Bus changes: Q&A

A week or so back I blogged some preliminary thoughts on the changes to bus routes that ARTA is currently consulting on. In general, I supported the changes as they provide some level of simplification – although I noted that it could be argued the changes didn’t go far enough and some level of unnecessary complexity remained.

I sent off a few questions I had on some of the changes to ARTA, and they’ve come back with some interesting answers:

Green Bay:

It is worth keeping in mind that the Green Bay review is the first stage of a two-stage review of bus services in this area in which the second stage will include the current 18- series services operated by Go West.

1. Why is the 104 a “one way loop”. This seems to be something that would make the route useful to pretty much nobody as you will inevitably have to go around the wrong way for half of your trip, meaning that it takes forever. If ARTA need to provide such a bare minimum level of service, then wouldn’t the “targeted services” proposed in the RPTP be a more efficient use of resources?

The 104 service provides a vital connection between New Lynn and the Rosebank Peninsula which is currently poorly served. By running the route one-way, we can provide an even frequency. In addition, the core customer base for this service are the elderly and people with reduced mobility. These users live around Wairau Ave, New Windsor Road and Ulster Street. The one-way loop means that none of these users have to cross the road to get to the service. For these customers, our feedback tells us that proximity to bus stops and not having to cross busy roads are much more important considerations than vehicle operating speeds. As the service has plenty of time to run its route, it can accommodate the longer time needed by its largely elderly customer base to get on and off the bus (including getting seated before the bus moves off) without compromising on on-time operation and reliability.

2. Why the 207 and 207X have been kept. These routes seem to duplicate other routes and it’s just strange and unnecessarily confusing having the route on the map when it only runs once a day.

These services are very well used and hence popular with current customers as they avoid the chronic congestion on the Waterview Straight, meaning a faster travel time than services operating via Great North Road. They also provide a connection between Blockhouse Bay, Mt Albert Grammar and Auckland Girls Grammar School around school start and finish times.

3. What is the point of the Blockhouse Bay to New Lynn sections of the 198 and 199 routes? Surely nobody catching a bus between New Lynn and the CBD would take the 198 or 199 as it travels in the wrong direction for quite a long time, while also surely for trips between New Lynn and Blockhouse Bay the 185 is providing the “LCN” that you want as a feeder to the New Lynn Train station. The 199 takes a particularly convoluted route, which seems wasteful.

Up to the late 1970s, the Blockhouse Bay to Downtown and Green Bay to Downtown routes were separate and part of this structure still exists for the peak services. It is something that we intend to look at when we do the second stage of this review, involving the current 18- series services. We acknowledge that the 199 is quite circuitous but, given current funding constraints, we cannot afford to operate both the 185 and 198 services late at night. We will look at this again in the second stage of the review of Green Bay services. It is also worthy of note that the 199 also provides the only service to Seabrook Ave, Parker Ave and West Lynn Road when the 180 and 181 services are not operating.

4. There also seems to be a few unnecessary complication still. Like why does one need to distinguish between the 198 and 199? Why does the 197 need to be different again? Why does there need to be a 191? Couldn’t all four of these routes be simplified into one (probably along the 197 alignment).

The 198 is a quite direct service between New Lynn, Astley Ave, Golf Rd and Green Bay while the 199 service is a cover-all service for when we cannot afford to operate both the 185 and 198 services. The 197 is a peak only express service between Green Bay and Britomart that is designed not to duplicate the current 18- series services operated by Go West. Again, we will look at this when we do the second stage of the review of Green Bay services. Meantime, as these routes are completely common until the 197’s end point, we will consider having a common number for both 197 and 198 services with a different destination sign to distinguish their respective end points. The 191 service maintains the existing level of service on Taylor Street and St Georges Road while reducing the route numbers from four to one (for Urban Express services). These services are very well utilised.

5. Couldn’t you simplify things down to four main routes: the Green Bay to Britomart, the 009, the Green Bay Local (185 route as proposed or simplified even further) and a 180/181 Titirangi feeder bus? Wouldn’t simplifying and reducing the number of routes mean that resources were available to run the remaining routes at higher frequencies?

The proposed service design is a considerable simplification within the constraint of not duplicating the existing Go West bus services. We see the proposed service structure as the basis of a solid core network for the Green Bay and South Lynn areas. The 185 service is an example of a shorter feeder route which will enable us to double the current frequency in Green Bay in its hours of operation.

Onehunga:

1. In the longer term, how useful is it to even keep the Onehunga transport centre open? If the buses just went straight up Onehunga Mall then they would be able to take a direct line, making the system easier to understand, faster and also creating a much nicer environment for bus users to wait in.

We acknowledge that the current level of passenger amenity in the Onehunga Transport Centre, is not ideal. However, the scope of this exercise is to provide a bus to rail connection for the new Onehunga Railway Station, not to review the overall operation of buses in the Onehunga area. This will be the subject of future work. When Onehunga Mall was re-opened to vehicular traffic, it was specifically designed not to accommodate bus services. The low-speed nature of the environment, while appropriate for a town centre , is not suitable as a bus route due to narrow carriageway widths; sluggish traffic and conflicts with cyclists and reversing vehicles.

2. Short of the above, surely the buses heading towards the city enter into Pearce Street (I understand it’s one-way at the moment but surely that could be changed) to shorten the route.

Pearce Street is one-way westbound between Onehunga Mall and Upper Municipal Place which means that bus potentially could use this route as a faster way to get between Onehunga Station and the Transport Centre. We will raise this issue with Auckland City, the road controlling authority, and check whether the roading geometry is suitable for bus manoeuvring.

Waikowhai:

1. Considering that Gillies Ave runs so closely to Manukau Road, whether there is much benefit in running this service via Gillies Ave rather than just making it a service that hooks into Manukau Road and adds to the significant number of buses running along there. I imagine that Manukau Road is a QTN route, so therefore focusing services on that road, and improving the level of bus priority for that road, would seem to be more logical in the longer term. The distance between Mt Eden Rd and Manukau Road seems fairly similar to the distance between Dominion Road and Mt Eden Road.

Manukau Road would provide some useful linkages, however it was important to keep the revised routes close to their current route structure at this stage. However further route standardisation in Newmarket may be possible in future, although there are capacity issues at bus stops. Newmarket was also considered as a terminating point at weekends, but same issues as for Marua Road.

2. The proposed route (outbound) seems to have a right-turn out of Peet Ave and into Mt Albert Road – surely that’s a recipe for disaster for delays?

The right turn out of Peet Ave into Mt Albert Road has been in place for many years as it is extremely difficult to turn out of Buckley Road into Mt Albert Road at any time. This is due to its close proximity to the heavy queued traffic at the Hillsborough Road traffic lights. As Peet Ave is half way between the signalised intersections of Mt Albert Road with Hillsborough Road and Pah Road, this allows gaps for buses to make the right turn into Mt Albert Road.

Marua Road:

1. During off-peak times the bus only runs hourly – wouldn’t it make more sense to terminate the route at Ellerslie station (people transfer onto the train or other services) so that you could run the route at half-hourly frequencies with the same resources? This bus appears to be an obvious “Local Connector Network”, so therefore it goes against the hierarchical route structure proposed by the RPTP to have it run all the way into town.

Newmarket and Ellerslie had been considered as terminating points, but the lack of supporting infrastructure (bus stands) and integrated ticketing are the barriers to this change. The advantage would have been a higher frequency or longer operating day. Further route simplification at Ellerslie / Panmure may be possible in future.

2. Some of the detours appear to add unnecessary length to the trip. Why does the route detour down Matapan and Dunkirk streets in Panmure? Why does the route detour down Pukerangi and Amy streets in Ellerslie? These two detours don’t seem to serve much of a purpose in getting too many people closer to the bus stop, and just seem to add unnecessary delays.

The close proximity of the inbound bus stop in the Ellerslie Town Centre to the Ladies Drive intersection means that if buses went direct via Ladies Mile they would not be able to get flush to the kerb at the inbound bus stop. If this bus stop were to be moved closer to Ellerslie Station, this would address that issue and provide better bus rail connectivity in the Ellerslie Town Centre. The outbound bus stop in Ellerslie Town Centre is past Ladies Mile so a new common outbound stop in the Ellerslie Town Centre would be required prior to the Ladies Mile Intersection. Any future signalisation of the Ladies Mile/ Main Highway intersection would also make right turns from Ladies Mile safer for all vehicles as there are very limited sight lines at this intersection. It would also provide a safer protected crossing for pedestrians to access bus services.

People who depend on public transport choose housing around public transport routes. Any change to these routes needs to be carefully considered, balancing the strategic goals of network simplification with maintaining reasonable levels of connectivity for existing users. In the case of this deviation, there is a significant clusters of pensioner housing, who are heavy dependent users of public transport. Route simplification proposals, while often delivering significant network benefits, would have a significant impact on the quality of life for this group of highly dependent users.

I think this provides some useful insight into the thinking behind many of the changes, and the thinking behind why further changes have not (at this point in time) taken place. I thank ARTA for taking the time to put this together.

One thing that does become clear is how limited ARTA’s capability is to improve things until we have integrated ticketing up and running. In terms of their response to the Marua Road route change, and in particular the reasoning behind not cutting the off-peak service off at Ellerslie (citybound) for people to transfer onto other buses or onto the train, it’s clear that they want to be making changes to the system such as this, but until integrated ticketing is properly up and running, it may actually do more harm than good to start forcing people to transfer. This just reinforces the frustration I have with how long integrated ticketing has taken to be implemented.

Feedback on all the changes (except for Green Bay which closed last Friday) can still be made here.

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