Letters: Retiree misses old route amid bus fiasco

A bus stops at Bayfair. File photo

While all this fiasco is going on with the new bus routes for Tauranga could I please ask that the Gold Route Bus that passes three retirement villages before getting to Bayfair start an earlier bus from Papamoa Plaza to Bayfair.

I understand the first bus is 10.21am and then you have to change at Bayfair. The timing of this bus is far too late.

If you are going to the Rialto picture theatre for a 10.30am movie, you have no option but to walk to Bayfair and get the bus to town. Many of the residents are just not capable of walking to Bayfair.

The best option would be to have a bus leaving Papamoa Plaza and use the old route down Sunrise Ave and stay on one bus all the way to town. A much better route.

When we had two representatives from the council talk at Ocean Shores it sounded all too good to be true but when it comes into reality it is just a nightmare.

At Pacific Coast Village we have a bus stop going to Bayfair at one end of the village and then another bus stop at the other end of the village going to Bayfair, but on the way back there is no stop outside the village at all and you have to get off at Sandhurst Drive. The same with the new Grenada St Bus stops.

Hopefully the old bus routes will be instigated.

Margaret Campbell
Pacific Coast Village

Bus lane hardly used

Enough of this nonsense of a bus-lane-only at all times on the Hairini-Turret Rd slip road. Why can't it be "Buses Only 7am-9am Weekdays" and outside those times revert to free access? Simple signage to that effect is all is needed.

The current fiasco results in a backlog during the rest of the day (including weekends) on the interchange for those wishing to continue on SH29A or Maungatapu, plus those that are wanting to access the Turret Rd causeway but currently are needlessly forced to continue to the next exit - often taking 2-3 traffic signal cycles to do so.

All the while the Hairini slip road remains devoid of any traffic – including buses for the most part. Just dumb.

Oh, and while you're at it, please reinstate the speed limit on the causeway to what it was before – 70km/h instead of the ridiculously redundant "50kph temporary".

Ken Green
Hairini

More diligence needed

It is amazing that the regional council officers who tendered the bus services did not do their due diligence to ensure that tenderers had sufficient resources (drivers) to fulfil the contract before it was awarded. This is a very basic rule of tendering and shows an alarming level of incompetence.

Russell Wenn
Oropi

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