Te Puke to get town bus service

Te Puke residents are getting an "around town" bus service, starting next month.
After months of chipping away, the Te Puke Ratepayers Association invited the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to explain how its Hopper bus system works.

The regional council's senior transport officer, Mike Furniss, gave a presentation to association members gathered at the Te Puke Citizen Club last Wednesday.

The association chairman Mike Lally says "we can now confirm that a bus service will commence around town for the residents of Te Puke.

"The service will start about 10.05am at Bramble Bridge, two days a week, Wednesday and Friday, starting on August 6 and 8, and the same bus returns in the afternoon.

"The route travelled will be, the bus coming from Tauranga goes over Bramble Bridge along Station Road, down Seddon Street, across Ben Key Street up Harris Street to Station Road then to Commerce Lane.

"From there it will go through town to Boucher Avenue, up Boucher Ave to Cameron Road, down Cameron Road, turn into Raymond Ave just past the RSA flats then to McLoughlin Drive, then to No 3 Road and down to State Highway 2, then to Palm Beach, Bayfair and on to Tauranga," said Mr Lally.

"We have covered the pensioner housing, rest homes and RSA flats as best we could, providing for as many people as we could.

"The ratepayers association believes there is a demand for this service in Te Puke as quite a number of people are unable to drive, for one reason or another," he said.

"And if all goes well, and the service is well used, we wish to see the service extended to a bigger coverage of Te Puke.

"What the service will do is for those who don't or can't drive is give them the opportunity to catch buses to see family members or friends in Tauranga, to visit the hospital, the Mount or where-ever around Tauranga.

"There is no cost to ratepayers for this service and travellers will only have to stand on the side of the road and flag down the bus as it goes around the streets.

"The indicative pricing for the fares is "very" good and passengers should be pleased," Mr Lally said. However, all the details will be published a little later.

"The ratepayers association hopes this initiative will be fully used and supported. We ask you to support it so the service can be extended to the rest of Te Puke and a special thanks to Russel Pittar for hanging in as it has taken nine months to get this far."