Less than a third of the $9.3 million contract cost to run Tauranga's BayHopper bus service is being recovered from users, with city ratepayers chipping in nearly $2 million.
Figures for the year ending June 30 showed that fares totalled nearly $2.8 million including SuperGold Card pensioner payments of $440,000. It meant that the total income from passengers was 30 per cent of the contractor's cost to operate the service.
The rest of the $6.5 million was funded from New Zealand Transport Agency and council subsidies. But despite buses being heavily subsidised, data presented at this week's meeting of the regional council's public transport committee showed that patronage on most city bus routes was within guidelines.
Ten of the 12 routes were performing within the threshold needed to maintain the services without change. Buses needed to average 12 to 24 passengers per in-service hour, giving them the flexibility to be nearly full in peak times and nearly empty at some other times of the day.
No changes will be made to the Papamoa East to CBD service which was marginally below passenger minimums. The Lakes to Greerton route was averaging one or two passengers per hour, but with the hourly service only six months old it was decided to keep it running to see how development at The Lakes would impact on patronage.
