A Dunedin man has offered the Otago Regional Council a free trial of a system that could give city bus users "real-time information".
It was just one aspect of the regional council's transport policy raised by submitters during the two days of draft long-term plan hearings in Dunedin.
Open IQ owner Christopher Mein said the free two-month trial of the OneBusAway system by IT consultancy company Open IQ would show the council and bus users how it worked using smartphone and texting technology to inform passengers.
If the council chose to take up the system, it would cost about $590,000 to set up and about $207,000 to run annually.
Mosgiel Taieri Community Board chairman Bill Feather said the council should consider not increasing fares for trips to the outer sectors of the network.
A one-fare system for longer trips would also benefit Mosgiel bus users who needed to change buses multiple times, paying each time, to get to their destination, he said.
Otago Polytechnic Students' Association spokesman Mark Baxter called for a multi-fare or transferable bus ticket and a student discount.
The association opposed any increase in bus fares as increases would not encourage people to use the service and students already struggled to pay.
Wingatui resident Maurice Prendergast called for the Wingatui bus service to be dropped after discovering it only delivered one person home each day.
The size of his transport rate was "absurd", he said.
"The community is paying $21,000 to get this dude to work and back."
Chairman Stephen Woodhead said the transport rate Mr Prendergast paid was a general transport rate everyone paid and not just for the Wingatui service.
