Maungatapu gets dedicated school bus service

Maungatapu college students will be getting their own bus service. Photo / File

Tauranga Boys' and Girls' College students living in Maungatapu will be able to use a new dedicated school service on Monday morning.

The service is part of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's roll-out of school services to allow Bayhopper contractor NZ Bus to focus on Tauranga's urban service because of a driver shortage, a regional council press release said.

The new Maungatapu route would be known as route 805 and would be free of charge for the first week while ticket machines were arranged, the release said.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council chief executive Fiona McTavish said the staggered roll-out of school buses would continue over coming weeks.

"Discussion with school bus contractors is going well as NZ Bus continues to concentrate on the reliability of the urban network," McTavish said in the release.

"We are really sorry for the public transport challenges that have been experienced by bus passengers, schools and parents. We acknowledge that this is impacting on the trust and confidence in our public transport system."