Public transport in Auckland

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Public transport in Auckland, the largest city of New Zealand, is served by three modes - bus, train and ferry. A relatively extensive tram system was dismantled after the first half of the 20th century. Services are provided by various transport companies, coordinated by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority under their brand "MAXX". The Britomart Transport Centre acts as a hub between some services.

In 2006, the public transport share in the Auckland Region was only 7% of all morning commute trips.^[1] In recent years, various major projects are being undertaken to improve public transport in Auckland, both smaller-scale initiatives such as bus priority measures as well as large-scale infrastructure projects in the bus and rail sector. A recent survey has shown however that public transport growth is slow, having risen only 0.4% over all modes within the last year (to 2008) - though in individual sectors gains were substantial (with rail passenger numbers up 11.6%). Part of the slow growth was attributed to disturbances to existing services due to the upgrade projects.^[2]

Contents 1 Buses 1.1 Urban services 1.2 Long-distance services 1.3 User statistics 1.4 Priority measures 2 Trains 2.1 Urban services 2.1.1 Main lines 2.2 Long-distance services 2.3 Current upgrade projects 2.4 Electrification and Core upgrade 2.5 Further proposed upgrades 2.5.1 Underground city loop 3 Ferries 3.1 Services 3.2 Subsidies 3.3 Terminals 4 Britomart Transport Centre 5 Long-term trends 5.1 Historical 5.2 New Emphasis 5.3 Critical views 5.4 Public advocacy 6 Second Harbour Crossing 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Buses

[edit] Urban services

Bus services provide the bulk of public transport in the city and are mostly operated by NZ Bus (formerly Stagecoach New Zealand, and still generally using their bus livery). Bus lines are mainly radial lines connecting Auckland CBD with the suburbs and the surrounding cities.

Bus services have improved in various ways during the last years, with, for example, 20 new-technology 'Link' city route buses built in 2007^[3] as well as by the introduction of bus rapid transit schemes like the Northern Busway (opened January 2008) or the Central Connector (construction starting early 2008). However, buses in Auckland still often suffer from long delays^[3] and a bad public image. Bus services also generally stop around midnight or earlier, even on Fridays and Saturdays, leaving taxis as the only alternative for people without their own vehicle.

[edit] Long-distance services

Long-distance bus operators including Intercity and its subsidiary Newmans link Auckland with all the main centres through the North Island of New Zealand. Services to Hamilton (the closest large city to the south) depart around 12 times per weekday at different intervals, as an example (2007 data).^[4]

[edit] User statistics

After a ridership plateau of just over 46 million bus trips per year in 2003, usage volumes fell for three years and declined to just 42.18 million trips in the reporting year ending June 2006. However, users were taking longer rides, causing the total number of passenger kilometers to rise somewhat to 420 million. An ARTA study also found a number of typical characteristics for Auckland bus transport users:^[5]

• 58% were female
• 50% were white-collar workers
• 23% were tertiary students

It also showed some characteristics relevant to the scope for future public transport measures, namely that:

• 71% had other transport available (such as private vehicles)
• 37% wanted service frequencies to be increased

A 2008 survey showed that while patronage on the 'Northern Express' services from North Shore City into the Auckland CBD had improved markedly (plus 34% in one year) due to the time gains offered by the Northern Busway, patronage over all bus services combined had actually declined 2.2%^[2]

[edit] Priority measures

Auckland has a slowly growing network of bus lanes (within the Auckland City-only area, there were 27 km of bus lanes in 2008) while the Central Connector bus lane project, to start in the middle of 2008, is also expected to substantially improve links between Newmarket and the inner city, while new bus lanes are planned on Remuera Road an St Johns Road to better connect the city with the Eastern Bays suburbs.^[6]

The Northern Busway in North Shore City meanwhile is mooted to possibly be extended further north, to serve the increasing urbanisation of the northern areas of North Shore City, and may eventually go all the way to Orewa and the associated Whangaparaoa peninsula.^[7] The AMETI project will also include dedicated bus facilities and lanes.

[edit] Trains

[edit] Urban services

Auckland's urban train services are operated under the MAXX brand by Veolia. Since the opening of Britomart Transport Centre, significant improvements were made to the local rail services. In October 2005, Sunday services were reintroduced for the first time in over 30 years, with more peak hour trains and later trains on Friday and Saturday nights.

Recent investment in Auckland's rail services has resulted in strongly increased patronage, though from a very low level. Investment has focused on upgrading and refurbishing the current rolling stock and railway stations. Some double tracking to allow higher frequencies has been undertaken or is in planning, and has resulted in a 25% increase in frequency, and a rise in punctuality (defined as trains being late by 5 minutes or less) from 60.9% in 2005 to 83.1% in 2006.^[5].

[edit] Main lines

There are three main railway lines in the Auckland Region:

• The Southern line runs from Britomart Transport Centre to Papakura via Newmarket with a limited number of trains continuing on to Pukekohe.

• The Eastern line runs from Britomart to Papakura as well, via Orakei (or informally via the 'Waterfront') with a limited number of trains continuing on to Pukekohe. Trains running toward Papakura join the Southern Line at Westfield, while trains running torward Britomart start on the Southern Line and leave at Westfield.

• The Western line, which runs from Britomart via Newmarket to the west, passing through New Lynn before terminating in either Swanson or Waitakere.

See also: List of Auckland railway stations and Veolia (New Zealand)

[edit] Long-distance services

Auckland currently has only one long distance rail passenger service, the Overlander (operated by Tranz Scenic, a division of Toll NZ) between Auckland and Wellington, operating daily during the summer months and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the winter months. The train has a mainly tourist-oriented focus.

[edit] Current upgrade projects

Currently (2008) an initial but quite major NZ$ 600 million upgrading project named "DART" (Developing Auckland's Rail Transport)^[8] is underway, managed by the state-owned enterprise ONTRACK. Project DART and other current projects include:

• double-tracking the Western Line
• upgrading stations and signalling
• rebuilding and reconfiguring Newmarket Train Station
• constructing a new branch line from Wiri to the Manukau City centre
• reopening the currently disused Onehunga Branch line to passengers and freight^[9]
• extension of Western Line services to Helensville in 2008, with temporary stations being built at Huapai and Waimaukau, and a minor upgrade of the Helensville railway station ^[10]
• ARTA now has a batch of (rebuilt) carriage trains, powered by DC class diesel locomotives in push-pull mode, see Veolia.

Pending acceptance of the Draft Annual Plan 2008/2009 and funding being available as forecast and/or proposed, the Auckland Regional Council is also intending to increase peak time rail services across the network to 4 services per hour on every line by July 2008 and 6 services per hour from the middle of 2010. Services are also to be extended to after 10 pm during the week in early 2009 and to after 11 pm in 2011.^[11]

[edit] Electrification and Core upgrade

There has been a number of proposals recommending electrification of the Auckland rail network from the 1960s, mostly as part of proposals for electrification of the North Island Main Trunk in its entirety from Auckland to Wellington.^[12] In 2006, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority released a study pointing to a "desperate" need for such a measure on the Auckland rail network. The Mayor of Auckland^[13] and the Prime Minister of New Zealand^[14] joined a general agreement^[15] culminating in a commitment to electrification, to be partly paid for by a regional fuel tax. The goals of the upgrade are to raise rail transport use from 5 million passenger trips in 2007 to 30 million by 2030, and to achieve departures every 10 minutes.^[16]

The "Core Network Upgrade" project proposed in late 2006 is calculated to cost around NZ$1 billion, and to be completable until 2015. It would include:^[17]

• electrification and further upgrading (beyond project DART) of 110 km of Auckland railway infrastructure
• further station upgrades
• new electric rolling stock
• better service frequencies

[edit] Further proposed upgrades

There has been growing recognition throughout Auckland over the past years of the need to invest in public transport to help ease growing traffic congestion.^[18] A number of extensions to the city's rail network have been proposed, some of which are based upon ideas that that have been discussed for several decades:

• a central city underground railway loop - linking the Britomart Transport Centre with the Mt Eden station via a tunnel underneath Albert Street (see below)
• an extension of the Onehunga Branch line (soon to be reopened) to the Auckland International Airport, over the future duplicate Mangere Bridge, which Transit New Zealand has recently announced as being 'future proofed' to allow it to potentially accommodate a rail line.^[19]
• an airport link from the main trunk line at Manukau City, in addition to, or instead of, the link via Mangere Bridge
• an extension of rail passenger services further afield to Pukekohe and eventually electrifying up to Hamilton (the main trunk line is already electrified as far north as Te Rapa) thus allowing the inter-city service to operate at higher frequencies and at modern standards^[20]
• a line between Southdown and Avondale in west Auckland. This is mooted primarily as a route for freight trains in order to allow them to avoid the downtown area and reduce delays for both the freight and passenger trains.^[21]
• a suggestion to extend rail across Waitemata Harbour to the North Shore^[22] (see Second Harbour Crossing below)
• possible conversion of the Northern Busway to light rail^[23]

[edit] Underground city loop

The Auckland Regional Council has prepared preliminary plans for an underground railway connecting the Britomart Transport Centre to the western railway line and a new station at Mt Eden,^[24] reminiscent of similar plans that have been proposed as early as the 1920s.^[25] However, the 1970s plans envisaged the city tunnel loop connecting with Newmarket instead of Mount Eden. The plan failed to be implemented at the time because the new Muldoon National government of New Zealand considered the plans as being too costly.^[26]

Due to the significant costs and difficulties associated with a project of this size, the future of any tunnel loop project remains uncertain. Increased population density around transport corridors and sustained petrol price growth may combine to make this project more attractive in the medium term, and the decision to electrify the area network has brought the tunnel back into general discussion, while initial feasibility studies for a possible link have already been made.^[24] Current estimates for the cost of the loop are at around NZ$ 1 billion with a 12-16 year plan-and-build duration.^[17][16] On 5 March 2008 ARTA revealed that it had begun preliminary planning for a 3.5km tunnel between Britomart and Mt Eden, beneath Albert Street and including underground stations near Wellesley Street and Karangahape Road.^[27]

[edit] Ferries

[edit] Services

A feature of Auckland transport is the popularity of commuting by ferry. A substantial minority of North Shore commuters avoid the chronic Harbour Bridge congestion by catching ferries from Devonport, Bayswater, Birkenhead/Northcote Point or Stanley Bay to the CBD. The ferries travel at least hourly, and in fact have longer hours of operation than many of Auckland's bus and railway lines.

Ferries also connect the city with Rangitoto and Waiheke Islands, as well as Half Moon Bay and Pine Harbour (both Manukau City). Ferries to Great Barrier Island are less regular, with the 4h passages once every 1-2 days, depending on the time of the year and the weather. Some other regular (weekend) services also operate to various other islands in the Hauraki Gulf, mainly for tourism purposes.

Currently, there are no ferry services on the western shores of Auckland, and none are planned, as the city's waterfront orientation is much stronger towards the east (Waitemata Harbour) than to the west (Manukau Harbour).

The main ferry operator, Fullers Group, reported transporting around 4.2 million passengers a year, on a total of 42,010 sailings (an average of almost 100 passengers per journey).^[28]

Pending acceptance of the Draft Annual Plan 2008/2009 and funding being available as forecast and/or proposed, the Auckland Regional Council is also intending to increase services to various destinations from 2008 (Half Moon Bay, Pine Harbour, West Harbour, Devonport) and 2009 (Gulf Harbour, Stanley Beach) onwards. A new ferry wharf is planned for Beach Haven in 2009, with another at Hobsonville in 2010.^[29]

[edit] Subsidies

Fullers Group has noted that Auckland ferry services are operating well for their low level of Council subsidies, which equate to around 84c per passenger and journey, half the subsidy of Brisbane ferry operators and only a seventh of the subsidies paid for ferry public transport in Sydney.^[28]

[edit] Terminals

The Auckland Ferry Terminal is in downtown Auckland on Quay Street, between Princes Wharf and the container port, directly opposite the Britomart Transport Centre. An underground link between the two (to allow easier road crossing and protection from bad weather) has been planned but not built yet due to cost reasons.

Main article: Auckland Ferry Terminal

There are further ferry terminals at Devonport, Stanley Bay, Bayswater, Northcote Point, Birkenhead and Half Moon Bay. There are also terminals at West Harbour, Pine Harbour and Gulf Harbour, as well as on the Hauraki Gulf Islands.

The Auckland Regional Transport Network (ARTNL), the entity responsible for building Auckland's passenger transport terminals, is currently (2005-2006) investing $NZ 20 million into upgrades to the ferry passenger terminals, and is trying to improve the problem of parking, especially at those terminals catering for commuter to the CBD, but is limited by the fact that parking is the authority of local councils and that new parking would be hard to provide for unless by provision of new parking buildings. ARTNL also noted that while ferry services were often full, a combination low profits and uncertainty about losing services to other bidders in the future has made providers reluctant to invest the large sums necessary for new ferries.^[30]

[edit] Britomart Transport Centre

Main article: Britomart Transport Centre

Opened July 2003, the centre is a central interconnection hub for public transport in Auckland - buses aboveground, trains underground in a terminal station and ferries close-by. During its planning period it provoked much controversy spanning multiple mayoral terms, mostly for cost and capacity reasons. New rail transport investment in the Auckland Region, both planned and recently started, will increase the importance of the centre.^[31]

The local government elections in September 2004 centred largely around candidates' policies on public transport, with the incumbent Auckland City mayor John Banks promoting the "Eastern Corridor" motorway plan, and his main rivals (former Auckland City mayor Christine Fletcher and businessman Dick Hubbard - the eventual winner) supporting public transport alternatives like light rail and improving existing bus and rail services.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Long-term trends

[edit] Historical

Historically, the city also had an extensive tram network, but this was removed in the early second half of the 20th century, with the tram system ceasing operation in late 1956.^[32][33] Ambitious (rail) public transport schemes for the city and region were mooted several times in the 20th Century. In the 1950s, these were ignored in favour of a Master Transportation Plan emphasising motorways, and even the influential De Leuw Carter report of 1965 and the passionate championship of mayors like John Luxford and Dove-Myer Robinson could not achieve funding for the proposed rail extensions.^[25]

Public transport in Auckland is influenced by Auckland's decentralised, relatively low-density urban area, where motor vehicle transport has far outpaced public transport. However, the growth of the city and of car use has led to serious traffic problems, which, together with the lack of good public transport, have been cited by many Aucklanders as one of the strongest negative factors of living there.^[34] Since car usage costs fall slightly with decreasing urban density, while public transport costs rise sharply (even for less capital-intensive services like buses), Auckland's public transport will for the foreseeable future have to cope with a handicap compared to cities of similar population but higher density.^[35][36].

A long history of political disinterest in public transport had by the 2000s left Auckland with substantially underused and underfunded bus and rail systems, with research at Griffith University concluding that in the 50 year period from 1955 onwards, the Auckland area had engaged in some of the most pro-automobile transport policies anywhere in the world. This is alleged to have been based not only on rational (or indeed public) choice alone, but also due to policy tools being strongly weighed to produce favourable results for road projects when assessing transport spending.^[37] The Ministry of Economic development released a working paper assessing the economic benefits for public transport growth in Auckland and suggested a number of key framework issues may be responsible for the decline in Auckland public transport patronage.^[38]

As concerns over urban sprawl and traffic congestion grew in the last decades, public transport has returned into the spotlight, with local and national authorities in agreement that there is "a need for a substantial shift to public transport",^[18] though uptake has a long way to grow from 1998 figures of only about 5% of the Auckland travel share.^[39] In 2006, the share of public transport had grown to 7%.^[1]

[edit] New Emphasis

The gap between desired and provided public transport options is now being countered by large new investments in bus priority and rail infrastructure.^[40] Regional authorities have emphasised the need for such improved provisions before measures like road tolls could be introduced.^[18] New Zealand's government has also noted in July 2007 that a 'steady growth' [of public transport spending and infrastructure construction] is favoured over the 'rapid growth' proposals advocated by some Auckland area leaders such as Papakura District mayor John Robertson, because the associated costs, raised by means like a regional fuel tax, might put too much financial pressure on Auckland.^[41]

A number of initiatives, especially by the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA), are also trying to change the focus on motorised transport by stimulating a discussion on intensified growth (higher urban densities).^[42][43] Associated groups like those joined in the 'Auckland Transport Strategic Alignment Project' (a project of the Government of New Zealand and Auckland authorities) have noted that even an eventual completion of an additional harbour crossing and the completion of the Western Ring Route will barely keep up with the expected traffic growth. Further expansions of the roading network beyond those measures would be prohibitively expensive or even impossible, because of "geographical constraints" and "increased community and environmental impacts". Therefore, future traffic growth would need to be covered via public transport.^[44]

A better integration of public transport services across providers and types, as well as with other travel modes, remains a major goal of the Auckland Regional Council. As one of the major steps, and integrated smartcard ticketing system is to be introduced in late 2010, preceded by a simple fare structure in 2009/2010.^[29]

[edit] Critical views

Despite the call for increased density to boost and sustain public transport, Wendell Cox, a US public policy consultant, has stated that this policy was unrealistic: "Downtown Auckland would need to look like Hong Kong for Auckland Regional Council's [transport] goals to be achieved." ^[45] Despite the negative perception of public transport, he noted in 2001 that Auckland's "public transport's downtown work trip market share is 31%" compared to Wellington's 26%. Cox further stated that no other centre in New Zealand achieved as high a market share in public transport than the Auckland City centre, but also notes that CBDs are no longer the dominant employment areas.^[45]. This qualifies the public transport share of the CBD, as public transport percentages for the whole Auckland Region hover around 5% of all journeys. This figure is comparable to numerous North American and Australian cities.^[39][46]

An article in the The New Zealand Herald by Owen McShane, director of the Centre for Resource Management Studies, also notes that large parts of the Auckland Region 'barely have roads, let alone buses', and that comparing Auckland as a whole to metropolitan areas in other parts of the world is misleading. He also criticises public transport use as a sustainability measure (as promoted by the ARC), arguing that private cars use less BTUs than buses.^[47] This claim, in which he does not detail what bus and car occupancy rates he is using, is however countered by estimates that a bus carrying only 19 passengers uses less than a quarter of the BTUs of a typical car carrying one person.^[48]

[edit] Public advocacy

The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) aims to be a strong and persistent Auckland advocate for alternatives to the private car, including public transport, cycling and walking. The CBT is both a successor to the former Campaign for Public Transport and a new umbrella group which will include representation from the Light Rail Transit Association, Cycling Action Auckland and various community groups opposed to motorway extensions.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Second Harbour Crossing

Main article: Auckland Harbour Bridge

During 2007, various plans were mooted to build a second harbour crossing over the Waitemata Harbour, currently a major barrier for traffic within the greater Auckland area as there is only one bridge over the harbour. Variations of the proposed bridge or tunnel options discussed for the second crossing included either substantial provisions for public transport, including for light rail, with some even proposing to keep the new crossing reserved solely for public transport.^[49]

Some commentators like Brian Rudman have noted that it would make the most sense for a possible new Waitemata Harbour Crossing to be dedicated to public transport only, possibly connecting with a rail tunnel from the Western Reclamation to Britomart Transport Centre, thus providing an alternate way of remedying the terminus-situation of the centre.^[22]

In 2008, it was decided to shortlist the harbour crossing options to the general Auckland waterfront area, and it was announced that (due to the reduction in costs for the boring of multiple small tunnels compared to single large ones) it was likely that public transport would receive its dedicated tunnel (with potential for light or heavy rail).^[50]

[edit] See also

• List of Auckland railway stations
• Public transport in New Zealand
• Transport in Auckland

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Auckland Regional Transport Authority (official website of the region's public transport policy and funding organisation)
• ONTRACK (New Zealand Railway Corporation (Rere Totika), New Zealand's main government rail agency)