Proposed changes for the Bayhopper and Schoolhopper buses in Tauranga are being slammed by the Sustainable Business Network because they don't go far enough.

The goal of an overall increase in bus passenger by 20 to 25 per cent over the next decade is flawed, says spokesman Glen Crowther in a submission on the changes.

'If we are to reduce emissions, manage congestion, and offer good safe transport choices to our communities, we need a much higher increase in bus patronage – along the lines of the six-fold increase from 2003-2012,” says Glen.

'Projected population growth alone will easily outstrip the increase in bus usage, so presumably we are condemning the sub-region to much worse congestion or an expensive road-building programme with all the downsides that would bring.”

The business network says councillors imposed no fiscal cap, yet the implication is that only a few million more can be invested that at present.

'The plan needs to be much bolder and requires additional investment to double or triple patronage, or more,” says Glen.

'Other regions, such as Auckland and Wellington, invest more per capita in public transport than the Western BOP. The results are obvious. Wellington invests much more, about four times according to our official sources, and some people say the public transport service there is probably four times better.”

The sustainable business network is not saying the regional council should immediately hit that level of per capita funding, says Glen. But the region should vastly increase its investment and make sure it is done smartly in a way that is well integrated with wider transport planning.

Ninety percent of the feedback on the changes is about the school buses. Glen says school buses should have been kept separate from the Bayhopper proposals.

'The biggest flaw in the overall proposed Blueprint is the faulty argument that school services need to be reduced to help fund a better public bus service,” says Glen.

As there is no funding cap the regional council should be striving to get the best outcomes to leverage NZTA funding, says glen. The council doesn't need to scrap school bus services to get NZTA funding of the Baybus network, so there is no need to cut school buses so deeply.

The much-talked-about $1.5 million in potential savings from scrapping most of the school services will only save ratepayers about $500,000-$700,000 or thereabouts, as user charges cover some of the school service costs and NZTA puts in significant funding.

If the community agrees to shed maybe a quarter of the school buses, and some of the secondary schools buses, then retaining the remainder of the school bus services will only costs ratepayers about $300,000-$400,000 – a long way from $1.5 million.

The argument that school children have to use Bayhopper services to make them a success is also false. While it may make a few buses appear better patronized, school children will only be impacting on two or three buses per day, on each route that runs near a school.

For example, the Welcome Bay service will become 20-minute frequency, so the buses used by schoolchildren from Tauranga Intermediate, Tauranga Boys' College and Tauranga and St Mary's primaries, will likely be two buses between 8am and 9am from Welcome Bay to town, and then a bus back to Welcome Bay between 3-3.30pm to get them home again. The same thing would apply to other schools and suburbs.

'Presumably, the morning peak services will be the most likely buses to be full of adults who work in town or elsewhere. So if the success of a bus route depends upon whether two peak-hour buses a day are full of children, then we need to do much more to get adults using those buses,” says Glen.