Relief in sight for crowded out bus passengers

Services on the Northern Busway will run longer and more often from next week. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Auckland Transport will increase services on the Northern Busway next week after complaints of overcrowding as high fuel prices force more commuters to leave their cars at home.

Weekend revellers will also benefit from an extension of Northern Express bus services leaving Britomart for Albany until 3am on Saturdays and Sundays.

Last buses now leave Britomart at 11.45pm on week nights, and 11pm on Saturdays.

From next week, they will leave Britomart at midnight from Monday to Thursday

The last bus on Sundays will still be at 10pm.

Passengers will be able to catch buses the other way, from Albany to Britomart, until 2.30am on Saturdays and Sundays and 11.30pm instead of 11pm on normal week nights.

Services will also start earlier each weekday morning, and frequencies for city-bound buses will increase to one every three minutes from Albany between 7am and 8am during school terms, instead of four to five minutes.

But homebound commuters will be able to catch buses from Britomart every three minutes between 5pm and 5.45pm other than during school holidays, as Auckland Transport and Northern Express operator Ritchies try to shorten queues.

The first bus of the day will leave Albany at 5.30am - instead of 5.45am now - and passengers will be able to travel half an hour earlier from Britomart, starting 6am.

Buses will run every 15 minutes from Albany until 6.30am, when they will be every five minutes until the three-minute phase starts at 7am.

Five-minute services from Britomart will start an hour earlier each afternoon, at 3pm.

The extra services follow increasing complaints about overcrowding on buses in many parts of Auckland, and a year in which patronage of Northern Express services jumped almost 18 per cent to 1.97 million passengers trips. That has resulted in passengers being left stranded at intermediate stations along the $300 million Northern Busway as packed busses go by.

Auckland Transport admits patronage has grown faster than it expected, putting pressure on services.

But public transport operations manager Mark Lambert said the extra services should alleviate overcrowding on the council-controlled organisation's flagship rapid transit bus route, letting people reach their destinations faster and in greater comfort.

He praised the swift response of Ritchies Transport in providing more buses for the route.

The extra services are among a range of measures demanded three weeks ago by the Auckland Council's transport committee, which also wants Mr Lambert's organisation to provide more parking for commuters wanting to leave cars at the Albany bus station.

Mr Lambert told transport committee chairman Mike Lee in an email late last month that although there were "standing loads" on the Northern Express, spare capacity remained on some other services using the busway.

Auckland Transport had been trying to spread the load by informing passengers about other options.

He said the first stage of a park and ride area further north at Silverdale should be available this winter.

FROM NEXT MONDAY

* Northern Express bus services to start earlier and end later each weekday.
* Late night services to be extended by up to four hours at weekends,
including to 3am from Britomart on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
* Weekday frequencies to be increased to 3 minutes at peak times other than during school holidays, to alleviate over-crowding.