Passengers shun trains for buses

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Aucklanders are embracing buses and spurning trains, just as the city plans to spend $1.1 billion on a rail-based transport plan.

An Auckland Regional Council survey found that 21,115 people took public transport to the central business district during the 7 am to 9 am peak hours one day in April.

The figure was up by 995, or 4.9 per cent, on the same time last year.

A breakdown of the ARC annual survey showed patronage was up 7.5 per cent on buses, steady on ferries and down 35 per cent on trains.

The results came as Auckland leaders unveiled a $1.1 billion vision for public transport based on light trains in the central city and west, heavy trains in the south and a busway in the north.

The Automobile Association used council figures to suggest that the plan would do almost nothing to ease traffic jams.

NZAA northern regional manager Stephen Selwood said 20 years from now trains would carry 7700 people during morning peaks. But most of those would be former bus users, and one council report predicted that only 20 per cent of new train users would come from cars.

"Each rail line will keep about 500 cars off the road. That's about 12 per cent of the carrying capacity of a single motorway lane. Surely it makes better sense to modernise the bus operation."

The ARC surveys showed that rail patronage rose by 35 per cent between 1999 and 2000 before slumping by the same amount between the past two Aprils - from 1101 passengers to 718 each morning peak.

ARC transport committee chairman Les Paterson said the poor train numbers were no surprise. Tickets went up in October, parking at stations was dearer and the central station was "a mess."

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