Media Release

13 August 2015

Public Transport Still Popular

Public transport is still a popular way to travel across Napier and Hastings, with investigations currently underway for more goBay services to make these accessible for more people in the region.

HBRC Transport Manager Anne Redgrave reported to a recent Regional Transport Committee meeting that there had been a 7% drop in passenger trips in the 2014-15 year, probably due to lower petrol prices. It comes after a steady increase in passenger numbers over the previous five years.

“It’s a small percentage drop in passengers and probably to be expected as it’s become cheaper to run a car over the last year. However buses are still a popular and cheap transport option and hundreds of people like using our services daily in the cities,” says Anne Redgrave.

There were 744,456 total annual trips in the last financial year, a drop from 799,845 the previous year, but a large increase compared to the 480,244 passengers in 2009-10 when Hawke’s Bay Regional Council began the upgrade and promotion of public transport.

In contrast to the overall trend, Routes 15 (Napier - Ahuriri - Westshore) and Route 11 (express service Havelock North – Hastings- Clive- Napier) both saw significant increases in passenger use over the last year.

Ms Redgrave told the committee that lower car running costs had been determined as a possible factor, as the largest decrease was of passengers paying the full adult fare. These people are more likely to have access to a car so some are choosing to use their car for convenience, now it’s cheaper to run.”

The use of the bikes on buses service was also down on the previous year, also thought to be due to the same factor.

Improvements continue to be made for passenger convenience. New bus shelters have been installed in Napier and three more stops formalised by Napier City Council on the Napier to Hastings Route 12.

A new service that could potentially make bus use even easier is currently being investigated by HBRC transport operations staff.

‘TrackABus’ is an internet based service that supplies passengers with real time information on how far away the next bus is.

“TrackABus could really make the difference for Napier and Hastings passengers as they could more reliably time their dash to a bus stop and have confidence that a bus is on its way,” said Anne Redgrave, whose team is preparing a business case for consideration by HBRC and the Regional Transport Committee.

TrackABus works through smartphone and desktops, so is cheaper to install than similar systems in other cities which use displays at bus stops. TrackABus has been shown to increase bus use by as much as 10 percent.

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