Bus no-shows still a pain for Tauranga school children

Photo / file

Bus woes are still affecting Tauranga school children, despite the Bay of Plenty Regional Council rolling out extra buses on selected routes as an "emergency" measure.

From last Monday, an extra bus operated by Go Bus has been running on routes 701, 801, 806 and 903, which provided spaces for an extra 55 students per route, the council said in a statement.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council chief executive Fiona McTavish said the measure was an "emergency interim solution" with the buses assigned to the routes that reportedly had the biggest overloading issues.

Tony Yeatman said the Route 1 bus his 15-year-old daughter, who was a student at Aquinas College, took never turned up on Monday evening.

There was "no explanation" for the no-show and nobody seemed to be taking responsibility for the mishap, he said.

After waiting at the school bus stop for nearly 30 minutes in the sun, a group of up to 25 children decided to take another public bus.

The group had to cross Pyes Pa Rd and walk to a stop near SuperValue Supermarket, nearly 1km down the road.

It was a similar situation in the morning - the stop near their home had no shelter to shield her from the elements and the bus was often late.

"She's catching the bus when she should be at school," he said.

Sandra Lowrie's 17-year-old son is also an Aquinas College student and while he was not affected by the no-show on Monday, his usual bus was often late and over-crowded.

Lowrie's son often left home for the bus stop earlier than needed and ended up coming home late due to the bus.

The bus was often late in the morning, which meant he was late for class.

A regional council spokesperson said the council was aware Route 1 did not pick up from Aquinas College due to a driver error.

The driver had been driving Route 1 all day and did not realise they had to do a school stop.