Bee Card – New public transport subsidies with Community Connect

For children between 5-12 years to travel for free, they do need a registered Bee Card each. These can be purchased from your nearest retailer or ordered online for $5 (with a minimum top up of $5). When ordered online, your Bee Card will be sent via post, so please allow up to 10 business days for the Bee Card to arrive.

Because there is an overnight process for the online Bee Card registration to activate, we’re encouraging our passengers to organise their Bee Card’s prior to travelling.

The government’s budget announcements for public transport are now in place, so from 1 July 2023 there is now free public transport for children under 13 and half price for youth under 25, as part of the new Community Connect scheme.

We are strongly urging caregivers and young people to purchase your Bee Cards for each passenger and register their details – before you travel – to gain easy access to these new fares across the Waikato transport network.

Once set up, passengers will be able to get access to these travel subsidies across other regions around New Zealand where Bee Card is available.

For more information about getting access to the new transport subsidies, please visit the Bee Card website here: www.beecard.co.nz/CommunityConnect

Or contact the local transport team here: beecard@waikatoregion.govt.nz