Despite fewer buses on Dunedin roads, there has been an increase in passengers after the Otago Regional Council introduced its reduced timetables, figures show.
Transport manager Doug Rodgers said the council "certainly didn’t expect an increase" but was pleased with the response.
The new timetable took effect on Tuesday last week and aimed to increase reliability amid ongoing cancellations caused by driver illness and a national driver shortage.
Dunedin buses carried up to 1000 more passengers a day after one week of the reduced schedule despite about 200 fewer trips a day, council data shows.
This week, on Tuesday, 7136 rides were recorded across the 755 bus services.
On Wednesday, the figure was 7584 across 754 bus services.
This was an increase on last Tuesday, when 6523 rides were recorded across 960 buses.
Last Wednesday, the figure was 6567 rides across 925 bus services.
Mr Rodgers said a possible cause of the increases was the increased reliability of bus services, but more data was needed.
The frequency of buses on some Dunedin routes was roughly halved, while the overall service was reduced by about a third.
The majority of the reduced timetable went well, Mr Rodgers said.
"There have been some teething issues with some routes. We are working with operators to address this.
"Overall, it’s a massive improvement."
Just 1% of bus trips were cancelled on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
By contrast, last Tuesday 12% of buses were cancelled, and last Wednesday, 15%, the council said.
