Residents using the Te Puke to Mount Maunganui bus service will now be able to travel around the town on Wednesdays and Fridays.

BOP Regional Council reports the service extension will enable people who live off the usual Jellicoe Street bus route to be picked and travel around the town.

Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Lyall Thurston hopes the changes provide more options for Te Puke's residents when they choose how to travel.

'We'd been asked by the community to consider making the changes to the routes and are pleased to see them happen.

'We hope it will provide some extra ways in which people are able to get around the town, or to get out to either Papamoa or Bayfair or further for the day.”

The route effectively sees an extra trip added to the existing Wednesday and Friday timetables. The bus will travel from the Tauranga CBD at 9.35am, via Bayfair and Palm Beach Plaza and continuing on to Te Puke where it will travel down Station Road, Seddon Street, Ben Keys Street, Harris Street, Station Road, Jocelyn Street and to Commerce Lane.

Picking up passengers at Commerce Lane at 10.05am, it will then travel along King Street, Jellicoe Street, Boucher Ave, Cameron Road, Raymond Ave, Dunlop Road, Macloughlin Drive, No. 3 Road before heading onto Jellicoe Street SH2 where it will continue onto Papamoa and Bayfair.

The bus will then return along the same route, leaving Bayfair at 1.15pm and Te Puke (Commerce Lane) at 2pm. Full timetables and route descriptions are available here.

Fares for the service range from $3 to $5 for a cash fare ($2.40 to $4 with a Smartride card) for an adult depending on where people are travelling, and $1.80 to $3.40 for a concession cash fare ($1.44 to $2.50 for a Smartride concession fare). NZ Supergold Card fares apply.