KEY POINTS:
It took 20 years to conceive and build, and now the $300 million-plus Northern Busway is being hailed as Auckland's runaway transport success story of 2008.
Admittedly, there remains plenty of scope for growth and service improvements before the 8.7km dedicated highway for buses from Constellation Drive to just short of the harbour bridge reaches its design capacity.
That is evident from long stretches of empty tarmac visible to envious drivers snarled up in peak-hour congestion on the adjacent motorway, as the occasional bus glides past.
But since it opened on February 4 last year, the busway has boosted annual patronage on the main-trunk Northern Express service between Albany and Britomart by 86 per cent - to 1.308 million passenger trips.
Park and ride stations at Albany and Constellation Drive with more than 900 car spaces fill up fast most mornings, leading to urgent investigations by North Shore City Council into providing additional capacity, while not wanting to make it too easy for passengers to give up waiting at suburban stops for feeder buses.
Patronage on feeders to the express buses, which spent two years before the busway opened jostling for space with other traffic while chugging up and down the Northern Motorway, jumped 46 per cent to 322,712 trips for the 12 months to December 31.
Busy as they are, running every four minutes at peak times, the Northern Express buses are only part of the hub and spokes system designed around the busway to give Aucklanders north of the Waitemata Harbour their share of the rapid transit experience normally associated with trains.
Counting other services on longer routes from suburban stops or more distant locations - for which patronage figures were unavailable yesterday - the one-lane busway section south of Takapuna is used by 88 buses between 7.30am to 8.30am each day.
That level of success has given the Transport Agency, which runs the busway in partnership with North Shore City and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, confidence to plan a 23km extension to Orewa for $700 million to $1.2 billion.
Although the full link may be 20 years away, the agency says property development "hot spots" may require advance sections to be built well before then, and is seeking support for $60 million to $65 million of regionally-allocated Government funds to be earmarked for property purchases over the coming three years.
Acting regional manager Tommy Parker says his organisation expects future population growth to be accommodated by the busway, and therefore has no plans to add any more lanes to the motorway.
For all the busway's initial success, loadings on the 2.46km stretch of busway south of Takapuna represent little over a third of its design capacity of 250 buses an hour, which does not count extra provision for up to 350 high-occupancy vehicles.
Other sections of the busway, of which 6.24km has a lane in each direction, have less capacity because of constraints through its five associated stations.
Although commuters have so far been relatively tolerant of the Transport Agency's desire to protect the integrity of the busway, pressure is expected to mount in the second operating year to boost its utility by allowing vehicles with three or more occupants on its hallowed ground.
The Government agency has made an initial concession to North Shore City, which is paying half of a bill expected to rise to about $100 million for the five stations, by allowing access from this week to airport shuttle vans with eight to 11 passenger seats.
But the agency still hopes to hold out until traffic congestion is eased by a motorway tunnel beneath Victoria Park by about 2013, before adding private high-occupancy vehicles to the mix.
That is because of difficulties it foresees for vehicles heading south of Auckland to cross congested motorway lanes from the end of the busway, either before or after the bridge.
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams yesterday signalled an earnest debate with the agency before his city's pioneering high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane along busy Onewa Rd is extended this year to the busway and motorway.
"I think if HOVs are coming down Onewa Rd, they should be able to continue on [to the end of the busway]," he said. "There has got to be an incentive for people to be in the HOV lane."
But city transport planners estimate that 250 high-occupancy vehicles travel down Onewa Rd in the morning peak hour, potentially leaving little room for similar access through bus stations to the north.
Mr Parker said his organisation's preference would be to maximise use of the busway by ultimately allowing high-occupancy vehicles access through Esmonde Rd in Takapuna and the Constellation station, where an entry ramp has been built.
Although that would not be before the Victoria Park tunnel was ready, he said the agency would consider adding tourist buses next year "whilst monitoring the effect on the busway to make sure they don't deteriorate services."
ON THE BUSWAY
6.24km Two-lane bus highway between Constellation Drive and Esmonde Rd in Takapuna.
2.46km One-lane south- bound only from Esmonde Rd to just short of harbour bridge.
5 bus Stations north to south: Albany ("off-line" from busway but linked to it by motorway shoulder bus lane); Constellation Drive; Sunnynook; Smales Farm (Westlake) and Akoranga (Takapuna).
250 Number of buses designed to carry an hour by 2016 with enough room for 10,000 passengers.
350 Number of other vehicles with three or more occupants busway designed to carry an hour.
88 Number of buses now using southern busway section at peak hour of 7.30am to 8.30am.
6700 Number of passengers carried by bus to Auckland from North Shore City between 7am and 9am in April survey.
$310m Expected final cost of busway ($210 million from Government grants and up to $100 million shared equally by regional and North Shore City funds for bus stations).
