Auckland public transport complaints plummet, but public still critical of Auckland Transport

Complaints about AT trains, buses and ferries have consistently declined over the past five years. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Complaints about public transport in Auckland have been declining, although most people still appear to feel neutral to negative about Auckland Transport overall.

Auckland Transport (AT) data, released to Newstalk ZB under the Local Government Official Information Act, shows complaints have consistently dropped over the past five years.

Complaints averaged just 3.2 a week in the first eight months of last year, down from 11.9 a week in 2020, and 27.6 a week in the last three months of 2019.

However, the public remains critical of Auckland’s transport agency, which is set to lose its policy functions under an overhaul announced by the Government last month.

AT’s own figures suggest only 31% of customers feel it “listened to and responded to Aucklanders’ needs” in the September quarter, up from just 9% in the June quarter.

That mirrors recent Curia polling showing only 30% of people feel positive about AT’s overall performance, and only 20% are satisfied with its delivery of public transport services.

AT has been dealing with 93 security incidents and tens of thousands of fare evasion cases a week on public transport, including reports of threats and abuse.

But Pete Moth, AT’s head of public transport services planning and development, said the decline in complaints had coincided with significant improvements to the speed, frequency, reliability and coverage of services.

“We now have better technology and ways of communicating with our customers so they are more informed and can use public transport more easily,” he said.

“With the City Rail Link, Eastern Busway and new train stations in the south still to come, getting around Auckland using public transport is only going to get faster and easier.”

AT figures suggest less than one in 250 customer service cases now result in a formal complaint, and less than one in 20 of those formal complaints take more than four weeks to resolve.

Public Transport Users' Association national coordinator Jon Reeves said while AT’s performance may be improving, some people may not be raising issues because they weren’t satisfied with how their complaints had been handled in the past.

“It could be that after many years, passengers have just given up complaining,” Reeves said.

Michael Sergel is a senior reporter, usually based in Auckland. He has been covering business, politics, local government and consumer affairs for more than a decade.