Bus champion John Lawson has pointed out to the Waikato Regional Council that buses on the Raglan to Hamilton route are running ahead of the new timetable that started in January.
John asked the Regional Council, “What instruction drivers have if they’re running ahead of the schedule. On the first two days the buses left Te Uku at 4.24pm and 4.23pm, rather than the timetabled 4.31pm. Which leads to a further question – why show intermediate times in such an apparently precise form, rather than something like ‘buses usually take about these times to reach intermediate points – Te Uku 40 to 50 minutes’?”
A spokesperson for the Council said, “Timetable-wise, I’ve spoken to our planning team and we’ve been through your comments. We’ll monitor the run times on these runs and make adjustments as appropriate in future timetables.”
So it would be wise for bus users to be at stops a few minutes before the scheduled times.
She added, “Fare changes are coming later this year with the new ticketing system. This has many benefits – we’re looking to move to a more zonal system with free transfers from regional services to Hamilton buses, and the standardising of many sector fares. We’ll have more information on this towards the middle of the year.”
surely it should be as in every other country that buses must leave AT the stated time. If they are early they must wait until that time. If they are late then that’s not a big problem, it just means that people are waiting at the bus stop a little longer than anticipated but will still get a ride. You cannot leave before people legitimately arrive based on the published timetables otherwise whats the point of them.