Usually my bus service is pretty reliable. I turn up at just before 8.25 am in the morning – at around 8.25 am a Birkenhead Transport bus rolls along, taking people over the Harbour Bridge to Northcote College. When I drive to work in Avondale I see the bus further back on its route – usually stuck in traffic along Meola Road. But anyway, usually pretty shortly after the Birkenhead Transport school bus has gone by my 8.25 am 004 bus comes. Although it’s a peak hour bus, because the route is pretty short (it starts down at the very posh end of Jervois Road) I can always get a seat – in fact most of the people who catch this bus get on at the two main Herne Bay bus stops (I interchange between the two as they’re almost perfectly equidistant from my house).
But this morning decided to be different. 8.30 rolled by, 8.40 rolled by, and eventually at around 8.45 am we had the next bus come along. Of course it was pretty packed, although I did get a seat. Now I can understand why buses are sometimes late – they get stuck in traffic along some part of their route or whatever. What really annoys me though is when they simply just don’t show up. I know that I wouldn’t have missed the 8.25 am 004 bus this morning – as I even saw the 8.15 am 012 bus depart my stop just as I arrived there. And clearly the bus that I ended up catching was the scheduled 8.40 am bus. Obviously the one I usually catch just simply disappeared.
I suppose that it’s possible that there are staffing shortage at bus companies at the moment, with the normal winter colds etc. going around, but one would imagine that’s pretty standard practice anyway and they ensure they have enough “fat in the system” to cope with situations like that. Sometimes I do wonder whether they just go “ah, who really cares about the 8.25 am 004 service, they’ll just catch the later bus”. Which is not really good enough I reckon.
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That’s bad enough, but you really want to be checking out Auckland Trains to see what rail commuters have been dealing with for the last week.
A signals crash last Monday in rush hour, a points failure at Britomart on Wednesday morning leading to huge holdups for Britomart berths, then more delays on Thursday and the Britomart passenger displays dying on Friday – and a ton of cancelled rush hour services morning and night all week. Happened again today as well.
Maybe cold weather, flu season and more demand is leading to these breakdowns but it’s been an absolute shocker for a week now. I have been backing the rail service in Auckland despite everything for years but this is really making me think.
Yeah I read a few of the posts over there. Seems like a bad week and a bit for public transport perhaps?
I always wonder whether public transport screw ups are really that random, or whether there are some sort of general trends that exist for some reason. For a while it seemed for certain that there would be a major rail meltdown once a month.
I’d like to say I am sympathetic but I have the pleasure (or lackthereof) of catching the Northstar 891X which runs Newmarket to Albany Village (peak hour only). In the morning it’s generally on time for its run down Albany Highway > Wairau Rd into the city. In the evening, I catch the bus back up to Albany Highway from Fanshawe St. The indicative time is 5:10pm (and yes I know it’s not a guaranteed time). In the four weeks I have be using this ‘service’ the bus has only shown up once before 5:20 and several times it has not shown up at all. I’ve even had the bus sail past us while we frantically signal the driver and one driver tell me that our stop isn’t on his list of pick up stops (even though Maxx AND the bus shelter info tells me otherwise).
I could actually get a car park in the build I work at for less than the $170 per month I have to pay for this shoddy service and the only thing stopping me is the fact we are a one car family… currently.
That’s my rant!
$170? Is that the going rate for an all zones pass these days? Yikes.
One thing it can be worth doing is sending Maxx an email complaining about the service each and every time you have a problem with it. I did that late last year and early this year about the 224 bus route – because it was consistently 15 minutes late (each and every time). I have avoided having to catch the 224 recently, but I did eventually get ARTA to tell me that they were looking at changing the 224 route. Frequent and consistent complaints can hopefully make a difference!
$170? Is that the going rate for an all zones pass these days? Yikes.
Wouldn’t surprise me. It’s now almost $11 to get from Mangere to Queen St and back. That’s just one day. If you’re working minimum wage, that’s one 8th of your income gone.
Also, isn’t the point of a bus that you can sit down? There really seems to be an attitude that it’s acceptable to make half the passengers stand for lengths of time, every single morning, as the bus barrels around corners.
Regarding your first point George – hence the need for integrated ticketing I suppose. If one could catch any bus or train or ferry within the Auckland urban limits for $160 a month it would actually be a reasonable deal I suppose.
And regarding standing on buses, to some extent it is inevitable. Providing a level of service that eliminates the need for anyone to ever stand would be pretty impossible. However, simply cancelling services certainly contributes to the next one being absolutely jammed.
I have had the pleasure of using a monthly Discovery pass (bus/train/ferry) for the last fortnight, as a family member had one they no longer needed. It’s only a pleasure since I’m not paying for it however as the price is $210 a month. Ouch.
Yeah $210 a month is a joke. There’s no reason why the monthly pass price for buses, trains and ferries can’t be the $170 cost of an all zones bus pass. Cheaper would be even better, of course, but there really is no reason for that extra $40 a month for the price of a Discovery Pass.
Can someone tell me why there isnt a monthly pass for just Birkenhead Transport buses?
Is the cheapest method for adults the 10 trip $38.50 ticket?
Because Birkenhead Transport is stuck in the 1950s. Isn’t the Northern Pass accepted on their services?
auckland busses never are on time
the bus drivers are mean and should not be aloud to drive