Bus and train trip popularity growing

The number of people using buses and trains to travel into central Auckland continues to increase, according to figures released yesterday.

Bus patronage was up by 2.2 per cent from 21,776 last year to 22,251 this year. The Auckland Regional Council said the growth was primarily from the new $290 million Northern Busway on the Northern Motorway.

The news came as the Auckland City Council yesterday announced that a 12-month trial of a bus lane on Tamaki Drive, in the Eastern Bays, would go ahead.

But it is not only bus usage that is increasing. The Auckland Regional Transport Authority said yesterday that the number of people catching trains had been climbing since October last year.

"For the financial year ending June 30 there were over five million passenger journeys recorded on the region's rail network," said acting chief executive Fergus Gammie.

"This compares to 3.8 million for the equivalent period last year, a 32.5 per cent increase."

Of those journeys, 1.91 million were made on western line services (compared with 1.35 million last year) and 3.12 million on the southern and eastern lines (compared with 2.45 million last year).