Public transport in Auckland

Declining use

Auckland had an extensive tram network, but this was removed in the 1950s, with the last line closing in late 1956. Ambitious rail 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 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.

The negative decisions on public transport, such as the removal of the trams for a bus system considered more modern (quickly followed by removal of the tram tracks from the streets), and Auckland authorities not pushing for electrification of the rail network (criticised by some as having been a concession in return for government funding of the Auckland Harbour Bridge) led to a collapse in rider numbers. From a 1954 average level of 290 public transport trips per person per year (a share of 58% of all motorised trips, also compare to the 41 trips per person per year made in 2009), patronage rapidly decreased. From the record of about 100 million annual passenger trips the numbers fell to about 57 million - a level that fell even further in following decades, notwithstanding Auckland's substantial interim population growth. Even the reduced 57 million level of annual trips was only reached again in the late 2000s.

With the significant sprawl occurring in the following decades, public transport became more and more influenced by the decentralised, relatively low-density urban area, where private motor vehicle transport outpaced public transport. However, the growth of the city and of car use have 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 in living there. 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.

Academic research also places most of the blame on the direction of transport planning, which systematically marginalised public transport improvements and maintenance in favour of US-influenced roads & motorway plans. As part of this declining importance of public transport, in 1983 there were serious plans by the Auckland Regional Authority, the predecessor of Auckland Regional Council, to abolish the Auckland railway system altogether.

A long history of political lack of interest in public transport had by the 2000s left Auckland with substantially underused and underfunded bus and rail systems (by 2006, accounting for only 7% of all morning trips), 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 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. 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.

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

New emphasis

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

A number of initiatives, especially by the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) and ARTA, tried to change the focus on private cars by stimulating a discussion on intensified growth (higher urban densities). Associated groups like those in the 'Auckland Transport Strategic Alignment Project' (a project of the government and Auckland authorities) noted that even the 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.

Critical views

Despite the call for increased density to boost and sustain public transport, Wendell Cox, a US public policy consultant, 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." Despite the negative perception of public transport, he noted in 2001 that Auckland CBD "public transport's 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 as the Auckland City centre, but also noted that CBDs are no longer the dominant employment areas. 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.

An article in The New Zealand Herald by Owen McShane, director of the Centre for Resource Management Studies, noted 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 was misleading. He also criticised public transport use as a sustainability measure (as promoted by the ARC), arguing that private cars use less energy than buses. This claim, in which he did not detail what bus and car occupancy rates he was using, ran counter to estimates that a bus carrying 19 passengers used less than a quarter of the energy per person than a typical car carrying one person. ARTA data shows that bus emissions per passenger km for the 2007/08 year were half those of a typical car.

The MAXX brand was used for Auckland public transport from 2001 until 2012.

Systems

Currently, Auckland public transport services are a mixture of private (commercially operated) and subsidised services (also run by private operators).

Integrated ticketing

Due to the lack of integrated ticketing until March 2014, a second boarding from one bus route to another or to a different mode generally required the purchase of a new fare. However, as part of a push by ARTA and NZ Transport Agency, an integrated ticketing / smartcard system was introduced in Auckland by successful tenderer Thales, similar to systems like Octopus card in Hong Kong. The new system was hoped to also reduce delays while boarding buses, leading to fewer service delays.

The first stage of integrated ticketing came online in time for the Rugby World Cup 2011, with construction works for the 'tag on' / 'tag off' infrastructure having begun in January 2011. The 'HOP Card' was publicised with a $1 million publicity campaign that started in early 2011.

The AT HOP card system went live in October 2012 for trains, November 2012 for ferries and between June 2013 and March 2014 for buses.

Urban services

Bus services provide the bulk of public transport. They have improved in various ways in recent years, with, for example, 20 new-technology 'Link' city route buses built in 2007 and the introduction of bus rapid transit on the Northern Busway (opened January 2008) and the Central Connector (opened October 2009). Bus services generally stop around midnight or earlier, even on Fridays and Saturdays. A limited number of night buses serve Auckland's suburbs from the CBD on Friday and Saturday nights only.

Auckland Transport began (2014–15) the process of rebranding bus services to AT Metro to create a single identity for AT services. This involves repainting the livery of all operators' buses that are contracted on AT routes to a single colour scheme, to be phased in over three years. The default colour scheme is ocean blue and grey. The exceptions are the LINK buses which will retain their traditional red, green and orange colours.

Urban service operators are:

User statistics

After a ridership plateau of just over 46 million bus trips per year in 2003, usage volumes fell for three years to 42.18 million trips in the year ended June 2006, before rising again to 43.23 million in the year ended June 2008, and to over 50 million for the year ending February 2011. Users were also found to be taking longer rides, which reduced the subsidy per passenger kilometer.

A 2006 ARTA study found a number of characteristics typical of Auckland bus transport users:

It also identified some characteristics relevant to the scope for future public transport measures:

Patronage on 'Northern Express' services from North Shore City into Auckland CBD improved markedly; it carried 1.2 million trips in the year ended June 2008 and patronage continues to rise due to the time gains offered by the Northern Busway. A previous 2008 survey had shown a 34% patronage increase in one year.

Priority measures

Auckland has a slowly growing network of bus lanes: in Auckland City there were 27 km in 2008. The Central Connector bus lane project, which started construction in 2008, is expected to substantially improve links between Newmarket and the inner city, while bus lanes are also planned on Remuera Road and St Johns Road to connect the city with the Eastern Bays suburbs.

The Northern Busway in North Shore City may possibly be extended further north, to serve the increasing urbanisation of the northern areas, and may eventually go all the way to Orewa and the Whangaparaoa peninsula.

The Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) project will include dedicated bus facilities and lanes.

Long-distance services

Long-distance bus operators, including Intercity and Naked Bus, link Auckland with all the main centres in the North Island. For example, in 2007 services to Hamilton (the closest large city to the south) depart around 12 times per weekday at variable intervals.

Urban services

Auckland's urban train services are operated under the AT brand by Transdev Auckland, formerly known as Veolia, with the trains and stations belonging to Auckland Transport and the rail infrastructure belonging to KiwiRail.

Since the opening of Britomart Transport Centre, significant improvements have been made to commuter rail services. In October 2005, Sunday services were reintroduced for the first time in over 40 years, together with a general 25% service frequency increase at the time.

Recent investment has resulted in strongly increased patronage from a low level, with a 1,580% increase from the lowest ebb in 1994. Second-hand diesel units replaced even older coaches in 1993 and, by 1995, patronage was claimed to be up 60% to almost 2 million train trips a year. Patronage increased from just under 4 million trips in 2005 to over 7 million in 2008, and as of early 2016 had quadrupled to 16 million passengers with growth running at 4 million additional trips a year. In the year to December 2016, rail patronage rose to 18 million journeys. In March 2010, rail trips reached their highest point since 1955, with 918,000 passengers in one month, 115,000 more than in March 2009.

Investment has focused on upgrading and refurbishing rolling stock and railway stations. Some double tracking to allow higher frequencies has been undertaken, and had resulted in a 25% increase in frequency, and a rise in punctuality (5 minutes late or less) from 60.9% in 2005 to 83.1% in 2006 and 82% in 2008. Reliability was a problem in 2009-2010 with over 400 signal and points failures, although ARTA noted that this was due to the large amount of work being conducted in the rail corridor to upgrade and double-track the rail system, especially on the Western Line.

Main lines

There are four commuter rail lines, all electrified at 25kV AC:

These names however are not the official names for these railway lines. Britomart to Wellington (via Orakei) is officially part of the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT). Quay Park Junction to Newmarket is officially the Newmarket Line, and Westfield Junction to Otiria is officially the North Auckland Line (NAL).

Long-distance services

Auckland has only one long-distance passenger train, the Northern Explorer to Wellington, operated by KiwiRail Scenic Journeys. It runs southbound on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and northbound Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The service is mainly tourist-oriented, but in 2008 there were proposals to reintroduce more services and increase emphasis towards regular users.

Current and recent upgrades

From 2008, a NZ$600 million upgrading project named "DART" (Developing Auckland's Rail Transport) was undertaken, managed by the state-owned enterprise ONTRACK. Project DART and other projects include:

Services were extended to after 10 pm during the week in early 2009.

In December 2014, weekend services to Pukekohe were introduced for the first time, together with later services and hourly frequencies on weekdays.

Also in December 2014 a public campaign to have a diesel rail shuttle service introduced between Swanson and Huapai was launched by the Public Transport Users Association in response to Auckland Transport's plans to withdraw rail services from Waitakere Train Station in 2015. In 2017, the PTUA called for the introduction of hourly services between Huapai and Pukekohe using the city's mothballed diesel trains.

In October 2016, a new bus network was launched for South Auckland, Pukekohe and Waiuku, and at Otahuhu Railway Station a new bus-train interchange was opened on 29 October 2016.

Electrification and core upgrade

From the 1920s, there were a number of proposals recommending electrification of the Auckland rail network, with some being parts of proposals for electrification of the North Island Main Trunk in its entirety from Auckland to Wellington. Electrification of the Auckland suburban network was completed in July 2015.

Further proposed upgrades

A number of extensions to the rail network have been proposed, for a potential target of 30 million train trips per year (over four times the 2008 level), though some have been discussed for several decades:

Services

A substantial minority of North Shore commuters avoid motorway congestion by catching ferries from North Shore ferry terminals directly to the downtown ferry terminal. The ferries operate at least hourly, with longer hours of operation than many of Auckland's bus routes and railway lines.

The main ferry operator, Fullers Group, transported around 4.7 million passengers a year (2010/11) on 42,010 sailings, an average of around 100 passengers per sailing. In 2016, a 7% rise in passenger numbers resulted in six million passengers travelling by ferry, the same number as in 1959 when the harbour bridge was opened. Prior to the opening of the bridge, more than 10 million passengers had used ferries annually.

Ferry service operators are:

Terminals

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

Ferries also connect the city with islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Regular sailings serve Waiheke Island, with less frequent services to Great Barrier Island, Rangitoto Island, Motutapu Island and other inner-gulf islands, primarily for tourism.

There are no ferry services on the west coast of Auckland, although there were some historical services from Onehunga. None are planned, as the city's waterfront orientation is much stronger toward the (eastern) Waitemata Harbour than to the (western) Manukau Harbour.

Subsidies

Fullers Group noted in 2008 that Auckland ferry services are operating well for their low level of Council subsidy of around 84c per passenger and journey, half the subsidy of Brisbane ferry operators and a seventh of those in Sydney.

Britomart Transport Centre

Opened in July 2003, Britomart is a central hub for public transport in Auckland - buses at ground level, 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.

Second Harbour Crossing

During 2007, plans were mooted to build a second crossing over the Waitemata Harbour, which is a major barrier for traffic, and currently bridged by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Proposed bridge or tunnel options included substantial provision for public transport, including for light rail, with some proposing to keep the new crossing reserved solely for public transport.

Commentator Brian Rudman noted that it would make the most sense for a new crossing to be dedicated to public transport only, possibly connecting with a rail tunnel from the Western Reclamation to Britomart Transport Centre, providing an alternate way of making Britomart a through station.

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 a dedicated tunnel, with potential for light or heavy rail.

In 2014 the New Zealand First political party included a plan in its transport policy to investigate a cheaper rail only tunnel option together with converting the Northern Busway into a railway, with the reasoning that with a rail link to the North Shore, there would be reduced traffic demand on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and no need for road tunnels.

Public advocacy

Groups like the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) aim to be advocates 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.

In December 2014 the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) was formed to represent and take up the issues of public transport passengers, initially Auckland based, but with potential to become a nationwide organisation.