Target to double bus train and ferry trips

Patronage growth on Auckland's buses, trains and ferries will have to more than double to meet a new mayoral target of 150 million annual passenger trips in 10 years. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Patronage growth on Auckland's buses, trains and ferries will have to more than double to meet a new mayoral target of 150 million annual passenger trips in 10 years.

Mayor Len Brown yesterday caught a train to work to announce a study by Auckland Transport of how to boost annual public transport patronage from 63.28 million trips now.

That will require growth rates of more than 9 per cent for each year between now and 2021, compared with 4.4 per cent over the past six months.

Despite the size of the task and uncertainty over funding, Mr Brown said electric trains from 2013 and a new "integrated" smart-card ticketing system would assist his target, as would a $2 billion-plus city rail tunnel needed to double Britomart's capacity and put most of inner Auckland within 500m walking distance of a station.

The mayor wants the 3.5km tunnel from the western end of Britomart to Mt Eden to be dug within seven years after a $5 million study for KiwiRail and the former Auckland Regional Transport Authority predicted "transformational" economic returns of more than 3.5 times the investment.

But the Government has indicated much of the cost must be covered by regional funding, and has asked officials to review the study before it will consider becoming involved in such a project.

Mr Brown said he wanted to extend the region's ferry network as well, and encourage as many Aucklanders as possible to consider walking and cycling as safe and effective alternatives to driving cars.

He announced plans for a substantial increase in the number of schools with travel plans to encourage more walking and cycling and said he had also asked Auckland Transport for a review of bus and high-occupancy vehicle lanes to identify potential improvements.

Although there has been little let-up by the council-controlled agency in enforcing bus lanes since it took over that task on November 1, a spokesman for Mr Brown said the mayor was keen for the lanes to be marked properly to reduce inadvertent violations.

But if a central rail tunnel is not built, Aucklanders may have to learn to live with even more bus lanes, leaving less room for general road traffic.

The tunnel study predicted that most main inner city bus routes would reach capacity by 2020 and without the new rail link, the central business district would require twin or triple bus lanes on both sides of the road to cope with the transport needs of a growing population.

Mr Brown said his train trip from Papatoetoe to Britomart would be the first of many, as a way of showing his commitment to public transport.

Although that is likely to mean being driven from his Manukau Heights home to Papatoetoe in the short term, Mr Brown is looking forward to the opening of a $98 million railway line and trenched station in central Manukau by the end of winter.

His spokesman said the frequency of his rail trips would depend on his mayoral diary, but he believed it was often quicker to travel by train.

A survey of 402 Auckland drivers conducted in October for IBM found 51 per cent wanted better public transport and almost a third said traffic congestion was harming their health.