KEY POINTS:
Travellers and workers heading for Auckland Airport from North Shore City are from today being offered a clear takeoff from Albany on a single bus ticket.
Although passengers will still have to transfer from Northern Express buses to the Airbus service at Britomart, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority is offering a single adult ticket for $18 one way or $30 return.
That compares with a previous total of $20.40 for one-way travel between Albany and the airport on two tickets.
Children, students and senior citizens will be able from today to make the one-way trip for $15, or get to the airport and back for $23.
The new Northern Flyer ticket, although paper, is seen as another move towards point-to-point fares which the authority hopes to spread throughout the region with electronic smart cards for seamless travel on buses, trains and ferries by the end of 2010.
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams also regards the new ticket as a step towards direct airport bus services from his city to the airport, and eventually an electric rail link under the harbour.
"Finally North Shore residents are able to get to and from the airport by means of an affordable, efficient bus link," he said.
Mr Williams expects the new tickets to be especially popular with youth travellers as a cheap alternative to taxi fares of up to about $100 between Albany and the airport.
They will be able to catch buses running down the Northern Busway every five minutes at peak times, or every 10 minutes for the rest of the day, before transferring to Airbus Express buses leaving Britomart every 15 minutes during daylight hours.
Although the busway remains reserved for the exclusive use of buses between Albany and Onewa Rd, Mr Williams and his council are trying to persuade the Government's Transport Agency and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to open it to airport shuttle vans to give travellers more fare choices.
"We have not been party to building a $300 million piece of infrastructure for it to be kept in cotton mothballs," he said.
Despite the new pass, it remains more expensive than a less direct trip between Albany or nearby suburbs to the airport for $13.40.
That would involve a bus trip to Britomart costing $5.40 and taking about half an hour, catching a train to Papatoetoe for $4.80, and then another bus leg to the airport for $3.20. Although that would probably not suit many baggage-laden travellers, the Herald has reached the airport from central Auckland by train and bus in 52 minutes.
The Transport Agency is meanwhile preparing to extend the busway by 890 metres to the south next month, ahead of schedule, taking it around the outside of the new Onewa Rd interchange and almost to the harbour bridge.
It also expects to open the first of two new bridges on the $40 million interchange upgrade project on September 15, allowing general traffic to join the Northern Motorway and buses to join the busway from a widened Onewa Rd.
At that stage, the busway will be 8.74km long, comprising a two-directional dedicated bus highway for 6.24km from Albany to Esmonde Rd, then a 2.5km single-lane southbound-only stretch to the harbour bridge.
A second bridge, carrying southbound traffic from the motorway to Onewa Rd, will open later.
The two bridges will replace a structure which carried opposing traffic along one lane in each direction, over tight curves and with no separation barrier.
