New smartphone app available to plan your ride !

The Thames public bus trial has been running since the beginning of December and is proving to be very popular. In the week before Christmas the bus recorded over 300 rides. Services were a bit disrupted during the 5 January storm surge, but in the last few days numbers are on the rise again. Today, the bus driver told me at 1 PM that he had already picked up over 60 rides, with a couple of hours to go. On one segment the bus was close to being full.

Just a reminder that Super Gold Card holders travel free, its $2 per ride either northbound or southbound for adults and $1 for children. Children under 5 travel free also.

Here again are the timetables for Northbound and Southbound.

and the routes and bus stops (blue circles) –

 

Thames-Coromandel District Council is inviting feedback on the service. Just ring their 868 0200 number and their customer service will record any ideas you might have to improve the service. After three months of the trial at the end of February, a review of the route will be completed, and any changes will be notified.

If you have a smartphone then there is an app you can download from either the App Store or Google Play called Transit Real Time.

With the app you can plan your ride, find out how far away your bus is, and even get directions about which bus stop is best for you to get off at.

If you need more help – it’s available on this website –

There you can also find these three short YouTube videos which help explain what the app can do:-

Transit plan your journey

How far away is your bus?

Transit – Get directions