Take the bus for free this Saturday

17 September 2014

If you’ve ever thought about taking the bus but never have, this Saturday could be the day to give it a go.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Bayhopper buses (the yellow buses in Tauranga and blue Whakatane to Ohope bus) and City-Ride buses in Rotorua are free for the day.

Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Lyall Thurston, chair of the Public Transport Sub-Committee, said they wanted to give the public the opportunity to try out the buses on a day when it was likely everyone had a reason getting out and about.

“We realise there are a lot of reasons why people may have never used the Bayhopper and City-Ride buses, so we thought we’d remove one of the barriers and give people the opportunity to take the bus for free. It’s an easy way to get around,” he said.

He said anyone thinking about heading into town or using the buses to get to an election booth just needed to either visit the www.baybus.co.nz website or call 0800 4 BAYBUS (0800 4 229 28) to find out their nearest bus route and timetable.

“Tauranga and Rotorua passengers who know where they need to get to can use the Journey Planner feature on the Baybus website which is simple and will tell you exactly which bus you need to take, when. We’ll be rolling this feature out to our Eastern Bay services soon.”

ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More