There were always going to be a number of tweaks to the bus route changes that were implemented a couple of months ago – which introduced the Outer Link and changed many routes in the Western Bays area. One of the less popular changes involved the removal of the 015/017 route and its partial replacement with the new 020 route. Auckland Transport is now proposing some tweaks to the 020 route:
Why are we proposing the changes?
The proposed changes are to address feedback received on the recent changes to Western Bays and Freemans Bay bus services (which were implemented on 21 August 2011) and to address feedback received on the more recent change to the start and finish of the 020 route at the Westmere shops end.
Auckland Transport is investigating a possible revision of the 020 bus route through Freemans Bay. Previous services such as the 015 and 017 cannot be reinstated at no or very little extra cost, however, a link to Karangahape Rd can be restored by changing the route of the 020.
The changes proposed here are to address immediate issues. Auckland Transport will still undertake a review of all Western Bays and LINK services in the first half of 2012 which may result in further refinements.
What are the proposed changes?
Diverting the 020 via Howe St, K Rd and Vincent St to restore the connection from Westmere, Richmond Rd and Freemans Bay to K Rd. This is likely to increase journey times to and from the central city by about 5 minutes.
Providing a quicker peak option to/from the city centre for Westmere and Richmond Rd customers with five morning and five evening peak trips that would run via the Hopetoun St Bridge as an 020 Express (020X)
Reinstating the start and finish of the route at the Westmere shops (on Garnet Rd, near Oban Rd and Faulder Ave).
The current 020 route is shown below:
The new proposed routing of the 020 makes it a bit longer and less direct, but means that the connection to K Road can be reinstated:
I’m not sure whether I’m really much of a fan of what’s proposed here, because it makes the 020 bus, which was already doing a fairly higgledy-piggledy indirect route, even more indirect and slow for its users. I’d prefer to see the buses coming out of Richmond Road going straight ahead down Picton Street, onto Hepburn Street, Wellington St and then up Howe Street. Hopefully that’s the route we eventually end up with – as I understand Picton Street does need a bit of an upgrade if frequent buses are to travel along it.
More promisingly, Auckland Transport seems to have picked up on an idea that I put forward months ago – to supplement the 020 with a more direct 020X at peak times, which travels via the fastest possible route to the city – the Hopetoun Street bridge:
The following services will switch from being normal 020 routes to being 020X services:
Auckland Transport are receiving feedback on the proposed changes until November 4th. I’m going to support the 020X idea, while also suggesting that the 020 go via Picton Street rather than Franklin Road.
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The 20X service will be great. I don’t think the route change will have much effect, especially at peak time as Union St is such a bottleneck for the service. If I recall correctly the reason the 020 route moved from the planned Picton St route to Franklin Rd was residential objections.
“because it makes the 020 bus, which was already doing a fairly higgledy-piggledy indirect route, even more indirect and slow for its users”
To quote you on the ART thread…
“Nikki kaye “OMG trams are cool, let’s got put trams everywhere in my electorate even though we already have good buses”
Was going to add “Unless you happen to live on the 020 route”.
As far as I know Nikki Kaye’s preferred route follows the Inner Link route with a diversion to Wynyard Quarter & Queen St.
I’m not commenting on Nikki’s ill focussed tram idea here…just your comment that we have good buses throughout her (current) electorate.
“Had good buses” is probably a better term. There were 4 different routes that went form Queen St to Ponsonby Rd (015, 025, 035, Link) now there are none.
Zero. Zip. Nada etc
Ponsonby Businesses not too happy about it either as evidenced on TV last week.
Nikki’s “ill focussed” tram idea has been taken up as one of the routes in the City Centre Masterplan (p152). (The plan misses the cross Victoria Park connection though).
There are two options- Wynyard- Vic Park- College Hill- Pons Rd- K Rd- Queen- Quay- Wynyard (if the Te Wero temporary bridge can be re-decked or similar). Mike Lee supports Wynyard to Quay “within a year”, while Len Brown is keen on Quay- Queen- K rd already.
Or Wynyard to Pons and then Great North to the existing tracks. See http://www.aktnz.co.nz/2010/09/02/trams-to-western-springs-plan/
(But GnR instead of Williamson on the map).
Seems pretty focussed to me.
Buses were deliberately removed from Queen St because they were being delayed too much. Depending on which part of Ponsonby Rd you’re on there are good connections to town via the Inner Link. 020 or 030.
So the area has pretty good (with some further fine-tuning of the 020) buses in comparison to most of Auckland.
What would spending tens of millions turning these into tram lines achieve that couldn’t be achieved from buses with better bus priority? All this plan does is steal money from tram upgrades in places they might actually be needed, like along Dominion Rd or Tamaki Drive.
My point still stands- formerly 4 ways to get from Queen St to Pons Rd, now none.
Yes, some pretty good buses compared to other parts of Auckland, but it is a lot denser than most parts so it should…
You know the reasons trams are better than buses; no diesel particulates that kill 400 Aucklanders a year, domestic electricity vs Imported Oil, superior ride quality etc
Whether Trams are more needed along other routes is a matter open to debate, I’m sure you’ll be pushing them in your Plan Submissions, and you should.
Some things have changed with the Supercity but I’m betting the squeaky wheel still gets the grease…
You can read directly what she proposes here:
http://www.nikkikaye.co.nz/2011/07/21/improving-public-transport-in-auckland-%E2%80%93-time-to-look-at-all-the-options-including-extending-the-tram-network/
Some vague ‘the CRL is a bit expensive, let’s have some talk about trams and look all PT friendly’.
Contrast that with the suggestions in the AC plan. I don’t think Nikki can now claim credit every time someone seriously suggests light rail as an option.
It seems to me that you are not being very consistent Jarbury. You have criticised the number of bus route numbers and our plethora of routes in terms of their layout, but you are now supporting adding complexity to the 020 route which will travel in a completely different way if the 20X.
How many people even live on Franklin Road and Howe Street and need to go to K Road?
All 020 services could go via Ponsonby – K Road – Vincent, and the people in the Freeman’s Bay area could choose whether they wanted to walk to the OUT/005 or 020 (probably the former given the incline to K Road).
Scott we’ve still gone from having the 015, 017, 024, 025, 027, 028X, 035, 043, 045 and 045X to effectively having the 020, 020X and 030. That’s pretty good simplification. I have also said it’s necessary to find a balance between simplicity and providing what people want. I see no problems in providing express services to help make PT more time-competitive for commuters while having off-peak buses provide more of an accessibility service.
I do think the 020 is overly lengthy and indirect, travelling via Picton Street would simplify it quite significantly.
Hi Scott; I live on Franklin Road and was using the 015/017 to get to K-Road from time to time. It was handy; especially when I have toddler+baby in tow. It is possible to get to the green-link, but you may as well just walk to K-Road. This proposed change to 020 would be quite good for us; although I appreciate for commuters it may not be so direct. I think that it would be a shame if there were no buses going to the central city through Freemans Bay.
What the hell is it with NZ and long, indirect bus routes. This goes against all the research principles that NZTA presented in March 2010. Even two routes that are parallel at alternating frequencies would be better.
It doesn’t really solve the issue of there being no bus from Westmere to Surrey Cres either which has been an issue for some.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/auckland-city-harbour-news/5381424/The-route-of-the-problem
Someone has been posting flyers in letterboxes around the Westmere shops encouraging people to complain about the Outer Link waiting/idling at Westmere.
If they moved the wait point to the bays on Meola Rd where there are no houses they could re-instate the 020 starting/terminating at Westmere shops.
So apparently it will kill some people in Westmere to walk 400m to a bus stop then? Might actually be good for a bit of fitness. People need to realise that PT isn’t a “door to door” service. For us to get any efficiency in the system and get away from the “spaghetti” of routes then routes need to be consolidated and yes, people will need to walk at either end in some instances.
Well no, there’s not likely to be bodies littering the streets of Westmere but they have moved the 020 far enough away from the Peninsula to make it inconvenient, remember the extra distance is on top of what people were already walking to get to the shops.
The real kicker though is that for commuters in to the CBD you could previously take whichever bus turned up first 020, Outer Link, 005 by simply crossing Garnet Rd because the stops were opposite each other, that’s no longer possible.
I support these changes. Agree with Jarbury it would be better if the 020 went via Picton – I really don’t understand what the objection is here.
I also think the inbound trip won’t take too much longer because the frequent hold ups at the Union St intersection will be eliminated. The outbound might be a bit painful.
Maybe lay on the 020X first, preferably with stops as close as possible to the corner of Hopetoun and Beresford (purely out of my own self interest…)
And when oh when will be get free transfers? I’m seeing a lot of people transferring from the 020 to the Link at the moment, even in spite of having to pay twice. I don’t understand why NZ Bus just don’t allow transfers between the Inner and Outer links as well – I’m sure it will attract more passengers who would otherwise not travel at all. On the route maps they even indicate the transfer points.
And when oh when will be get free transfers? I’m seeing a lot of people transferring from the 020 to the Link at the moment, even in spite of having to pay twice. I don’t understand why NZ Bus just don’t allow transfers between the Inner and Outer links as well – I’m sure it will attract more passengers who would otherwise not travel at all. On the route maps they even indicate the transfer points.
That you see people transferring from the 020 to the Link, even if they have to pay twice, is the precise explanation as to why NZ Bus will not hand out free transfers for single journeys. The paying twice is simply not the impedance to travel that we might think it is. If you had free transfers, you would get some extra trips, yes, but the extra revenue from those trips would be more than offset by the revenue lost from the end of the current regime. OTOH, providing a monthly pass system does lock in revenue and encourages regular use, so is worth providing.
(My take on NZ Bus’s internal thinking).
If you look at the terrain in the lower Freemans Bay area, along Wellington Street at the bottom of Howe Street, the majority of these streets run DOWNHILL towards Victoria Park, making it very difficult for the elderly or mothers with small children to get out of the area using public transport. Renstating the 020 route to these roads will make a huge difference.
The problem with buses down Picton St, from what I’ve found out is three-fold.
Stability- The upside (southern) houses are a lot higher than the downside (northern) houses. The retaining wall (which in some senses Picton St is) can’t handle buses.
Services- Vector and Watercare both run up Picton in a fragile fashion.
Trees- The plane tree boughs extend into and above the roadway to a large degree.
Hopetoun is definitely the easy way into town. Look at how many pedestrians use it- and you know pedestrians always find the best way.