Press Release: Bay Of Plenty Regional Council

Eastern Bay of Plenty Bay Hopper bus services have new welcomed changes from next Monday 22 August including new wheelchair friendly buses on most services, and service coverage to new areas.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council in partnership with its new operator Uzabus are providing accessible buses to cater for those users with limited mobility or who want to bring a pushchair on the bus easily.

This is an improvement from the old service, which also now provides better services to Awatapu and James Street.

Regional Council’s transport policy manager, Garry Maloney says, “We are continuously looking at ways to improve our public transport system to reflect changes in demand and need.”

“These changes focus on meeting the needs of our local community. We are providing a more convenient and regular bus service for those in the Whakatane and Ohope area.”

“Our aim is to ensure that our customers receives the best possible public transport service and we are working collaboratively alongside our transport partners NZ Transport Agency and Whakatane District Council to improve the customer experience.”

To allow for the additional service changes in Whakatane out to Awatapu and James Street, other minor changes to the timetable have been made, says Mr Maloney.

“Saturday services will now operate to the weekday timetable and we have added three extra return trips each day, so there are now 7 return trips and it’s great for Saturday sports.”

“The bus fares however remain unchanged,” he says.

The service to Tauranga will now travel via Paengaroa and Pukehina three days a week.

“This bus will go via Paengaroa on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and via Pukehina on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.”

For more information about these changes or to access the new timetable go online to www.baybus.co.nz or call free 0800 4 BAY BUS (0800 4 229 28) 24 hours, 7 days a week.