March Madness: Get ready for testing public transport
More services and bigger buses to deal with start of university year
AMorning
uckland Transport (AT) is putting on more and bigger buses for March Madness as the university year beds in. With nearly two million trips a week taken on buses, trains and ferries leading up to March, AT is predicting a particularly busy month.
The hectic time of year for public transport comes as AT and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi(NZTA) release some details to the Herald on the most congested road routes across the city.
It will come as no surprise to motorists to hear the worst morning and evening choke points on the city’s motorways are:
● East Tāmaki to Greenlane northbound on the Southern Motorway
● Royal to St Lukes eastbound on the Northwestern Motorway
● Greville to Esmonde southbound on the Northern Motorway
● Manukau to Māngere northbound on SH20.
Evening
● Princes to Greenlane northbound on the Southern Motorway
● SH20 and SH1 merging southbound and extending further upstream
● Central Motorway Junction to Highbrook southbound
● Cavendish to Coronation northbound on SH20.
NZTA said there were also a couple of smaller bottlenecks, such as Onewa southbound on the Northern Motorway.
When it comes to the city’s busiest arterial roads, AT has provided the Herald with a map showing the choke points from data collected in midFebruary.
It said it would like to provide greater details, but could not at this stage because the data is sourced from third parties and would need to go through a data governance process to get their approval to release it but it does want to make it easier to access this sort of data in future and it is something its data team is working on.
Roads congested by 50 per cent or more include well-known choke points, such as Brigham Creek and Lincoln Rds in the west, Lake and Glenfield Rds on the North Shore, Tāmaki Drive and parts of Dominion Rd leading to the city, main roads around Howick and Pakuranga, and Te Irirangi Drive in the southeast.
The busy roads, combined with shutdowns and breakdowns on Auckland’s rail system, are extending travel times to and from the central city by public transport.
One commuter said it is taking her up to two hours to travel from Glen Eden to work, and the same time at the end of the day.
“I leave home at 5.50am and drive to the park-and-ride at Glen Eden railway station. Two or three trains can be cancelled before I catch the train to New Lynn to catch a bus to Federal St in the city, a short walk [from] my job,” said the woman, who did not want to be named.
“I’m so over it. It’s so much worse than a year ago when I could get to work in 40 minutes,” she said, adding that the electronic notice board at Glen Eden station was removed for repairs a fortnight ago and has not returned.
Another commuter said his trip to work from Te Atatū South took one hour and 45 minutes the other day. Getting from his home on a bus to transfer to the new Western Express bus service took 45 minutes — a journey of 2km along Edmonton Rd.
The man, who did not want to be named, said it took a further hour on the express service because the bus shares the Northwestern Motorway with gridlocked traffic part of the way.
“It’s horrible. You don’t want to be spending all that time to get into the city by public transport. I know [public transport] is meant to be better for the city, but it sucks,” said the man, who went back to riding his bike to work the next day. It took 45 minutes.
AT group manager of growth and optimisation, Richard Harrison, said the recent spike in patronage — the highest since before Covid — had been expected and normal for this time of the year.
He said AT is gearing up for extra demand in March.
“Where available, we’ve deployed bigger buses to increase capacity where there is high demand. Our buses are fully staffed and we’re running extra services on routes we know will be the busiest, so even if a bus is full, it will only be a short wait for the next one.
“To help make sure we are getting the most out of our buses, we’re encouraging passengers to move down the bus and use every seat when it is busy.”
Harrison advised passengers to see how busy their bus or train is on the AT Mobile app or passenger information displays at train stations and some bus stops.
“We’re monitoring the performance of the public transport system daily and looking at how we can better use the resources we have available to optimise the network’s performance,” he said.
“We’re committed to keeping Auckland moving, but it is already getting busier out on the roads and public transport. Driving and catching public transport could take a bit longer than normal, particularly in the morning and in the mid-to-late afternoon. We encourage commuters to make use of the AT Mobile app to plan their journey, track it in realtime, and check capacity.”