Students’ first schoolhopper ride

The first batch of Tauranga students have made it to their school's first day with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Schoolhopper bus network officially launched.

The new bus service picked up students on 20 of the 46 routes across the city this morning as schools begin their staggered approach to term one.


The new Schoolhopper bus network officially launched today.

The Tauranga school bus network has transitioned to the Regional Council to fill a gap that would have seen more than 3000 school students without an easy way to get to and from school due to the withdrawal of the service last year by the Ministry of Education.

The service is free for term one, but children will be charged $1.15 for concessionary travel and $1.60 for cash fares from term two.

Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor and Passenger Transport Subcommittee chair Lyall Thurston is pleased with how this morning's launch went.

Lyall says: 'We have been fortunate to have a staggered start to the launch of the service, in line with the staggered start to the school year and we are pleased with how the first 20 routes operated this morning.”

From next week all 46 routes will be operating with about 3000 students expected to use the service.

Lyall says every year there are a few issues to be smoothed out in the first weeks of term and regional council will be looking at them as they arise.

Importantly, if a Schoolhopper bus passes someone's stop because it is full, wait at the stop as another bus will be sent to collect you.

Regional council is also interested in feedback from students and parents about the Schoolhopper routes and stops that are currently in place.

'These have been developed from information provided to us from the Ministry of Education and bus operators based on last year's data,” says Lyall.

'However, we realise that each year there is a change in numbers of where people live and in the numbers of those using particular services, so we will be looking at every route in next few weeks of and making adjustments where required.

'If we do look at making an alteration to a route we will make sure this is communicated in advance to the students using the particular route and the school(s) involved.

People wanting to provide feedback can do by calling: 0800 4 BAY BUS, by emailing: transport@boprc.govt.nz or by visiting: www.baybus.co.nz/schoolhopper and filling out the online feedback form.

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