger numbers. Patronage has increased by 61% in Palmerston North, 41% in Feilding and 24% in Wanganui over the past three years,” she said.

For more information about bus timetables and routes visit the passenger transport section of Horizons website www.horizons.govt.nz or call free phone number 0508 800 800.

ENDS

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