Auckland Transport has released the patronage figures for July and there are some signs emerging that we are starting to exit the slump that has occurred over the last year or so. There was an extra working day in July 2013 compared to 2012 which is estimated to impact results by ~4% however even taking that into account there was growth on the trains, Northern Express and ferries. The other bus services which carry the majority of PT patronage were down on July last year when you take into account that extra business day which is still disappointing however there has still been a small amount of growth in the 12 month rolling total. Here are the highlights from the report:
Auckland public transport patronage totalled 69,197,289 passengers for the 12-months to Jul-2013 an increase of +0.2% on the 12-months to Jun-2013. July monthly patronage was 5,952,687 an increase of 122,349 boardings or +2.1% on Jul-2012, normalised to ~-1.9% accounting for one more business day in Jul-2013 compared to Jul-2012.
Rail patronage totalled 10,090,993 passengers for the 12-months to Jul-2013, an increase of +0.5% on the 12-months to Jun-2013 increasing the 12-month rolling total above 10 million passenger trips. Patronage for Jul-2013 was 964,725 an increase of +52,187 boardings or +5.7% on Jul-2012, normalised to ~+1.7%.
The Northern Express bus service carried 2,286,165 passenger trips for the 12-months to Jul-2013, an increase of +0.3% on the 12-months to Jun-2013. Northern Express bus service patronage for Jul-2013 was 200,381, an increase of 7,580 boardings or +3.9% on Jul-2012, normalised to an equivalent patronage level.
Other bus services carried 51,279,195 passenger trips for the 12-months to Jul-2013, an increase of +0.1% on the 12-months to Jun-2013. Other bus services patronage for Jul-2013 was 4,350,167, an increase of 27,864 boardings or +0.6% on Jul-2012, normalised to ~-3.0% to -3.4%.
Ferry services carried 5,540,936 passenger trips for the 12-months to Jul-2013, an increase of +0.6% on the 12-months to Jun-2013. Ferry services patronage for Jul-2013 was 437,414, an increase of 34,718 boardings or 8.6% on Jul-2012, normalised to ~+4.6%
While the total bus numbers are down I do really get the feeling that the worm has started to turn and that we are starting shifting back into a growth phase – especially on the rail network, although it should be remembered that significant growth is not likely to occur until we really get the electric trains rolling around the network in decent numbers.
Perhaps one of the reasons for the improving results on the rail network has to do with far more trains being on time. In July just under 90% of all trains were on time to their destination within 5 minutes while at the AT board meeting today Transdev mentioned that for the month to date, the figure was at over 91% – if the month finished with that result it would be the best result we gave ever seen. This is coming about due to an increased focus by them on train performance through initiates like ensuring trains actually leave on time, that trains aren’t being held up waiting for people who are late. Also helping are improved reliability of the trains themselves and of the infrastructure through less track or signal faults. Further the results have been audited by Deloitte to ensure they are accurate. I have certainly seen an improvement of late so long may it continue. Of course even 91% doesn’t come close to the bus and ferry companies who continue to self-report that they achieved on time percentages in the high 90s.
It will be very interesting to see what happens with bus patronage in particular over the coming months as HOP is rolled out. There is already starting to be a lot of noise around the removal of passes which could have some impacts but AT have promised me some data on just how many people are being affected both positively and negatively by what is happening so I will wait till I have seen that before commenting further.
Cycling is also continuing to do very well, especially with July being so dry (was 2nd driest on record). Cyclist numbers are counted at a few different spots by automated monitoring equipment and the number of cyclists recorded in July was up a massive 33.3% on the same month last year with morning peak movements up 35.7%.
In other PT news, AT say that there were over 1,100 submissions on the new bus network in South Auckland with around 55% in support and 21% opposed (rest were neutral or didn’t say). That is a fantastic result as these changes have the potential to upset a lot of people and in some cases overseas, upset locals have stopped similar changes. I think it shows that AT did a fairly good job in their consultation and I even had feedback from some of the bus operators how happy they were with how it had gone so a very pleasing result. We will know the final outcome of the consultation by the end of October.
All up this is definitely one of the more positive patronage results we have had for a while which is nice for a change.
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While I would be unlikely to use it for commuting to work and its never going to have the volume of trains/buses/ferries, I think that cycling is real low-hanging fruit.
For an immaterial amount of the total transport spend, numbers could really boom.
Lots of good posts over at CCA about the impact of investment in cycling infrastructure in other cities on uptake. Like this: 25% of peak inner city London trips on bikes, that’s huge!:
http://caa.org.nz/general-news/more-bikes-than-cars-in-london/
also this:
http://caa.org.nz/general-news/between-cars-and-pedestrians-new-york-cyclists-finding-their-space/
That is an interesting report from London and shows how much progress can be made with relatively small amounts of money (compared to that required for other modes). Note though it shows only 25% of *vehicles* are bikes. Since quite a few of the vehicles will be large buses, the mode share for cycling is significantly less than 25%.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Boris Bikes…its a sneaky way to get home from the pub pissed when the tubes stop running at 11.30pm..Yep…the PT system in London is NOT the all singing all dancing system people from NZ may think..and then there is the cost of running the system. Given UK debt is 69.38% of there GDP (NZ’s is only 38.34%) Im not sure they can afford to sponsor cycling too much longer http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2359258/Londons-4-000-Boris-bikes-cost-taxpayers-1-400-bicycle-year-despite-sponsorship-Barclays.html
That is pretty impressive.
It goes to show that if you charge some modes the equivalent of $25 NZ just to enter the CBD that the people will move in favour of the modes that are free.
Hardly a revelation worthy of a Nobel prize. It’s like closing a factory and then claiming it was your new traffic calming measures that reduced the amount of traffic.
10 quid is less than NZ$20. And there has been a huge amount more done for cycling in London than introducing the congestion charge.
Oh sorry it’s just under $20 these days given the current exchange rate.
That certainly makes s huge difference however so thanks for pointing it out. I’m sure the average kiwi would just love the idea of paying $20 to get into the Auckland CBD and then paying for parking. Certainly if they ever did such a scheme in Auckland we would see people flocking to their cars and driving to the CBD just to pay the toll.
“I’m sure the average kiwi would just love the idea of paying $20 to get into the Auckland CBD”
It will never cost that much, we are charging that to get a car into the CBD it is free to get a person in.
“Hardly a revelation worthy of a Nobel prize. It’s like closing a factory and then claiming it was your new traffic calming measures that reduced the amount of traffic.”
More like charging the factory a higher price for the ability to badly pollute and dominate the environment around it, and then finding that the factory suddenly gets outperformed by other companies, once it has to include external costs in its business.
But you are right. Even that statement is hardly worth an economics noble prize. Shame it took so many cities so long to figure out.
Yep, if the aim of the game is to stop people driving then it’s a pretty easy task.
Just charge the carp out of them and make it the slowest and most painful form of transport. Plenty of the developed cities with low car usage do just that to great success.
Well that is is HALF of the game; the other half is to provide other better movement alternatives than space wasting, biosphere destroying, place ruining single occupant vehicles. Thereby not only keeping your city going but substantially improving it. A game that seems hard to understand for some.
& this blogs claims its not anti-car {sigh}
Cars are wonderful, useful, and sometimes even beautiful things. However not everywhere and not always. Especially in cities. And as this is a blog about cities and transport you will find that our position is a little more nuanced than the rather autistic opposition of being either anti or pro cars. This blog is anti auto-dependency, anti auto-domination of place, and pro successful thriving cities.
Anyway the car is a tool, not something like a race of people so to understand the negative effects of auto-domination is not some kind dreadful bigotry like racism. sigh.
SF Lauren, stop being such a grizzle bear.
No journey by any mode is ever “free”. Yes, driving a car into London now incurs a direct cost, due to the congestion charge. But this cost is only one of many, including time, parking, and vehicle operating costs.
The same goes for cycling. It’s not subject to the congestion charge, but it is subject to other costs such as time and energy (even though the latter is probably a bonus in many people’s minds).
Anyway, not only have you come to this thread with a crap attitude but you’re also wrong. Pull your socks up and try to make a positive contribution to the thread or piss off. Please.
I think you will find a number of reasons why people cycle in London. Firstly it is impossibly expensive to drive and park in the West End, City or Wharf. You have the Congestion charge and then a min £20 a day parking cost in the parking buildings (which in the city may be no where near your office). I think we can all agree that £40 a day (£280 a week) is going to put a lot of people off traveling by car.
The other reasons people take their bike. Well, the tube is such a nightmare to use in rush hour.. Ive been on commuter trains in Mumbai that are more comfortable. It is USSUAL to have to stand in very cramped conditions without aircon and no toilets. Mobile phones don’t even work underground. It is quite awful.
Another reason for an increase in bikes is the UK ride to work scheme. The Govt gives you 50% of what you spend on a bike if you join up to the system. Most people I know joined the system, bought the most expensive bike they could afford and a week later sold it with a 10-20% on Ebay. One guy I know who is a trader for a large bank made £5000 from the scheme. He used the cash to buy his daughter a car. Why wouldn’t you?
“He used the cash to buy his daughter a car. Why wouldn’t you?”
Because there’s more beautiful things to give my daughter?
“He used the cash to buy his daughter a car. Why wouldn’t you?”
Because I am not the kind of person who whinges about high taxes all the time, and then uses a poorly thought-out scheme to rip off the state and continue whinging about high taxes?
“Another reason for an increase in bikes is the UK ride to work scheme.”
On one hand you say the high cycle numbers are because of the ride to work scheme. The next sentence you say it doesn’t work, and people just use it to rip off their fellow taxpayers. What is it, Phil? Can’t have it both ways.
Wow, a big banker ripping off the taxpayer for private gain, quelle surprise!
That puts him in the same book as benefit fraudsters to me.
Yes the 25% claim is rather deceptive. What it said was that on some roads as many as 25% of vehicles during peak hour are bikes. It said nothing at all about peak inner London trips.
My guess is that most people would be catching either a regional train, metro train or a bus with quite a few folk simply walking as well.
No, what it said was that “24 per cent of all vehicles at sites counted in central London during the morning rush hour are bicycles and make up 16 per cent of traffic across the entire day (from 6am to 8pm).”
Also, “In the morning peak (7-10am), up to 64 per cent of vehicles on some main roads are now bicycles. Cycles make up almost half of all northbound traffic crossing Waterloo, Blackfriars and London Bridges, and 62 per cent of all northbound traffic crossing Southwark bridge in the morning peak are cyclists. They are the largest single type of vehicle on each of these bridges, outnumbering cars in each”
Quite right. Sorry about that, I still had the fake story in my head when reading the actual story.
We are still only talking about vehicles however.
SF Lauren: tedious. very tedious.
And your point is?
How exactly would you propose London handle congestion? Bowl half of the historic buildings to make it 6 lanes everywhere? That would work- no one would want to live or work there any more.
What in the world are you on about NCD? I was just agreeing with Dan that I got the numbers wrong. How you translate that to demolishing historic buildings I don’t know.
I was referring to your comment thread, and you continual minimisation of the good cycling numbers . e.g., saying that cycle patronage was up due to “if you charge some modes the equivalent of $25 NZ just to enter the CBD that the people will move in favour of the modes that are free.”
and “Just charge the carp out of them and make it the slowest and most painful form of transport. Plenty of the developed cities with low car usage do just that to great success”
I inferred that you considered that a less than desirable way of solving the problem. Was I wrong?
It is a shame that more large office buildings don’t offer shower facilities, cycling is the most amazing way to get to work, turning lost, or less productive commute time into fitness and leisure time.
Handy for going for a jog at lunchtime too….
I think the proposed Auckland Plan will make it mandatory for new buildings to have such facilities.
Most new buildings have them as a matter of course. Costs next to nothing to turn a disabled toilet into a full wet-room with a shower head, and the disabled facilities are mandatory anyway.
It certainly is and we’ve gone through a whole electoral cycle with no real action from Auckland Transport on the ground in regards to cycling, all talk and nothing to show. So many of our innercity roads could have a complete street treatment, yet the council continues to repaint them with copious numbers of on-street parking and wide wide lanes. About the only real progress has been a solitary couple of lanes in the domain.
College Hill was recently complete re-sealed and then repainted, for quite some time it was half of its usual size and coped fine. That would have been a perfect opportunity to remove some of that unnecessary kerbside parking, install cycle lanes and narrow down the car larnes to stop people speeding. But no, we just get a multi-million dollar refurb of the same broken street.
I have fallen into the trap of believing that AT are forced into spending ratios by MOT, which they are, kind of. What I mean is that if there was political will in Auckland to make significant change to our transport funding priorities, the government would made to look like dictators if they forced NZTA to hold 1/3rd of NZ’s land transport budget back from Auckland. All it needs is a the will of Auckland council and Auckland Transport to make it happen. NZTA and the govt would be forced to follow. There’s an election coming up. I wonder who will rise to the challenge?
Fullers gets to conveniently leave out the Devonport service where reliability in the mornings was poor throughout July.
You mentioned the reliability of the trains and it got me thinking about the ridiculous on-time performance of buses of 98% that AT were giving us. Do you know when we’re going to get proper bus reliability measuring systems?
I would be careful about the data you get from AT about who will be affected by the passes. I know that NZ Bus does capure how many people use the various pass products. However that relies on the bus driver actually pressing some buttons on their ticket machines to capture that every time a pass is presented to the driver. Some of the more dedicated drivers will make sure that trips using passes are recorded. However many drivers (especially during the peak when there are lots of paxs getting on the bus) don’t seem to do that (e.g. just waving along people with passes, in same cases not even checking that the date/month is correct!) so I would wager that the number of trips used by pass holders will be under-reported. Would be interesting to see the data though since some data would be better than nothing. Also I don’t think Transdev records any data either (or have they stopped accepting paper passes from other operators already?)
Transdev still count boardings manually on each trip like they have always done which is used as a guide for patronage (actual patronage numbers come from HOP) and loading levels but the issue you raise existed before HOP too, if you brought a pass on a bus that could be used on rail then it wasn’t counted separately.
Slightly off topic – does anyone know why the real time bus system has stopped showing actual times for birkenhead transport since the hop cards were introduced? On all the screens I’ve looked at since it’s only ever shown the scheduled times.
Based on the south Auckland submissions it means that Auckland is ready for a change for a faster bus transport. Reading some of the above it is not about making cars slower but making passenger transport and freight faster so less congestion full stop. 50% into public transport do the maths on the existing road network.
In fact do a 50% public transport patronage scenario on the regional transport model right now based on marking bus priority(incl trucks) on one lane all round with a remark (advance loops and bus priority signals) and one lane allocation on the motorway for buses and trucks . What is the level of service now and the congestion/emission saving is the penny dropping yet?
That was level of service for Cars by the way.
Why should new projects be designed on the status quo with excessive width and disturbance when you could remark one lane (for trucks and buses) and reprioritise the existing network overnight with some cheap fares? It doesn’t add up and is not targeting the spend directly at patronage gains. Is this delay in phasing in really helping our city? Again paint the dream not the nightmare. If Public Transport is a genuine focus show it on the road!!!!
I don’t follow… bus patronage is down year on year by nearly 3% but apparently the author thinks we’ve “turned a corner”. Really? The bus system continues to suck, reliability is dubious, frequencies shite, timetables useless, equipment dated and fares far far too high.
But no, most of the comments focus on cycling, of which about 2% of Aucklanders are willing to engage in, mostly I suspect as an excuse to wear lycra, ignore the road rules and hurl abuse at pedestrians and drivers. Fabulous!
You’re kidding right? About the cycling? Because people love to dress in lycra for fun? Besides which, if you want to join me at the Te Atatu interchange at about 6:45 on a weekday morning, I’ll show you what many of these cyclists are doing, which is wearing clothes, backpacks, on pannier equipped bikes, riding to work.
Even if 2% of Aucklanders did ride every morning that would be a huge bonus for Auckland. That is 30,000 people’s trips a day not done in a car
Wow, do we really have 1.5 million people commuting to work and back each day?
Erm, nobody said they did? He said 2% of Aucklanders, not work commuters.
True, he said 2% of Aucklands in the morning. I assumed he meant those same people would cycle back in the evening.
Who knows when they come back, they might uni students who might ride home at 2pm in the afternoon.
Tim, agree about some of your comments about the bus network in it’s current state. Disagree about the cycling. as I both travel by car and by bike sometimes but prefer rural due to the incomplete network/safety issues. The fact is that both of those networks havn’t been completed or given priority in the current road network. Plus the fare issue. It’s almost like we want the roads to stay congested and unsafe . If the existing 1000 buses could actually go with high frequency loops through the main centres and lower frequencies further out -interconnecting with priority throughout this would change the ballgame plus cheap easy fares. Then this becomes a mainstream option. We need some resources on a broad network change here and now-drop the stations (polishing) -land purchase on roads that don’t need widening for a while and fire up the entire system in one go and give it publicity with cheap easy fares so it is a viable choice.
Tim to a degree I agree about the numbers. The strategic direction is changing though but it needs a real spike in the numbers. to turn this around and also to get maximum benefit out of the rail improvements coming up. Nobody has said there is no logic in this just political difficulties so here it is again.
1)Mandate to give pedestrians, cyclists,public transport, trucks, then cars being the new priority order in the existing road network.
2)Campaign “smashing congestion” with simplified fares -monthly fares $70 student, $90 off-peak, $140 all times. Weekly divide by 3. Daily divide by 14. Goal is 30% patronage 2 months. 50% patronage 12 months. Campbell live and Campaign. On Dec 14 personalities trial the new network hopping around at will showing the new look of Auckland Public Transport.(got this idea off someone else but think would also help dramatically for the rapid gain over xmas time)
3) Team effort-planning roadmarking changes : a)motorways all -left lane bus and truck (approx 200m to merge/diverge across lane cars)-very cheap probably do that for $100k entry/exit ramp tapers, and symbols, b) arterials and strategic collector roads-remarked with above priority changes in mind and fitting in with changes to rail network etc. Some roads specifically marked for purpose ie freight in places or scenic or key city roads more of a walking/cycling focus. I’m guessing exact costs but thinking $300k roadmarking, $700k signal changes. Maybe some temporary workaround routes where currently not enough width where future widening is required below. Teams/blogs setup-rapid passenger transport, freight, town centre nodes, overall strategy -walking and cycling with traffic modelling (rapid tests as plans get finalised) and signals reps (weekly 1 day focus). A key focus is minimal disruption to cars or the incumbant majority mode. But this involves a rapid patronage gain-fares and campaign critical.
4) Implementation: Dec 7-14 -Roadmarking(cycle lanes,symbols,new lane lines, blacking out obsolete-trial then once successful blast off later), signal changes via B-Phase and advance detection loops for longer vehicles if need to share lane in tight places. This timing also gives 5-6 weeks before network fully tested again (Jan 20 -2014)and sometime to sort out some issues. The 1000 buses can now circulate in their chosen loops as free-flow as possible barring stops and most stoppage time on the lower frequency loops.
5) Affects-more choices for city travel for all . Less cost of fares but with the gain in numbers more money for replacing fleet with carbon-neutral. Less cars on the grid, higher level of service for cars,no congestion. Gets patronage up fast so can take full advantage of investment into rail spending. No more motorway projects needed. Focused budgets on completing walking and cycling off-road ($0.5B), multi-modal arterials or key strategic roads to growth areas ($1.5B)and the congestion free network ($10B) without any deficit in current allowed budget ($12b less). Emissions down dramatically. Trucks now also close to free-flow not in cue economic savings massive.
Bold , rapid but do-able and think would focus everyone on the solution rather than complaining about the current status quo. Just an idea but don’t see too many downsides if everyone working towards this and the Mayor and Auckland Transport Chairman endorse this.
I’ve emailed the Mayor Len Brown the above, wouldn’t do that if I thought the above targets were not genuinely achievable following the above 4 steps.
Sorry to say but the more I think about the current problem, the more it seems a rapid change to the entire network priority is required in a swift roadmarking /signal optimisation operation with a team effort 16 weeks planning over all the main arterials or strategic collectors at least the ones which facilitate the main bus and truck routes . Painting it on the seal and changing the network priority order across the entire city is the cleanest/fastest/cheapest and it gives something major to market about-say by Monday 16 Dec it is up and live-1000 buses can GO for real, looping and interconnecting with other bus loops -(less frequency to collector rds unpopulated areas but still relatively accessible). Nothing better than testing the real thing but has to be done same time with cheap/easy fares.