The Bay of Plenty Regional Council says it is holding NZ Bus to account over Tauranga bus issues

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council says it is "working extremely hard to hold NZ Bus to account" for issues with the rollout of Tauranga's new bus network - but won't say how.

Todaysenior representatives of NZ Bus are expected to address a regional council Public Transport Committee meeting with an update on the company's situation in Tauranga.

This week the Dominion Post reported the Greater Wellington Regional Council had fined NZ Bus 17,663 times in five months for failures such as cancelled or late buses, prompting a local MP to call for the company to hand over its Wellington contracts.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council chief executive Fiona McTavish has refused requests from the Bay of Plenty Times for details of any contractual consequences - including fines - for NZ Bus for issues such as late or cancelled buses in Tauranga.

She cited commercial sensitivity as grounds for refusing that request, as well as for why she would not disclose what it cost - and whether ratepayers will foot the bill - for the council to bring in two new bus contractors to pick up the school run slack from NZ Bus.

She said the council might release details in the "near-future", but was still negotiating with NZ Bus on contract variations for interim solutions to issues.

NZ Bus took over Tauranga's urban and school buses in December on a $14.8 million a year, nine-year contract, and with redesigned, higher frequency routes designed by the council.

A graph of bus complaints. Supplied / Bay of Plenty Regional Council

The first few months were rocky and resulted in a huge spike in complaints about both buses and routes.

NZ Bus has largely blamed a driver shortage, which it hoped to have sorted by mid-year.

The council, meanwhile, reinstated three old routes in Pāpāmoa, Maungatapu and Matua
- which NZ Bus will run - and has started a wider review of the new network design and operational issues.

It also signed contracts with Go Bus Transport and Bethlehem Coaches to cover two-thirds of the city's school bus network routes until the end of the school year.

Of 39 routes, Go Bus - the majority operator until it lost its contract to NZ Bus - has 24 routes, Bethlehem has six and NZ Bus has nine.

According to a report being presented today, the council required the emergency providers pay their bus drivers a higher hourly rate.

McTavish said the council had seen a positive improvement in the public transport in recent weeks, including reliability.

Bus performance

Between March 4 and 18:

- 1.5 per cent of services were cancelled
- 18.7 per cent of services ran late
- There were 73,327 boardings, up from 68,698 in the same period in 2018