The change has frustrated Napier mother Leanne Duncan just days before her 13-year-old son starts the school year back at Lindisfarne.<\/p>\n
The family live about 3km out of Taradale, with an eight-minute drive to the nearest bus stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rely on the bus to get him to the school gate on time and from school to a convenient bus stop to get home again,\u201d Duncan said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t drive my son to school and get back to my workplace by 8am … I\u2019m not available to pick my child up from school in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duncan said her son used the bus service at the beginning of last year when he started at Lindisfarne. He previously caught the bus that arrived about 8am, giving students time to cross Pakowhai Rd, drop off musical instruments or sports gear, and be seated for the 8.20am start.<\/p>\n
\u201cHBRC have offered two solutions: a 10-minute walk, which would be okay on a fine day, when he doesn\u2019t have to carry guitar cases and sports equipment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy that he might have to do this on rainy days and sit all day in a wet blazer and long trousers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parents say they worry about the alternative option which involves multiple buses. Students would need to take Route 1 to Hawke\u2019s Bay Hospital and then transfer to Route 8, arriving at the Lindisfarne gate at 8.03\u202fam.<\/p>\n
Napier parent Eva Bradley, whose 11-year-old son is about to start at Lindisfarne, said the reliability of the previous public transport system was a key factor in choosing the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prospect of having to do bus changes and wait on their own on busy roads and cross busy roads when they\u2019ve never used a public bus before is scary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The new timetable means an 80 extra minutes a day in the car for Bradley.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt forces us to reconfigure our work commitments and spend a lot of time crawling through congestion and peak times on the expressway.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Lindisfarne College spokesman said the school was disappointed by the timing and structure of the new network.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got 25 to 30 kids from Napier that attend Lindisfarne College. The changes to the bus routes are not going to meet their needs to get them to school on time.\u201d <\/p>\n
The spokesman claimed council consultation was \u201cnon-existent\/insignificant\u201d to the point the school felt like its voice was not being heard during the process. <\/p>\n
The school wants the regional council to adjust the 1A timetable by five minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would allow those kids to be at school and in class on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council transport manager Russell Turnbull said the changes were part of a major overhaul to reduce long travel times caused by the previous one-way loops.<\/p>\n
\u201cHBRC engaged widely with schools and families before finalising the route changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout 2025, all regional schools were contacted multiple times via email to inform them about the proposed changes, and then the transition. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe changes were also included in the formal consultation for the Regional Public Transport Plan 2025\u20132035.”<\/p>\n
Turnbull said pop-up community information sessions were held in Napier and Hastings also.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe discussed impacts directly with bus users, including student councils.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turnbull said the council was open to reviewing the timetable after the new network launch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are open to reviewing specific timetable adjustments, particularly on school-heavy corridors if the data shows the current schedule is not workable for a significant number of students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The regional council had two ribbon-cutting ceremonies this morning to launch its redesigned bus network. <\/p>\n
Regional Council committee chairman Neil Kirton praised the network as a huge achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve built this with our community at heart. Connecting the airport, the hospital, and our sports park isn\u2019t just about transport,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about making life easier for families, workers, and students.\u201d<\/p>\n
To celebrate the launch all GoBay services from January 25 to 31 are free of charge. <\/p>\n
The changes:<\/p>\n
\u2022 A new peak-only Route 1A caters to travellers via Pakowhai Rd and St Aubyn St, while Route 11 continues Napier\u2013Hastings via Clive and now includes Whakatu for weekday travel. <\/p>\n
\u2022 In Napier, Route 2 connects Taradale, Onekawa, and EIT with added stops at Kmart, Mitre 10, Poraiti, and Guppy Road. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Route 3 simplifies Maraenui travel with better access to Bupa Willowbank Village, and now extending to Tamatea.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Route 4 goes to Hawke\u2019s Bay Airport, bringing a direct public transport link to this important regional gateway for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Route 8 replaces the MyWay on-demand service and covers Camberley, the Hospital, Mahora, Hastings Library, and Raureka.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Routes 6 and 7 improves coverage across Flaxmere, Akina, and Karamu, which also helps replace MyWay, while Route 21 (Havelock North) is now part of Route 1, serving both Arataki (East) and Bull Hill (West).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The change has frustrated Napier mother Leanne Duncan just days before her 13-year-old son starts the school year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,46328,806,1975,1561,1872,37367,145539,1976,4507,2250,117,111,43,139,69,3766,8814,3767,28561],"class_list":["post-250328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-arrivals","tag-as","tag-at","tag-bay","tag-face","tag-frustrated","tag-gobay","tag-hawkes","tag-late","tag-longer","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parents","tag-routes","tag-students","tag-walks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}