A media release from Auckland Transport reminds everyone that the major central bus changes start taking effect this coming Sunday:
Auckland Transport is urging bus customers to visit the MAXX website and find their new journey plan ahead of major changes to central Auckland bus routes this weekend. When new City, Inner and Outer LINK services begin operation on Sunday, travellers will need to understand how the new routes and new bus stops impact their journeys.
Auckland Transport’s Public Transport Operations Manager, Mark Lambert says: “The new LINK services represent a significant move towards a simplified and integrated public transport network for central Auckland. Customers should plan ahead to understand the new bus routes and new bus stops.
Auckland Transport is implementing a comprehensive public information campaign to support our customers through the change. If using the journey planner, customers will need to enter the date as 21 or 22 August for journeys using the new services.”
Mayor Len Brown will officially launch the new LINK services this Friday morning at an event in the newly opened Wynyard Quarter.
“Great public transport is central to my vision of making Auckland the world’s most liveable city. It’s all about giving people choice about how they move around Auckland. The expansion of the LINK service will certainly give people more choice in the way they get around the central city and the surrounding communities.”
The existing LINK will be renamed Inner LINK and have some of its route changed to make it more direct and reliable, including shifting off Queen Street to Albert Street.
Two new services will also be introduced – City LINK, which will replace the existing City Circuit, and Outer LINK, which will provide access to city fringe suburbs like Pt. Chevalier, Mt Albert, St Lukes, Mt Eden, Epsom, Newmarket and Parnell, as well as the universities and Wellesley St in the city centre.
New high quality buses painted red, amber and green will operate on the three LINK services. The new buses will be air conditioned, wheel-chair accessible, buggy friendly and meet Euro 5+ emissions standards.
The new City LINK bus will remain free until the end of this year as part of the service introduction period. From 1 January 2012, the City LINK will remain free to HOP card users and cost 50 cents for other full-fare cash paying passengers with other concessions for school students, children and seniors.
The new Inner LINK service, which replaces the existing LINK service, will retain a flat $1.80 fare and run a revised route that provides a more direct and reliable service for customers.
For the new Outer LINK bus service, customers will pay no more than the standard two stage fare of $3.40 which will connect central suburbs including Herne Bay, Pt. Chevalier, St Lukes, Mt Eden and Newmarket.
Here’s a map of where the new/changed routes will go:
One thing that I’ve learned in the last week or so is that none of the Link services, including (somewhat surprisingly) the Outer Link, will have normal timetables. The Outer Link simply operates every 15 minutes, 7 days a week. While this “no timetable” situation seems to work for the existing Link, it will be interesting to see if the longer route and greater potential for buses to not keep a steady gap, will work for this route. I still have doubts whether this service will operate reliably.
For me personally, the bus route changes provide an interesting conundrum during the evening peak. Do I wander up to Wellesley Street to catch the more frequent Outer Link, or to Albert/Victoria street to catch the 005 – which I at least know the timetable of (but only runs once every 20 minutes)? I suppose using Journey Planner we will be able to construct an actual timetable for the Outer Link, but then do I trust its reliability?
Come Monday there will be some interesting things to look out for regarding the bus changes.
- Can the Outer Link run reliably?
- Can the 020 cope with the number of passengers that’ll use it?
- Will the 020 get stuck in traffic around Union/Wellington streets, leading to unreasonable delays?
- Will Outer Link buses be able to turn right out of Valley Road into Mt Eden Road?
It’ll be interesting to hear about the experiences of those using the new routes throughout next week.
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I don’t really regard every 15 minutes as being frequent enough for no timetable. Maybe sub 10.
Yeah I tend to think that 10 minutes is the key threshold for “turn up and go”. I will try to put together a timetable using the MAXX journey planner information.
That’s where the live departure info on the MAXX site can come in handy (or Auckland Bus Arrival Board if you’re a fellow iPhoner).
yes- thankfully an increasing number of passengers now have smartphones which are capable of displaying the virtual PIDs. I havn’t looked up a single timetable since I started using them… the only situation where a timetable may be useful is if your route is really infrequent (say every 30 mins) and you have to plan your day around the timetable.
This capability needs to be more easily accessible though- I suggest 2 improvemments:
1)I have seen QR codes (the little square barcode things) around a lot in the past few months. Their purpose is that they can be interpreted by a smartphone in a photo,
before quickly instructing the phone to perform an often complex operation. For example, I saw a subway billboard last month whith a qr code in the corner. from a distance quickly opened googles iphone app and took a blurry photo of it from inside the bus. Immediately my iphones app store opened, and bought up the subway app. The codes can open any webpage, or make your phone complete various other tasks, just from a photo of it. they are also all over the new yellow pages I notice. I think these codes should be on all bus timetables and at all stops and shold link to the appropriate VPID.
2) We need a Maxx App- the desktop website is horrible on a phone, especially when you try to use the map to find your busstop. It should be like google maps, but with pop up VPIDs. obviously all the timetables should be on it too
For those without smartphones, txt 3666 for realtime departure data is a great service which I still use occasionally.
Auckland Transport are working on smartphone apps.
15 minutes can mean anywhere between 0-30 minutes for an untimetabled system (I’m assuming that they don’t cluster more than two together). Obviously 30 minutes is the upper end and unlikely, but you’re still going to wait 10-20 minutes on average.
10 gives you a 0-20 minutes wait, with around 6-14 for most rides. That’s significantly better, albeit with a 50% higher investment in stock and drivers.
Timetable here: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Outer-Link-Timetable.xlsx
Re the 005 on closer inspection it is disappointing that it doesn’t run beyond 6:00pm… the current service runs to 7:00pm I think
And only every 20 minutes in the evening peak.
…and the 005 could possibly have gone via Fanshawe for Air NZ, Microsoft, Vodafone, HP and, er, NZ Bus staffers.
All going well, these commuters will be going to Vodafone, AirNZ etc, by tram. Eventually.
In the meanwhile the wynyard quarter became car kingdom. I was there this morning and there were cars everywhere.
Hopefully with the new link loop there will be more people leaving the car at home.
every 15mins is hopeless for Wynard Quarter part of the city link. Hopefully the 7min frequency will be expanded once good popularity is shown. The timetable for this is also much more complicated that it should be.
Also think the service should have run down Halsey St, this makes it much easier to use for those working at the viaduct. A stop near the corner of Gaunt St would be great for those working at Vodafone, Microsoft and nearby offices. Bus stops on Fanshawe St are strange, and crossing that road is very miserable.
That’s to be expected, they’ve built a huge temporary carpark and there’s plenty of free and paid parking in the area – I think as these areas are redeveloped and PT links slowly improved this will change, however, it’s to be expected a present and if it helps sustain the eateries and helps accelerate the whole development I don’t see an issue with people driving there at the moment.
I rode the city-link yesterday. I waited outside Mcdonalds on Queen St for 30 minutes the 3 buses turned up. There was a crowd of us and the first two buses were full to capacity and the third standing room only – I was lucky to get on. I used to catch the old 015 to Howe St, a direct service every 20mins. I had to get off the city-link in Pitt St and walk a further 30 mins home – arghh! Bring back the 015!
I recently decided to try the Free City Link bus and was waiting at a temporary stop (the stop was moved due to the RWC). after waiting for 30 minutes, a bus came but it ran past me and my fellow to-be passengers. Among these to-be passengers were a lovely old couple who were excited about their first visit to Wynyard Quarter (and they had been waiting even longer than I did). The man was also mobility impaired so he was using a walker.
When the bus got stopped by a red light at the next intersection a few metres down, I walked toward the bus and knocked on the door to tell the driver that she missed us at the temporary bus stop. But even before giving me a chance to say anything, she gave me a finger gesture and ignored me!
I can understand that she might have missed the temporary bus stop, but giving a finger at a customer? it was totally unnecessary and unacceptable.
I ended up catching a taxi as I was already late for my meeting, I had the old couple with me on the taxi and dropped them off at the Wynyard Quarter just to make their day a bit better.
Does anyone know how I can make a formal complaint on a situation like this? I did call maxx.co.nz and left my name and contact details but nothing has happened so far and it’s almost been a week now.
It’s ridiculous how Auckland Transport and Council have been advertising for the new Link buses (that are “accessible for mobility-impaired”) and how PT friendly Auckland is inspired to be.
@J
Unfortunately, as you’ve discovered, the Auckland Transport (AT) complaints procedure via the Maxx website is less than useful. In effect all complaints made are transferred to the transport operator – in this case New Zealand Bus – and there appears to be no effective oversight from AT. Such is the nature of a CCO: lots of authority but no responsibility. Thankfully, there is a level of political representation on the AT board and I suggest that you draw this problem to the attention of either Mike Lee ([email protected]) and/or Chris Fletcher ([email protected]). Mike is really very impressive at chasing these things up.