The 12-seater Flex bus will be used on the Matangi-Tamahere bus trial. Photo: Supplied.
A two-year bus trial to and from Hamilton is planned for Matangi and Tamahere commuters.
But it comes with a proviso. The public transport trial should not come at the expense of the communities’ school bus services.
A 12-seater bus, used on the Flex service in Hamilton, would be used for the trial.
Funding comes from Waikato District Council in the form of $200,000 a year from its roading budget.
Community representatives gave Waikato Regional Council, which is responsible for the region’s bus services, the go ahead in May to find preferred routes and last month settled on one.
That route would start and end at Te iti o Hauā Marae on Tauwhare Road halfway between Matangi and Tauwhare.
Tamahere-Woodlands ward councillor Crystal Beavis said she attended the meetings where the regional council said the Ministry of Education had suggested any new public transport service might result in them withdrawing the school buses.
“This will be a time-limited trial to test the benefit for the local community and what level of support it gets, so there’s no question that school bus services must not be disrupted.
“It was clear to me that the Waikato Regional Council staff accepted this responsibility and will work with the Ministry of Education to ensure it,” said Beavis.
Crystal Beavis
Regional council Public Transport planner Katherine Simpson said it was early days but the response from community representatives had been positive.
“The proposed routes and timetables have been shared with the ministry for confirmation as to whether they will, in fact, withdraw their services since this trial will not be able to cater for all the students within this area,” she told the Regional Transport committee last week.
Simpson told The News there was a risk.
“We have been working quite closely to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
She was reluctant to release timetable or route details but did say it would be a direct service into Hamilton.
Public transport users from Tamahere and Matangi can now take the Cambridge regional bus service into Hamilton. At Tamahere it stops northbound outside Tamahere Model Country School, and southbound on the Expressway off ramp before the Tauwhare Road turn off.
While not an official ‘park n ride’, The News understands some people use it in that way.
Service Delivery acting general manager Megan May said her district council helped the regional council connect with its communities.
The council’s funding only covered operational costs for the 12-seater and a driver. It did not cover bus stops or any permanent facilities.
Other Waikato communities in Raglan and North Waikato had also shown an interest in the smaller public transport options but Tamahere-Matangi was the most logical trial at this stage, said Simpson.
The only constraints would be around the 12-seater itself which is used as an on-demand rideshare service to and from the Hamilton CBD on Friday and Saturday nights.
It also operates seven days a week between 9.15am and 4pm to and from the Hamilton Transport Depot and Hamilton Airport.
The 12-seater Flex bus will be used on the Matangi-Tamahere bus trial. Photo: Supplied.
