Riding the Wave: Whanganui's New Network

Good things come in small packages and Whanganui's new bus network is a case in point, showing that smaller centres can do good public transport. Read on for more:

Introduction

Friday, 17th April 2026 is important for two reasons. It’s World Public Transport Day and it’s day one of Whanganui’s new bus network. For context, Whanganui is the second largest city in the Manawatū/ Whanganui region in the Lower North Island of Aotearoa/ New Zealand with a population of 42,800 as of June 2025. And up to Friday, 17th April 2026, a city not known for its world class public transport.

Photo by Ang Wickham Flickr: Whanganui River to Dublin Street Bridge, CC BY 2.0

[Editorial note: Many thanks to Anthonie Thonnon for his tireless advocacy on behalf of Whanganui and for much of the material included in this post.]

The power of a precursor

Whanganui’s New Network builds on the earlier success of Te Ngaru | The Wave. In 2023, Horizons and Whanganui District Council teamed up to trial a ridership-focused service, Te Ngaru | The Tide - a more direct, 20 minute frequency route aimed at ridership. Apart from Te Ngaru | The Tide, bus services in Whanganui up to the New Network were one-way loops operating every two hours or worse on a very limited span of service. Unsurprisingly, apart from Te Ngaru | The Tide service, patronage was sparse and declining.

A typical pre-new network Whanganui bus timetable. Image source: Horizons

According to Horizons Regional Council, the public transport authority for Whanganui:

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“We saw a huge increase in patronage across the Whanganui network in 2023 with over 163,000 passenger trips, 70,000 more than in 2022. This figure grew to 193,940 passenger trips in 2025. The main driver of these increases was the introduction of the high-frequency Te Ngaru | The Tide service, which now accounts for more than half of all patronage across the network.”
Horizons Regional Council website

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What is the New Network?

Key elements of Whanganui’s New Network are:

• Two new routes operating every 20 minutes between 8am to 6pm, with extended services 6-8am and 6-8pm on weekdays and later services on Friday and Saturday evenings. One of these is the original Te Ngaru | The Tide service and the second one is the second Te Ngaru | The Tide service

• Three new routes operating every hour 7am – 6pm Monday to Saturday, and 9am-3pm on Sundays

• Service to some areas not currently covered, such as Pūtiki.

• Buses running seven days a week

• More frequent services past or near schools, replacing the current once-a-day school services Horizons provides in the Whanganui urban area

Whanganui New Network Map. Image source: Horizons website

This will simplify Whanganui’s network from over a dozen very infrequent routes, to five simple routes - two 20 minute frequency and three hourly - designed to work together and make travel possible anywhere in the city. Buses will also join the Durie Hill Elevator and offer Sunday services for the first time in decades.

The new network has been possible despite reduced availability of funding for public transport. In consultation last year, Whanganui residents strongly supported going ahead with a modestly reduced version of a new network, despite a lack of New Zealand Transport Agency/ Waka Kotahi co-funding support from central government in this round.

The New Network is free for the first month which, by fortuitous coincidence, coincides with a fuel crisis with a concomitant big increase in petrol costs.

Let’s be clear that this isn’t a perfect network but we need to avoid perfection being the enemy of merely very good. And it’s an enormous improvement on the sort of service shown in the screenshot above. People will not choose to use that sort of level of “service” unless they have absolutely no choice.

The Power of One Plus

And it’s a story of tireless advocacy, in particular by Anthonie Tonnon, a long time public transport advocate, who represents Whanganui District Council at the Horizons Passenger Transport Committee, and the operator of the Durie Hill Elevator in Whanganui East, Aotearoa/ New Zealand’s only fare-paying public transport elevator (and the only elevator with a elevator replacement bus when it’s not running).

View from the top of the Durie Hill Elevator over Whanganui City Centre. Photo credit: Darren Davis

While there’s a “power of one” element in Anthonie’s ongoing advocacy, it’s also a team effort and Anthonie is keen to acknowledge the contributions of others to making Whanganui’s New Network happen, including the great work by the Connect team at Horizons, particularly Whanganui lead planner Jayme Thorby, and Transport Manager for Horizons Mark Read. The team have also had great advice from the team at MRCagney (Nicolas Reid, Lewis Thorwaldson, and Pippa Mitchell), and over the years a number of people in the industry have generously offered advice, including Nicolas Reid, Sam van der Weerden, Patrick Reynolds, and Anthony Cross.

Local politicians of both Horizons and Whanganui District Council have championed the project and made it possible, particularly former Horizons councillor and Passenger Transport Committee Chair Sam Ferguson, Horizons councillor Alan Taylor, Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe and Whanganui councillor Charlotte Melser.

Anthonie Tonnon in front of a Te Ngaru | The Tide bus.

Final thoughts

Really four final thoughts:

1. Small cities such as Whanganui can do great things with public transport.

2. The power of precursors such as the first Te Ngaru | The Tide service to test latent demand and to make the case for bigger investments.

3. The power of advocates to make a real difference by working to influence the key decision makers, not working in isolation shouting from the rooftops.

4. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of very good. Every place has to start somewhere and Whanganui has made a very good start to building better public transport.