Emergency plan to ease bus overcrowding

Photo / Paul Estcourt

Emergency measures are being drawn up to cope with overcrowding on Auckland buses, including more Northern Express buses and expanding the Albany park-and-ride station.

With full buses now regularly whizzing past angry commuters on busy routes such as the Northern Busway, the Central Connector and Dominion Rd, Auckland councillors are demanding action from Auckland Transport.

Rising petrol prices and the "March madness" caused by the return of tertiary students to classes, has resulted in a 9.6 per cent jump in public transport use in February compared with the same month last year.

Yesterday, Auckland Council's transport committee issued Auckland Transport with a list of immediate measures, including a temporary expansion of the Albany park-and-ride station, providing more buses and sorting out what Albany councillor Wayne Walker called "bus congestion at the bottom of town".

The downtown bus terminal is becoming cluttered with buses and queues of commuters are adding to the problem. Congestion and delays at Fanshawe St and Victoria Park have also been handed to Auckland Transport to fix.

The launch yesterday of the "Hop" smart card for use on New Zealand Bus buses is the first step towards an integrated ticket system that will make boarding times faster.

All commuters need to do is to run the card over a reader when they board and leave the bus.

North Shore councillor George Wood was among 40 city-bound commuters on the Sunnynook platform on the Northern Busway when a packed North Star bus flew by.

Deputy mayor and Waitakere councillor Penny Hulse said that yesterday at the Avondale station about 30 people were unable to board the train she was on.

"We literally needed one-gloved pushers to get people on to the train.

"We have all had 15 or 20 years of people waving their fingers and saying Aucklanders will simply not get out of their cars. Aucklanders are pouring out of their cars and we need to do everything we can to support people to make those choices," she said.

Auckland Transport relationships manager Dr Stephen Rainbow said the council-controlled organisation was very aware of the problems. It was negotiating with bus operators for increased services for the Northern Express and expanding park-and-ride facilities.

Dr Rainbow said the fact that many services and surrounding facilities were better had created an ongoing challenge for the increased demand, but ultimately it came down to resources.

"When we talk about congestion at the bottom of Queen St we are not going to resolve that until the central city rail loop is completed. That is what is holding up all the buses at the moment," he said.

Mr Walker expressed concern about the effect on public transport by the rising price of oil, which analysts say is unlikely to settle back to lower levels in the long term.

"What happens when petrol is anther $1 a litre dearer than it is now?" he asked.

Prices jumped a total of 16c a litre to $2.19 a litre for 91 octane last month - the highest since it also reached $2.19 a litre in July 2008.

THE FIX
* More Northern Express buses.
* Expanding Albany park-and-ride station.
* Smart card for some buses.
* Reorganising downtown bus terminal.
* Fixing Fanshawe St and Victoria Park bottlenecks.