More people are using the bus services in Tauranga with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council showing an increase in passenger numbers with a record setting year.

The figures show 1.6 million people used Tauranga Bay Hopper buses, beating the previous record of 250,000 passengers.

The council's public transport sub-committee chairman, Douglas Owens, says the growth demonstrates the quality of the service on offer.

'Clearly more people are travelling on more buses, more often,” says Douglas.

'It's great to see – the next step is determining how we meet this high demand, particularly at peak times.”

The council's acting transport policy manager, Emlyn Hatch, says the growth is remarkable for a bus service established just 10 years ago.

'Every 100 days we carry over 450,000 passengers, and that's more people than we did in the whole of 2002. The figures are a terrific result.

'The continued increase in passenger numbers on Tauranga's buses was due to the reliability and convenience of the service,” he says.

'Rotorua's buses have also shown an increase in patronage.

'Usage is up 10 percent on last year's passenger numbers and an extra 74,000 passengers were carried in the past year.”