The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has celebrated its first day of introducing fares on its new school bus network, despite some hiccups resulting in late services.
The new bus system follows a term of free travel that was offred as the new service established itself.
Lyall Thurston, chair of the Public Transport Subcommittee and Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor, said there had been challenges in introducing the new network and getting the routes and timings bedded in, but generally they were happy with how things had run.
"This morning we have had reports of services running late, which we apologise for. All services did run, and a few were held up by the crash on Takitimu Drive," Mr Thurston said.
"Despite our best planning there were also a few technical problems which affected individual buses and we're looking at them this afternoon to find out what caused them.