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Aucklanders cramming into trains to avoid hefty petrol bills have boosted winter rail patronage over 30 per cent.
Bus use is also climbing from a trough, as fleet operators report up to 7 per cent growth since April. That compares with a 2 per cent decline on Auckland buses other than the booming Northern Express service in the last six months of 2007.
Although petrol and diesel prices have eased recently, the Government's transport agency reports continuing declines in motorway traffic at three of four sites for which comparisons with last winter are available.
Its figures show at least 5 per cent less weekday traffic immediately south of the harbour bridge last month than in July 2007 - or about 132,000 vehicles a day - and it does not expect volumes to recover until summer.
Although North Shore commuters are served by a dedicated busway, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority is asking rail users for patience while more diesel trains are rushed out of KiwiRail's Dunedin workshops.
It admits the early addition last month of its 15th locomotive-hauled SA train was barely enough to cope with a 31.6 per cent leap in patronage in July last year, to 705,573 fares collected. That does not account for difficulties collecting tickets on crowded trains, and follows a 29.5 per cent rise in June over last winter.
Authority chief Fergus Gammie says commuters should consider themselves in good company with overseas rail users.
"The reality of peak-time train travel as experienced in Sydney and Melbourne is that standing is commonplace," he said.
"While we acknowledge some trains are crowded at peak times, help is in sight, with two more trains arriving in September and October this year, and six additional trains already on order will be delivered next year."
Although patronage has almost trebled from an annual figure of 2.5 million passenger trips since Britomart opened in 2003, and jumped 18.5 per cent to 6.79 million in the year to June 30, even the most ambitious planners have been surprised by the boom.
Mr Gammie said that although the authority and its partners had been busy rebuilding a network that had been "neglected for decades", high oil prices had piled on more pressure.
"We are literally running to make up for lost time - while we welcome the increase in patronage and had planned for growth, the additional demand we are now seeing due to petrol price increases has meant some operational challenges for us and our [rail] operator, Veolia."
The authority has recorded a 4.4 per cent rise in public transport patronage for the June 30 year, during which buses carried 40.68 million passengers - a 3 per cent increase.
That included 963,000 passengers of the Northern Express service, which enjoyed a 53.1 per cent rise with help from the new $290 million busway.
Although annual growth of just 2.2 per cent was recorded for all other bus services, that reversed a decline of 2.2 per cent for the six months to December 31, and operators report better results since April.
NZ Bus chief executive Bruce Emson says his fleet's patronage has risen 5 per cent to 6 per cent since April and the smaller Howick and Eastern company, which will introduce new services through Botany next month, reports growth of up to 7 per cent.
The transport authority says public transport patronage is higher than at any time since 1989.
Auckland Regional Council transport chairwoman Christine Rose hopes the figures will bolster the application to the Government for a regional fuel tax to pay for electric trains and other public transport needs.
