Councillors are hoping a re-jig of the Bay of Plenty's transport systems may result in more local control of the city's bus services.

Contracts for the Tauranga urban and School Hopper public transport services expire at the end of the 2016/17 financial year.

Council are set to take a fresh look at the way buses run in the Bay of Plenty. Photo: File.

However, before new contracts for the next nine-year period are finalised, the rules require a business case for the government's investment in Tauranga's public transport network.

Both the Bay Hopper and school bus services will be re-examined from first principles.

Mayor Stuart Crosby asked this week if the review could result in Tauranga City Council owning and managing its own bus services.

Tauranga buses are paid for by targeted rate, an NZTA subsidy and a little bit off top up from the regional council.

'You have got to ask in this review, is some work going to be done about merging it into one entity,” says Stuart, 'where Tauranga City Council actually manages, owns and controls a public bus service rather than it being split among two entities?

'Our role is to provide the infrastructure – bus stops and things like that – and you have got someone in Whakatane trying to work out what's going on in our city that doesn't live here.

'I think that's a fundamental flaw in the current process.”

Mayor Crosby also0 confirmed that Rotorua is having the same conversations.

The discussion over what kind of bus services Tauranga will have during the next contract period is expected to take around 18 months to two years, says city council infrastructure planning team leader Philip King.

The two contracts at present are expected to be combined into one contract.

'It's a good opportunity for the city council to participate in the role of transport in our city, taking account of changes in the city over the last seven-to-ten years,” says Philip.

Re-tendering the bus services is an opportunity to look at the two networks as a whole, identifying opportunities to improve the efficiency of the transport network and to re-examine the role that public transport performs in Tauranga, says Philip.

The discussion participants include NZTA, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The Tauranga bus network will be reviewed from first principles, says Philp.

UP for debate are bus routes, which may be redesigned and optimised, operating hours, fares and fare boundaries, bus stop locations and policy settings.

There could also be changes to the public transport planning environment, as well as the introduction of technology options to improve customer service.