Last week I wrote about how I’d found some interesting data from the NZTA on how our Public Transport system is performing. In the post I looked specifically at the fare revenues that were collected and in this post I’ll look at Passenger Kilometres Travelled.
Passenger Kilometres Travelled (PKT) is the total distance that people travel on PT services and is useful as it helps to show how the PT system is being used. While we know patronage in Auckland has increased remarkably over the last decade it might be that people are travelling the same distances as they were, alternatively they could be making longer or shorter trips. As an example more people taking longer trips might mean that PT is becoming a more attractive as a way of avoiding congestion. PKT is also useful as it more accurately allows us to compare with Vehicle Kilometres Travelled (VKT) as in the past some people have criticised us for comparing VKT and the total number of PT trips.
One aspect I’m not sure about is how PKT has been calculated in the past, I can only assume it’s an extrapolation of some combination of ticket sales, passenger counts and other measures. The total VKT graph looks similar to overall patronage results so I’ve skipped that and instead will focus on the average distance people are travelling. This is shown below:
Auckland
There are a number of fascinating insights we can take from this as all modes are showing some change. The first thing you will notice is that VKT is quite different for each mode, on average train users travel the longest distance while bus users generally have the shortest trips. The overall distance travelled is a reflection of the changes in each mode:
- Bus – For a decade the average trip length of bus users remained almost unchanged at less than 6.5-7km per trip. Since 2011 thought it’s rocketed up to be just over 9km per trip in 2014. To put that in perspective 9km in a straight line from the city centre covers almost all of the old Auckland City Council area. I suspect the reason for the increase is twofold, longer trips due to increased patronage on services like the Northern Express and probably better data from Hop (and formerly Snapper on NZ Bus).
- Train – Train journeys are bucking the trend and seem to be getting shorter over time as more people use them for a wider variety of trips. While most people travel on train to the city, the station stats we saw at the end of last year highlighted there are also a lot of shorter local trips, especially on the western line.
- Ferry – The ferry result is the one that surprises me a bit. Around 80% of all ferry patronage comes from either Devonport or Waiheke Island. The increase since 2011 might be a reflection of more trips from Waiheke plus ferries from Half Moon Bay, Gulf Harbour and Pine Harbour.
Wellington
Patronage in Wellington has seen much less change over the last 15 years thanks to its more mature system and that is reflected in the PKT stats. Like Auckland trains generally have much longer trips over buses or ferries. Again this isn’t surprising considering how far out of Wellington the rail network extends.
The next graphs show how buses and trains compare between Auckland and Wellington. For buses Auckland and Wellington are remarkably similar until recently while the rail networks is considerably different thanks to the longer network e.g. the Wairapapa trains.
Lastly I mentioned that this allows us to more accurately compare measures against changes in VKT. The next graph looks at the PKT compared to VKT for Auckland. Due to the disparity in the number of trips I’ve indexed the results to show where the change is occurring. This is just based on the total VKT however it looks pretty similar if compared on a per capita basis with the primary difference being that the blue line is flatter.
Clearly one mode of transport is growing much faster than the other
Update:
AT have got in touch to say that since the full roll out of HOP in March it’s allowed them to get a more accurate picture of bus PKT and that the average distance travelled on buses is 7.6km
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Might the increase be a product of increasing sprawl?
Possibly a factor but mostly because more more people are using PT more often – get it?
So what is going to happen to both bus and rail when a full scale bus network is activated? Seems important to me that this network is opened up 100% like immediately even without some interchanges. We are sitting on a transport bubble about to explode. Why wait for 18 months paint the bus symbols now and get the full bus fleet under central control. Cheap day pass and family pass weekends, school kids 25%, students 50% and this is going to be the biggest instant growth in transport history. Set bus in full flight.
So what is smothered bus network for the sake of bus symbols over 18 months, if it delays being congestion free by the same time is full City Rail Link equivalent cost pretty much near $2b damage to Auckland economy. Does that put things in perspective.
Just an example Pakuranga Rd has 60,000 vehicles per day if PT same as CBD currently ,50% that is 30,000 vehicles on it’s own. What would that do? then you keep adding the other main.key arterials. And don’t give me congestion free not possible if worse comes to worse add ptoperty rates to each carpark to keep all capacities below ,100%. Plus fare incentives. Congestion free is possible with all modes unrestricted and fare and car cost controls. All very possible next week except cycle which needs a full arterial remark possible done well In 6 months.
Panmure Station example. Pakuranga Rd kerb side bus lanes. All.bus stops taken off to side roads for collector network. Main pick ups rapid service main centres like 2030 congestion plan until bus fill. Number of rapid buses 400 prorateted by current arterial volumes. Now do same Botany Rd,Ti Rakau, RDS to station interchange, ellerslie highway. Plus also maximise bus lanes on AT frequent 15 min network. Now the other stations. Bus set free. Not fully rapid but bloody close. All.possible right now. So why smother network?
Then get the signal guys to put advance detection on all bus lanes so not held up lights at all. Bus is now the Lamborghini of the network
Shit I wouldn’t hardly use my car anymore, even for shopping dick.Multi shopping centres and key employment centres on an almost rapid feed, bloody fantastic and then maximised use of the true rapid network.
@ Matt L “Patronage in Wellington has seen much less change over the last 15 years thanks to its more mature system. . . ”
I keep hearing the term “mature system” with regard to Wellington, and keep cringing at its falseness as an excuse for flat-lining patronage.
The government considers that the Wellington region has enough road traffic to justify spending $2.4 billion on new motorway developments. This means that under some alternative polices, there remains huge scope for continued transfer of patronage from car to public transport. If, that is, the service was expanded and developed to attract it.
In recent years, Wellington has received new trains, upgraded lines, new trolleybuses and new diesel buses, but little in the way of service enhancement. The Waikanae extension of the rail service which includes one new station and less-obviously the double-tracking from McKays to Waikanae are the only tangible items of network expansion in the last 30 years. All else constitutes much-needed general maintenance (some long overdue). Overall timetables and frequencies have not improved in many years either, although this is supposed to change by 2020.
So lack of network and service development to attract more users is why Wellington’s patronage is static, not some abstract concept of system-maturity.
“System-stagnation” would probably be a more appropriate term.
I agree fully with this; the idea that Wellington represents some kind of PT nirvana is nonsense, and can only be understood in the context of just how bad it is everywhere else in the country.
And it seems many in Wellington agree with this assessment: http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=74440
Exciting development!
I don’t think for a second Wellington PT is where it needs to be. To me it should be doing at least 100+ trips per person (currently about 73). By mature I guess I just mean it’s at a level that it’s harder to make significant changes – although certainly not impossible
I wander how much is due to privatisation? Not looking pro actively at all aspects of the service and able to make improvements to everything. A council controlled organization that reports back to a transport board about.mode share growth.fares, fleet, other modes like rail capacities etc. Or just blindly do a contracted run and not look at these things with zero improvement to service or network improvements and get subsidised accordingly with passengers on or not? A great return on investment,not.