We’re now in March and for public transport that means one thing – March Madness. It’s called that because a number of factors combine to see usage of buses, trains surge. Those factors include but are not limited to:
- It’s a 31 day month with normally no public holidays – next year will be a big exception with Easter falling entirely within March.
- Decent weather still so people are less likely to be put off walking/waiting for services.
- Universities are back and students are often keen to start the year well so attendance is likely higher.
- There are normally no school holidays.
- I suspect there are less people taking leave in March due to no school holidays and many having taken leave over Christmas/New Year or in January or February.
- There are likely to be less people taking sick leave
- More people trying out PT as a way to avoid congestion also caused by the previous points.
The surge normally starts in late Feb and runs through to at least Easter before people start settling down into more established travel patterns – which may include travelling earlier or later to avoid the worst of the peak.
From a patronage perspective March is almost always the month with the highest patronage in any given year – and May is usually second. This is shown on the graph below where March has been highlighted in red.
There are a couple of exceptions to this, on the rail network the last couple of years has seen patronage in May slightly higher than March while on the ferries January is usually the highest month as a result of more people visiting places like Devonport and Waiheke Island.
One of the problems Auckland Transport and the operators face with March Madness is that a lot of the extra trips occur at the height of the peak which is exactly where it is the hardest and most expensive to add new services. This is one of the reasons why it’s so important that AT put a lot of effort into making the buses we have go faster by:
- Reducing dwell times:
- getting more people on HOP – it’s not uncommon to see 5 or more people be able to board with HOP in the same time it takes someone paying by cash.
- in some places possibly allowing rear door boarding – currently the only place I’m aware that this happens on the NEX at Britomart in the afternoons.
- encouraging bus operators to buy buses with larger doors – and bigger buses in general.
- Getting buses out of congestion and therefore moving quicker with more bus lanes and other bus priority measures.
Speeding up buses means that the same number of them can deliver more services for no extra cost. That’s good for passengers and for city as it means we’re spending money more efficiently and getting better outcomes.
I personally think we’re in for a huge month for patronage. The last few weeks in particular have been extremely busy on almost all services I’ve caught – much more so than I can remember seeing before. For example even the buses I use which travel opposite to the peak direction have been standing room only while on some parts of the rail network the new electric trains are driving huge growth.
On top of the factors driving growth in PT, just due to the way the calendar falls this year it means there’s an extra business day means the total results should be even better. Below are a couple of images hopefully highlighting just how busy services have been of late.
This Northern Express bus heading to the city in the afternoon was so full that a number of people (myself included) couldn’t get on. Another one two minutes later was almost as full.
A frequent sight on morning buses to Takapuna and afternoon buses to the city
A regular sight in the afternoons with the queue for the Northern Express to the North Shore. It extends behind where I took the photo too.
A different day and different angle but there were two queues, one back to Customs St and the other around to the right
Trains leaving Britomart on the Western line are packed before even reaching Newmarket and Grafton where a large number of additional passengers try to get on.
And another one from twitter
.@TransportBlog yup pic.twitter.com/wEyz6766tu
— Ra Pomare (@RaPomare) February 27, 2015
From Patrick yesterday, the Airport Express was standing room only after only one terminal meaning a long trip to town for those on their feet.
Standing room only on AKL airport bus after only one terminal…need Rapid Transit service after CRL, not in 20 years pic.twitter.com/T2FLUMobuW
— Patrick Reynolds (@pv_reynolds) March 1, 2015
So anyone want to take some guesses on how many PT trips there’ll be this month? As a comparison in 2014 there were just over 7.3 million with it broken down as per below.
- Rail – 1,174,588
- Northern Express – 262,431
- Other Bus – 5,374,783
- Ferry – 494,123
Given the growth we’ve been seeing in recent months a 10% increase seems entirely possible and that could see us reach over 8 million trips in the month.
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Need bigger buses. Auckland Transport were monumentally stupid in allowing NZ Bus to introduce hundreds of stupidly small buses on busy routes like the Links.
Agreed. The City Link (Red) buses were crowded last month – today I didn’t bother due to the waiting queue at Britomart but took a walk up the hill and still beat the bus.
That service is horribly overwhelmed; the buses, simply inadequate. It’s been that way since its inception.
They ought to shunt the current buses into standard service and order some new ones just for that circuit.
What it needs is the cars out of its way on Queen St- not hard. Just requires will.
That wouldn’t stop the aisles from jamming up. More people than capacity.
would speed each journey and enable increased frequency, which would.
Doubling the speed of the City Link (not hard to do as it runs at walking pace on average), would not only halve the passenger trip times, it would double the frequency and double the capacity of the route… with exactly the same number of buses and drivers. If a bus can make two runs around in the time it used to take to do one, you have twice the number of seats available.
Win, win win,
Totally agree. Double or treble? So frustrating, they need to turn the tap on across the whole grid. Demand definitely there way surplus than supply. AT CEO talking about keeping in mind operational costs. Hello full buses held up behind cars can’t be good fiscally, or smart capacity wise when Transport our No1 problem. I thought Rapid Transit, Bus , Active modes now strategic fit ?? That’s what the board said after Pohutakawa debacle.
For that free City Link bus, they could also drop the HOP card tagging on/off requirement and the token 50c fare (there’s always people fiddling around to find that little coin). That would also speed up boarding and exit times. But of course the big win is indeed closing the street to cars, and then planning for a free tram service like the one in Denver.
Sounds like a good time to get Simon bridges down to see auckland up close and personal
The worm has seriously turned. It’s awesome Auckland Transport has too, but are they bold enough to do a full scale arterial road conversion which fully opens up bus and seperated cycle even at expense of non strategic mode. Now MOT/NZTA? Not even at today’s talk of fixing Auckland Transport problems. Well that shows promising intent??
New road layout on the western motorway is confusing the sheeple this morning, exacerbating the start of march madness!
Also beginning of uni year, those not near rail out west have no Rapid Transit option, lots will be driving…. nutso.
had to go to Albany early in the morning, coming back towards the city on SH1 queue was starting at Oteha Valley rd. At 6:45. I can’t believe people can stand that every day of their lives… I hope they hated seeing me fly past on my motorbike.
If rail continues its current 20% surge, and it’s likely to, then last year’s 1.175m becomes 1.4m, let’s hope the system can cope. A record, surely.
It would take about 26% growth to crack the 1.5m which would be extraordinary, and I don’t think it’s likely until there is more capacity and frequency, especially on the Western.
Southern and Manukau Lines were full but running well
Southern Motorway was a dog as usual in the usual places
Had a few asking when the EMUs hit the Southern Line full time. Looks like we need those EMU 6 car sets rather err now please
Onewa Road was overloaded as usual – Buses going though full. AT pushing through major changes in services just before March is madness in itself. This has no doubt cause BT to not provide its overflow services as it needs the buses/drivers for the new routes which aren’t necessarily (at the moment) where the demand is.
My usual 06:12 305 has been getting a lot fuller since Jan this year. Its not quite standing room but close. It is good to see that this bus can no feed into an earlier train at Onehunga. If only the line was double tracked and had higher frequency CRL . It would also be nice if there were earlier buses that feed into the 05:36 and 06:06 trains. Its a good start and I have also noticed that most of the bus stops (For Onehunga bound passengers) now have shelters.
NZTA should try reading this blog for more thorough analysis than guessing:
National journey manager Kathryn Musgrave said traffic experts knew March madness was going to happen each year, but there were factors outside of their control – such as population growth, car ownership rates, and the state of the economy.
“We have to almost guess as well why we do get March madness,” she said
http://i.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/66821079/march-madness-on-aucklands-roads
“It’s an actual good demonstration that Auckland is booming.”
They really are in denial.
They are in total denial. It is the absence or inadequacy of Rapid Transit options that overloads their already overbuilt private vehicle resource. What a little bubble they live in. A 1960s toned bubble.
I take it the 1960s bubble is the one with the lava lamp and the his and her Jetsons-style automobiles parked next to the Ranch-style house?
I get on the train in the morning at Greenlane. After 07:15am if I want to get a seat, I get in the car farthest from the front of the train and their may be a couple of seats left. I usually get the 06:58 or 07:09.
I then get the NEX to the North Shore. I’m lucky to get a seat at 07:25am, but there seems to always be just that one seat left when I board.
I then get the 555 (Birkenhead to Albany via Northcote Centre and Wairau) at Constellation station. It’s a horrendous route – typically 15 – 40 minutes late. This morning it was 22 minutes late. It’s just traverses too much ground through too many bottle necks. This morning I walked 10 minutes to McDonalds at Apollo Dr, had breakfast, then got the same 555 when it eventually caught up to me. This is the sort of service that keeps ridership down: slow, unreliable and only every 30 minutes.
Agree completely Steve. Have written to AT about buses along this route. Another crazy thing they do (if the buses are running on time which they usually aren’t) is that the buses from Constellation terminal through Apollo etc are scheduled to depart at 8am (2 different buses) when the buses from further north are scheduled to arrive at 8:03am. Then they have a gap until 8:30am. Apollo Drive and the surrounding Rosedale area is a major employment area with offices etc and most people starting at 8:30am. So they can either go really early then wait around at Constellation for quite a while to catch the 8am bus and arrive to work 25 minutes early (it’s not far to go but is just a bit over comfortable walking distance) or they can wait half an hour at Constellation and hope that the bus turns up at 8:30am and arrive to work about 10 minutes late (since traffic is a nightmare on Constipation Drive).
I suggested to them that a) they put on more buses in the area, but also b) that they time the buses so that they are 10-15 minutes apart rather than 2 at the same time.
That’s a familiar feeling on the Shore. There are a couple of operators which provide services but they don’t form a coherent network. eg. most Birkenhead Transport services go via Hobson Street to the Sky tower, and don’t connect with most other services which start at Britomart.
Let’s say you want to go from Milford to Britomart. One obvious answer is: you have the NEX nearby. But now you have a new question: how to go to Smales Farm. There is a T2 lane, but there are to close approximation no buses on this lane. One bus per hour off-peak, and some extra services during the morning peak, but nothing frequent. So usually the journey starts with a 15 to 20 minutes walk to Smales Farm.
I would most definitely hope there is a “New Network” coming on the Shore.
There is but the bus operators are not necessarily a friend to rational planning, sadly. They have other agendas: patch protection and income maximisation.
Maybe Richies should lobby for decent bike shelters at all the NEX stations. Then a lot of people on the Shore can at least just ride a bike to the stations.
There are free secure and waterproof bike lockers at all of the NEX stations already, except maybe Sunnynook?
Nick R: Sunnynook has lockable bike stands. Capacity? Maybe 10-15 bikes that I could see slots for on the southbound side.
If I remember correctly, there are 4 of them at Smales Farm
With “decent” I would mean much more than 4 of them. They could put a roof over the lollipops for a start, like in Akoranga.
An even bigger issue is the ease with which to ride to any of the Northern Busway stations. Awful. Each and every one.
Yes, all over the Shore. Another example is Brown’s Bay. Brown’s Bay is zoned for high density and there are many multi level apartments etc there. Getting from Browns Bay to the NEX? Instead of taking the direct fastest route (Valley Road/Bute Rd to Beach, Carlisle, Oteha Valley Rd), it takes a winding slow route through Sherwood, Pine hill and Oteha to get there (yes there should still be a bus on this route but there should also be a fast direct link between a busy centre like Brown’s Bay and Albany.
On another note I decided to pay closer attention on the bus this morning. It is true that about 5 Hop card holders can board in the time it takes for a cash fare to be paid. If there are more than 1 cash fare people boarding then this is a massive chokepoint in our bus services. It is annoying that we have it set up with a tap off system but if that’s the way they want it then they really should install more tap consoles as people are often queueing to tap-off…increasing loiter times.
Is this even a question? Of course the answer is a resounding no, because the NZTA and AT have both been unwilling (particularly in the NZTA’s case) to prioritise high-occupancy transport to anywhere near the extent necessary.
Auckland Transport are changing, and we are starting to see some results. But the lag from half a decade’s worth of wrong decisions will be felt for several years to come. If there was any illustration of the necessity of a busway on the Northwestern, today was it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11410257
Answers are buslanes, buslanes, buslanes, buslanes, buslanes, buslanes,
And bike lanes, bike lanes, bike lanes, bike lanes, bike lanes.
While they get on with CRL, CRL, CRL, CRL, CRL
Now is Simon Bridges up for this!!! You are going to get punched into hyperspace because of absolutely stupid and corrupt use of taxpayers funds.
It’s time to turn the heat up on MOT/NZTA!!!!!Fry and burn!!!!
I think more yesteryear thinking rather than corruption. But otherwise pretty accurate.
OK 98% one eyed matey, matey favourtism then.
And polar opposite of IPENZ Professional Engineering Ethics.
Not all the decisions are made by engineers, also not all engineers are members of IPENZ so therefore may not abide by IPENZ Professional engineering ethics, although as an engineer you should still have your own ethical standards. Also as a note NZTA’s report on the CRL also states that it is needed yet the government still refuses to come to the party and continue to delay the start of the route. In the end a lot of the decisions come down to politics and whom you are disturbing (NIMBYism etc). Even if a engineer recommends building the CRL its turned down by the government.
Given that NZTA gets a lot of crap about its roading obsession, perhaps I should note that NONE of NZTA’s senior managers is an engineer – see http://nzta.govt.nz/about/who-and-what/who-we-are/our-people.html. It looks like 1-2 Board members are, although neither with transport engineering experience. Not sure if AT is any different?
But perhaps that’s a problem!? As officers lower down present technical advice as final and board doesn’t have chops to dispute it?
No formal qualifications and no professional ethics about sustainability, community well being, or environment for current and future generations. Yes a major problem!!!
Coming in on either the Outer Link and the 005 to Britomart around the 8am mark is completely sardine-like if you try to get on at anywhere along Jervois Road- slow as.
Meanwhile there’s no HOP card data when I cycle to work….
I saw a New Lynn – Midtown bus with its “BUS FULL” sign lit up as it headed through Morningside yesterday (Sunday afternoon). Needless to say the network needs a boost.
Nobody uses PT anymore, its too crowded.
I’ve actually heard people say that.
I avoid the CityLink and some Dominion Rd services due to overcrowding.
Overcrowding is a problem that is coming at AT extremely quickly and I don’t think either they or their providers are at all prepared. The predict and provide model is fatally flawed when the prediction part consistently under-calls it. The assumption is still that people don’t really want to use PT, not longer the case if it ever was. People have never wanted to use poor PT, and the reaction to small improvements must look massive to those with their heads in last century.
Basically on all sorts of routes and at many different times systems are turning out to be unprovided for. And it doesn’t appear that response is able to be very nimble.
The time has come to open up gates fully to buses, and seperated cycling. One lane for buses, 4m for seperated cycling, 2 way or 3m each way. Fully blown all at once, just mark it get it over with. Local boards can do substantial hedged planters. Network ops can do intersections to Netherlands spec!!
Make Network Wide One Project. New Strategic Fit. Rapid Transit, Bus as rapid as poss, Seperated Cycling, Pedestrians. Consultation Mayor and Dr Lester Levy on Campbell Live. All parking on arterials gone if need be. Full scale Repriorisation. We only have limited bus operational budget it needs to run free. Cycle well quite a big potential envelope 1% to 55% plus taking parents out of cars. Smash It, Please!!!
Again. AT Board and Mayor give full directive to Road Maintenance to remark arterials and maximise 4m seperated cycling and full bus lane. Emergency Works, you now need to weigh up ambulance delays, this is now Civil Defence scenario!!! North western and Northern motorway need full bus lanes. Can be done fast and should be done fast.
We give AT, NZTA 2 weeks, otherwise full open up by public under civil defence. This Chartered Civil Engineer says no more!!!!!Either you mark it or we will!!!
With the NEX so busy all the time, it is really highlighting the need for rail to the Nth Shore sooner rather than later. Rail to the Airport is also a priority. None of this is possible, of course, without the CRL!
I was looking at how, with the present rate of growth, the rail system would cope until the CRL was in operation. My analysis indicated that with some relatively minor modifications to the track and signaling at the throat of Britomart, it could cope with 30 trains/hour. Further, that there has been the ability to run trains from Henderson to Britomart in under 30 minutes ever since double tracking was completed. This is not so much a matter of opinion as simple arithmetic. With the EMUs, it should be possible to run the Western line with two services: One from Henderson to Britomart, six coach trains at 10 minute intervals, and one from Swanson to Newmarket, 3 coach trains at 10 minute frequency, interleaved with the Britomart service.
Interestingly, this uses no more resource in terms of staff and rolling stock than a six coach service running from Swanson to Britomart via Newmarket at a frequency of six/hour. In other words, a five minute frequency between Henderson, New Lynn and Grafton would cost precisely nothing.
I took my proposals to Auckland Transport and they were not really interested. They said they had people who could do timetables. A bit rich from an organization which has been backing trains out of Newmarket for years.
There is some really low hanging fruit here on the Western line. As Nick R points out, doubling the speed doubles the frequency with the same resource, and Henderson-Britomart inside 30 minutes must surely increase patronage. AT even set up a shuttle this year to provide an in house only service for their own staff. They could have used the train, for the cost of printing a new timetable, and the whole of west Auckland could have shared the benefits. As Warren Buffet has it: “ABC – Arrogance, Bureaucracy, Complacency”
Eric your proposal seems smart to me. Maximising all rail in particular the western line (which is not the best pre CRL) should be a top priority. It does worry me that a lot of lateral thinking is not happening in maximising rail, bus and bike but seems the brain cells still locked in car unless a new project and told specifically. The whole team should be maximising rapid transit, bus, active modes that is what the board says is their strategic fit now, change the glasses!!
I’m just looking at all the twitter feeds about full buses and people not being able to board. The problem is now affecting patronage from going vertical at mach 5. When does this become an emergency for bus lanes and seperated cycling. Emergency works consultation goes out the window. I’ve been on a roading project before when too late before even start and forced to hotmix when definitely not ready but have to open it up regardless.Leave things too late and it goes to shit like you wouldn’t believe possible. AT CEO said doing things ahead of time before overly congested using light rail as an example, how about bus lanes with a $2 symbol every 50m? when you have full buses and no more operational budget
All they have to do is to instruct their road maintenance managers like Peter Scott for south to maximise capacity for bus on the arterials and to get network operations to concentrate on bus priority. Even if car down to one lane. Fact is we can probably double or treble capacity they run free. An aluminium template with a graphic bus symbol and white paint. What is going ,to help decongest more immediately across the grid???
Much as it would be most desirable, AT can’t run 10 minute frequencies on the Western Line for all sort of reasons but, most notably, due to its failure to grade separate key road/rail crossings such as St Jude Street in Avondale or Morningside Drive in Morningside. 10 minute frequencies would mean that the barriers would have to be lowered a maximum of twelve times an hour. As the barrier is lowered between 1-2 minutes each time (generally depending on whether it’s for an up or down service) suggests that motor vehicle would be unable to cross for approximately 18 minutes an hour. The disruption to vehicular flow caused by such an impediment would certainly upset the traffic engineers and we can’t have that, can we?
Traffic Engineers or species survival..tough decision…not!!
Would removing two car lanes on the bridge and replacing them with busways help?
After last night’s Auckland Conversations, the 249 went up Symonds St. with 12 standing passengers! The ride was smooth and fast – the bus clean and new – the service surely not subsidised. I’d also love to see HOP more pushed, including to seniors – and also rear exiting from the bus. A whole line of passengers can be held up while one person gets out the front door.
People insisting on exiting at the front annoys and baffles me too.
Gold card has got to be rolled into HOP.
Half the time the drivers don’t open the back door, or at least you have to wait a bit longer or call out. This is especially so where you are getting off at a ‘boarding’ stop. I often just go straight to the front to save time and hassle.
This is a problem which adds up substantially, with ten seconds here and there quickly becoming minutes. The back door should be opened, every time.
Nick and Patrick,
I know there was a coroners ruling due to a schoolboy being badly injured when exiting a bus by the rear door a few years back and getting caught in the door and rear wheels of the bus.
As a result the main bus companies agreed to no longer let any kids disembark by the rear door when “on school services”.
Now I’d expect “on school services” meaning a dedicated school pupil only service or one that mainly picks up school age kids, not a general bus service that runs at school times.
But I suspect that drivers or their bosses are extending that “rule” to cover any bus services run at school times where school kids may or may not be on the bus
– to discourage the use of the back doors and cover their asses.
Either way, not an ideal situation for shorter dwell times, a bit of clarity around the rules might be helpful.
I am one of those people who may exit via the front door.
When? If no-one is boarding.
Why? I believe this allows the bus to start moving quicker. I could be wrong but I understand that there is a brake interlock that prevents the bus from moving whilst the rear door is open.
I do agree exiting via the front can cause delays in some situations but there are also other avoidable delays. e.g. Cash fares, not having AT Hop card in your hand to tag on/off, not moving towards the exit door until the bus is stationary, blocking the doors/aisle. Of course when the bus is full some of these things are unavoidable.
Ooops , thought I was replying to ‘Greg N March 3, 2015 at 11:41 am’.
There were people left behind at GI this morning even with a 6 car EMU. Glad to see that they’ve finally increased the number of 6 cars though. For ages there had only been a single 6 car at any one time as far as I could tell.
Am I the only one that would like to see (at least some) seats removed from the front of the buses? I’d rather stand in the moving bus rather than standing at the bus station watching yet another “BUS FULL” drive past? Isn’t that something simple that can be done?
Nope, I’ve long thought that high capacity routes should be longitudinal only between the doors on at least one side and probably two.
From AT today in their “We’re over 13 million rail trips a year” announcement.
“Each weekday in February, on average 51,500 customers used Auckland’s trains including 12,500 during the morning peak (7am to 9am).”
Thats impressive in the extreme, over 50K business day average passengers is about 5-7K a day up on last year and March (Madness) hasn’t properly begun.
And with reports of 6 car EMU’s being full at GI already in March, doesn’t seem like we have enough capacity to cater for the growth, even with 6 trains an hour at AM peak via GI these days.
Seems AT doesn’t yet see the tsunami of people descending on the stations yet… given how few 6 car EMUs are on the case right now.
While its a great problem to have doesn’t bode well for the actual passenger experience. You can excuse AT if NZ Bus uses buses which are too small? But AT using EMUs that are too small?
Shame.
And that certainly pokes a big stick in the eye to all those who say that GI (or any train station) patronage can only grow when they add more Park and Ride spaces
(as I heard people claim at last nights LTP consultation session for the Orakei Local Board).