One of the successes of Auckland public transport in recent times has been the Link service, modern buses looping around the inner suburbs at reasonably frequent intervals.
They are air-conditioned, well sprung, have comfortable seating, for someone as svelte as myself at least, and the lighting is excellent for those wanting to read.
But poor old New Zealand Bus, unaccustomed, it seems, to having contented customers, has been unable to resist going one step too far. It's started pumping piped music to its trapped audience.
My first encounter was a few weeks back when I boarded one of the new Orange Links one evening outside the Civic. We'd hardly taken off when the faint strains of one of the more bouncy of Vivaldi's Four Seasons began drifting through the bus. Initially I looked about, presuming someone was listening to a radio or personal music player. Then it clicked, it was coming from on high, either out of the ether - or more likely, the air-conditioning grilles in the ceiling.
Like all "elevator music", once the novelty of recognition died, it soon descended into bland formulaic mush - superior 18th century baroque mush perhaps, but mush nevertheless. My first thought was that Bob Harvey had got to them. As mayor of the old Waitakere City, Mr Harvey wired the new 24-hour covered causeway across the Henderson train station complex for sound after reading how British councils had driven graffiti vandals away from similar public transport sites with piped classical music. Either the vandals hated the sound so much they fled at the first squeak of a violin, or the cultured tones instantly converted them into upstanding burghers. Whichever, Mayor Bob always claimed it a brilliant success, and certainly the bus seemed vandal-free.
