Finish to fuss of riding bus

By SCOTT MacLEOD transport reporter

A website to be launched next month will give Aucklanders step-by-step details on how to use public transport, including walking times from their homes to the nearest bus-stops.

Commuters may eventually be able to access the site from their cellphones, so they can work out how to get home from shops and other centres.

The Auckland Regional Council website, called Rideline, is likely to be used by thousands of people each day. The council's public transport phone service is already taking more than 3100 daily calls.

Project coordinator Jenny Cornish said the website would ask commuters to type in their street address, suburb or nearest landmark, what time they wanted to leave, and where they were going.

It will also ask whether they prefer buses, trains or ferries.

A computer will then send back a personalised journey plan. It will say what it considers is the best travel option, but will also give alternatives.

ARC transport committee chairman Les Paterson said the service would be available 24 hours a day.

"The website will be light years ahead of any other public transport information service in New Zealand," he said. "It will offer an entire journey planner from home to destination, right down to which bus or train stop to get off at and how to get to a connecting service."

Transfund New Zealand last week pledged $166,000 towards the website as part of a Government boost for public transport. Transfund chief executive Martin Gummer said a survey had found that 54 per cent of people would use such a service.

Thirty-six staff working for the existing phone service, also called Rideline, have been working flat-out each weekday from 7 am to 8 pm.

Rideline manager Wayne Funnell said tertiary students and commuters were the people most likely to use the website.

Future options for the service would be to give cellphone access and real-time information on whether, for example, a bus was running late.

"We get a lot of repeat callers, and surveys show that a lot of people are going to different places or not using a timetable," Mr Funnell said.

"We are trying to provide the confidence for people to use public transport."

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