BUSIT! works with Google Transit and Google Maps to help you find information on the buses in Hamilton city and the Waikato region.
While we keep the information in Google as up-to-date as possible, there may be a slight lag when timetable updates are made. Also while the buses run on a schedule, it is advisable to allow a five minute leeway before or after the scheduled time when catching a bus.
You can find the information about bus timetables, routes and fares as usual on this site. However, you can now also plan a trip using the trip planner on our homepage, or by going straight to:
On this page:
Enabling pop-ups in your browser
In order for the trip planner to work for you, you need to have enabled pop-ups in your internet browser. For example, if you have Internet Explorer, choose Tools>Internet options>Privacy tab>untick the box next to 'Turn on pop-up blocker' and then click 'Apply'. Other browsers will have similar ways of enabling pop-ups.
Setting a default location
To get the most out of your Google Transit experience, you will need to set your default location in Google Maps to Hamilton, New Zealand.
Go to http://maps.google.co.nz. Then click on the 'Set default location' link on the left hand side, circled in red below:
Then type in 'Hamilton, New Zealand' and click 'Save'. If you clear the temporary internet files and cache in your browser you may need to do this step again.
Using Google Transit straight from Google Maps
To start off, go to http://maps.google.co.nz, then click on the 'Get directions' link on the left hand side.
Not all New Zealand cities use Google Transit , therefore the default options to get directions are only by car and walking.
To find the 'by public transit' directions, you need to type in where you want to leave from and where you want to go to, then click 'Get directions'. After this step, you can click on the little 'by public transit'' symbol circled in red below to get public transport options.
Selecting a destination
Google Maps may give you several choices to pick from when you've typed in a destination, which will be highlighted with a yellow heading saying 'Did you mean:'. You will need to pick which one you want before your route will be displayed. Do this by clicking on the destination of your choice, circled in red below:
Reading the directions
Descriptions in words like bus route details, times, where you'll need to walk to a bus stop and so on is on the left hand side of the page. (circled in red below). If there are many options or long descriptions you may need to scroll down to view all of them.
The way the bus goes will be drawn on the map on the right hand side. (marked in green below) You can experiment by clicking and dragging the markers to different destinations to see what routes go there too.
Choosing a route option
Sometimes there is more than one route you can take to get from A to B.
Google Transit will suggest the route which is calculated to be the fastest. You can click on the different route options (circled in red below) to see which one would suit you best.
Using a smartphone
If you use a smartphone to access the Busit trip planner you will need to use a special mobile link: http://m.google.com/maps/. This mobile phone link takes you to a special version of google maps which has been formulated to work with mobile phone browsers.
Iphones are set up with a google maps default application (installed as standard on every iphone). This allows access to the Waikato region bus trip planner information.