Western Bay of Plenty students catching the bus to school will be charged $1.15 for concessionary travel and $1.60 for cash fares from next year, Bay of Plenty Regional Council announced today.

The council approved the final fare this week, which will apply to all school students travelling to and from school on Schoolhopper or Bayhopper buses in the city.

BOP Regional Council transport policy manager Garry Maloney and senior transport planner Rachel Pinn.

The fares will come into place from 2015, when the council's new Schoolhoper service replaces the bulk of the Ministry of Education-funded school bus services throughout Tauranga.

Funding for Tauranga's urban school bus routes is being withdrawn due to an MOE policy defining who is eligible for school transport funding.

Due to improvements to Tauranga's public transport system since BOPRC reintroduced Bay Hopper in 2001, the majority of Tauranga students are now deemed by the Ministry to have access to suitable public transport.

Currently the Ministry provides for 70 free buses used by about 5200 of Tauranga's estimated 23,000 school students.

BOPRC Public Transport Subcommittee chair Lyall Thurston says staff are discussing other options to help reduce the impact the fare might have on low-income families.

'We recognise it will be difficult for some families, however we're currently working with Work and Income NZ on a process to allow Tauranga beneficiaries to pay for bus travel using an advance on their benefit. This approach is already used for other school costs, such as purchasing school uniforms.”

He says the reduction will benefit some student bus users as the fare would also be introduced on Bayhopper buses in the city.

'This means that students who use the Tauranga Bayhopper network to get to and from school each day will have a fare reduction from $1.80 to $1.60 or from $1.44 to $1.15 if they use their Smartride card.”

The next step for the Schoolhopper service will be to inform school communities of the Schoolhopper routes, says Lyall, and to announce which routes will be discontinued by the MOE.

The Schoolhopper services are being designed to respond to those changes, he says.

The changes will affect about 3500 students assessed to be in a location with suitable public transport.

It will not affect rural services, or students eligible for Special Education School Transport Assistance.

The cost of providing Schoolhopper services will be shared between BOPRC ratepayers, NZTA and bus users via fares.

'We've received funding of $1 million a year for the next three years from NZ Transport Agency which will help to keep fares as low as possible,” says Lyall.

Information will soon be available on the Baybus website with more detailed routes.