Tauranga parents alarmed at school route bus review, fear losing 801b through Maungatapu and Ōhauiti

A group of parents is concerned their children's school bus route may be facing the chop.

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has started gathering information for a review of Tauranga's school routes after the messy rollout of the redesigned network in December.

Among routes in the spotlight was the 801b, which runs through Maungatapu and Ōhauiti, carrying St Mary's Catholic School and Tauranga Primary School students.

The council has written to both schools and asked for a count of the number of students who use the route.

The move has some parents worried the route could be at risk, as well as frustrated at the lack of direct communication to parents.

Chairman of the council's Public Transport Committee chairman Lyall Thurston said in a written statement the council was not currently looking at cancelling any school services but a review was pending.

"At the last Public Transport Committee meeting the issue of a school service review was mentioned and, while we didn't specify a timeframe for this, it's likely to be at some point in 2020," he said.

"Obviously any review would involve public engagement."

He said council records showed on average the 801b bus transported nine students in the morning and 13 in the afternoon.

St Mary's parent and Ōhauiti resident Shelley Kirk said the first she had heard of the review was through a child who had been told by a bus driver.

Her sons, aged 8 and 10, had caught the bus for three years. On average they used it four mornings and three nights a week, she said.

Driving them took an hour in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon due to traffic.

When there was no traffic, this was cut to only seven minutes.

Kirk said she believed cancelling the route would be short-sighted as new housing developments in Ōhauiti would lead to an influx of school children.

Ōhauiti resident and Tauranga Primary School parent Gemma Trueman, who had two children aged 8 and 5 using the bus, said it would be a "pain in the bum" if the route was cancelled.

It took an hour round-trip to drop off her children and would "dictate" the hours she could work.

She said her younger son had Autism Spectrum Disorder and changes to the bus route, especially losing the "amazing" bus driver, would be a big disruption to his life.

She appreciated the financial cost of running a partially full service and said the council should look into a bus service shared with Tauranga Boys' College or Tauranga Girls' College.

Tauranga Primary School deputy principal Tracey Kerr-Aim said the council had informed the school of the review.

Kerr-Aim said the school had sought feedback from parents and so far it was overwhelmingly in support of keeping the route.

She said the school also wanted the route to stay but acknowledged it was not the school's decision at the end of the day.

St Mary's Catholic School principal Ben Fuller said the school sent out an email to parents, asking them to indicate whether their children used the bus.

He had noticed a "huge drop" in the number of students using the bus route this year, which he attributed to declining trust in the service's efficiency.

A free and efficient service was needed, he said.