Media Release

Bus passenger satisfaction increasing
For immediate release: Thursday 17 September 2009

MORE than 90 percent of people surveyed rated the reliability of Environment Bay of Plenty’s bus services as good to excellent in an annual satisfaction survey. This was an increase on last year’s results.

This trend was revealed through an independent telephone survey of 805 residents (403 bus users and 402 non-bus users) in Tauranga and Rotorua. Eastern Bay of Plenty residents were not surveyed.

Tauranga bus users rated the overall service between excellent and good from the previous year – up four points to 97 percent, while Rotorua bus users rated their overall service the same on the previous year.

Environment Bay of Plenty Transport Committee Chairman Andrew von Dadelszen said generally the results had been very good for both Tauranga and Rotorua with either static figures or upward movement.

“We are very pleased with the results with Tauranga scoring very well in pretty much every category albeit Rotorua had dropped slightly in some areas, however this could be the result of several factors including increased patronage and a rise in fares,” Councillor von Dadelszen said.

“In all areas we are rating very well and this is a good indication from our passengers that they are generally happy with the standard of bus services that we are providing.

“Our passenger satisfaction levels across both Tauranga and Rotorua have increased overall as well as on service reliability and frequency, on journey time, and on vehicle quality and comfort and service.”

Additionally, Councillor von Dadelszen said patronage numbers were up significantly on last year for services throughout the region with more than one million passenger trips for the Tauranga urban service and almost 650,000 passenger trips in Rotorua.

“We know that more Bay of Plenty residents are using the buses more often and the survey results show that those people are happy with the service,” Councillor von Dadelszen said. “Our ongoing focus is to encourage residents to get out of their cars and travel by bus more frequently.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media