Environment Canterbury spent nearly $94,000 rebranding and redesigning the exterior look of the region’s buses.

Senior Manager Public Transport Stewart Gibbon said “the expected envelope we were working within for the exterior livery design, including discovery research, concept development, cultural narrative development and engagement through Matapopore, design iterations, colour, scale, and placement considerations, testing, and final provision of files and livery guideline, was $95,000.

The full design development costs for this external livery project have come in just under this at $93,887.

Mr Gibbon said this cost is in the context of “our $61.4 million per annum new bus contracts, which over the nine years of these contracts equates to just over half a billion dollars; within this is a multimillion dollar investment by our operators in a new fleet of buses being built now.”

New buses cost from $450,000 to more than $800,000 to build depending on size and whether they are electric or diesel. 

He said “now is the right time to introduce a design look that our network will carry for many years.”

Mr Gibbon said the introduction of Metro’s new fleet of buses supports the local economy through local bus building and painting. 

Local trust Matapopore was paid $10,335 for its culture input.

Matapopore is the mana whenua voice in recovery and is responsible for ensuring Ngāi Tūāhuriri/Ngāi Tahu values, aspirations and narratives are realised within the recovery of Christchurch. 

“The changes are consistent with best practice around New Zealand and the world. Most public transport operators now operate with a single livery.”

ECan Councillor Phil Clearwater said “we found that the numerous brands of Christchurch’s buses were diluting the message of Metro’s connected network, and so we have worked with our bus operators, Go Bus, Red Bus and Ritchies, during the implementation of their new contracts to introduce a single look across all buses.”