I asked last week if Auckland Transport were ready for March Madness – a situation that happens every year where public transport usage goes nuts from a variety of factors. Unfortunately it increasingly it seems like PT services simply aren’t coping under the stress of the surge that we’re seeing. It’s not clear whether this is as a result of patronage simply surging ahead what was expected or if there simply hasn’t been enough capacity added to the system but either way the result is the same. Every day now I’m seeing/hearing comments on the blog, on social media, in my emails or even directly to me in person about crowded buses and trains.
Auckland Transport may just think this is a phase which will be over soon however one of the reasons it’s so important they get it right is that the experience customers have can set the tone for how people travel for the rest of the year or longer. I’ve already heard people saying that they’re giving up on PT and going back to battling the congestion behind the wheel of their car.
Below is just a small selection of the comments I’ve seen/received.
At the moment I am finding the time it takes to catch a bus during peak times to be utterly ridiculous. I catch a bus from Mt Eden Road to Britomart and on Monday had to wait 50mins for a bus that had capacity for more passengers (between 10-15 went past full). There was around 20 people left at my bus stop by the time I caught one, and another 20 or so down the road further. Surely there could be some buses that start partway through the route to pick up the stranded passengers left at the second half of the route for very long periods of time. It is issues like this that put people off public transport – there were several people at my stop who were distressed about being late for work, and some even gave up and went back home!
Caught 224 home at 8.15pm, and we left people behind on Symonds St over bridge as over 20 were standing, also nearby saw a 258 and 471 with bus Full signs.
@TransportBlog train patronage must be going through the roof! Standing room only while boarding at Glen Eden.
— Gordon Fraser (@GordonFraser67) March 9, 2015
A full bus just drove past us. We’re less than a stage into the route. Something strange is going on. — Stephtacular (@StephanieMarija) March 8, 2015
@AklTransport please send more nex buses! Leaving 100s behind at bus stations trying to get to #roundthebays @TransportBlog
— Nicola Outten (@nicolaoutten) March 7, 2015
@sudhvir @TransportBlog cant be. Nobody travels on trains. — James Howitt (@cogload519) March 6, 2015
@RusselNorman @TransportBlog NthShore buses are full before get Sunnynook, also car parks. What is being done to create more capacity?
— Mike McCaw (@MikeMcCaw) March 4, 2015
@TransportBlog @AklTransport line for the NEX is so long someone just asked me if we were queueing for an event they hadn’t heard about — Thaqui (@thaqui) March 4, 2015
Grafton is becoming an increasingly popular transfer point for upper CBD access from the West line. pic.twitter.com/molMGKfhE0
— Andrew W (@aw_nz) March 8, 2015
@AklCouncil #LTP2015 double-decker busses, greater frequency on the Shore during rushour please pic.twitter.com/henEJjwkD9 — Danny (@SMessaging) March 8, 2015
This is the crowd from just the back half of an OFF-peak train (6car) just arrived from the eastern line. pic.twitter.com/X8kZagKGdV
— Andrew W (@aw_nz) March 8, 2015
Western line is currently ridiculous pic.twitter.com/Uv22myFbpj — Geogoose (@geogoose) March 7, 2015
Desperately need more frequency, more bus lanes, double deckers even #LTP2015 #FixOurCIty #BusFull #Auckland pic.twitter.com/Tar38HUxFa
— Niko (@nikoelsen) March 5, 2015
@TransportBlog @AklTransport @ZaneFulljames Packed bus 087 ADL right now at Te atatu pic.twitter.com/4eUk2Mba2P — Jerome de Vries (@JeromedeVries2) March 3, 2015
Hell even these three got on a bus
@GeorgeWood2015 @brewercameron loving PT. Fact finding tour around South Auckland and airport precinct pic.twitter.com/s8FVpwSdGZ
— Dick Quax (@DickQuax) March 5, 2015
As mentioned earlier this is just a small sample of the comments I’ve seen in recent days. In some ways I have a little sympathy for AT and the bus companies in that it can be very hard to add capacity just for the peak as that makes for an expensive proposition however some of these comments are also coming in off peak or at a time when there should be a lot of spare capacity available.
The big concern is that full buses and trains are putting people off using PT all together – a case of the system truly becoming a victim of its own success.In my view AT need to come up with a plan for addressing crowding and do so quickly.
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Then they do dumb things by not providing for special events. Pacifica coming up right next to Manukau Station and no extra capacity organised.
And then there’s the times when they do put extra services on but don’t tell anyone about it. The Sunday of anniversary weekend they made no mention of extra services and for most the last scheduled services left before the fireworks ended. It turned out they had put on extra services but hadn’t told anyone about it, not even the staff in Britomart…
Time to fully open gate 1 seperated cycling, gate 2 bus/emergency services lane, Gate 3 improved walking. The mayor can authorise Road Maintenance direct on Civil Defence grounds. Say the word Len, We’ll immediately setup the best road layout team and co ordinate all Maintenance Sectors, AT, NZTA to implement new strategic fit on the current road widths. 10 days lead in, 3 weeks then your shout. All problems gone, think about it. LTP then can be rail,trains, stations, buses and concreting over cycle roadway so less resurfacing.
None of these would provide more buses or more train sets.
But Neil with full bus lanes and busways we can get twice the use out of existing buses. The buses on the Northern Busway average 40kph over their whole routes [including stops etc,] other buses half this, 20kph.
Twice the value at the same overhead. Same number of buses and drivers. Shouldn’t this be the first move? Of course the higher speeds will attract more users so we will still need more buses, but isn’t it smarter to sweat the existing assets now?
At the cost of a few road side car parking spaces, and NZTA spending the same capex more wisely, particularly on the NW and by extending the existing NB. Accelerate the AMETI busways too.
Only if the Bus Companies chose to run these additional services, and there is little evidence that this would happen.
There is a crystal clear link between the state of our car network and delaying Emergency Services which maybe fatal and probably already has been. Len can authorize Civil Defense. All network fixes become Emergency Works under control via Road Maintenance Contracts, NZTA, AT. And yes this can invoke immediate change to bus operators if they like it or not. Plus Road Maintenance Managers have to keep going until Civil Defense cleared. What is fix: Busways CFN plan, frequent bus network, Seperated Cycling and Better Pedestrian amenities. Len has every right as Mayor to call it!!
More Double Decker buses! Most of the NEX buses should be double deck. It doesn’t cost much more at all to run and is cheaper than putting on extra buses (although extra buses would be welcome too).
Ritchies are contemplating a large order of double deckers for the NEX, hence the rest of the single-deck NEX buses (bar one) haven’t been repainted in the new RTN livery.
Despite all the talk there is only one double decker bus, oh and hints that more might be ordered one day, somewhere in another galaxy!
And don’t get me going about those small Dennis buses that Metrolink thought would do. Fantastic for off peak but that’s it and certainly not a go for an entire fleet replacement. Worse though is our PT is essentially buses and this month as always shows the flaws in that logic.
Do your research before commenting – the delays to PTOM have been effecting the implementation of deckers. As commenter Harvey Specter has rightly said – “your not gong to rapidly expand your fleet (at $500k each for a large bus, or just under $1m for a double decker) with each bus having a life of 10 years (actually longer but cant be used for AT contracts after that I think) unless you know you will have a contract in place. Losing just 10% of your routes means you probably don’t need new buses for a year or two so knowing you will win some is no enough”.
Dearest Ano162. If I may take the liberty of commenting in response to important, learned people such as yourself I have to admit if i knew what TPOM was I would do my research on that but I can’t because I don’t know what it is. Sorry about that, old thing. But without submitting a Masters researched thesis on the subject I can tell you bigger buses and a much more robust mass transit PT system has been needed in Auckland for years and bugger all but talk has been achieved. And somehow out of this we ended up with those ADL buses that are smaller than the average bus of the last few years!
PTOM is the new contracts between Auckland Transport and the Operators which seem to have been delayed forever. They will involve a complete renegotiation of all routes (I understand that existing operators are being given a certain amount of contracts provided AT thinks the price is fair) so sometime in the next few years, all operators have the potential to lose all their routes (or alternatively, pick up a lot more).
The contracts are long term contracts 6, 9 and 12 years I think which will allow Operators (hopefully) to plan for the long term.
As an example, what would happen if Ritchies ordered 10 new Double Deckers and then lost the NEX contract a year later – they aren’t suitable for suburban routes so they would probably have to sell them at a big loss, nd probably to the company that underbid you on the hope they could buy your buses for cheap.
Its still ridiculous, just walked in to work and actually quite a few busses driving on upper Queen street saying not in service.
It seems that they solve March Madness by failing to meet demand; a morning or two of full buses driving by will send most people back to their cars, or to anything else frankly.
No one will put up with that for long if they have any other possible option.
So have there been any additional bus services this March? if so any communication about them? After all it is hard to see a cost risk as this is taking place in a context of rising demand.
Perhaps there are supply issues with the bus companies, drivers and buses?
Saw some AT staff handing out flyers about extra services this morning. Didn’t pick one up, but I believe it’s only an extra service each way per day.
This nails it. It’s only a ‘phase’ because people get left behind and give up on PT. Next year AT need to plan to provide enough capacity for March Madness and convert the surge into long-term growth.
It’s absolutely true – I don’t even bother walking via the bus stop anymore, because each time I’ve been greeted with a “bus full” sign driving past, so it just wastes my time and I end up walking anyway. Other people travelling longer distances don’t have that choice and get left waiting.
Every year it’s the same and every year people on here say AT should learn from it for next. Yet every year it’s exactly the same. The number or buses I see going up Symonds street in the evenings with Bus Full and the number arriving in the morning with the same sign is absolutely ridiculous. It’s exacerbated by the stupidly small buses NZBus run on all of their routes these days – presumably because they pay less for petrol.
I don’t think just a March thing. The worm has turned but to have network taps still only 1% open is not helping the buses we do have. Whole network can be flicked in 3 weeks. I used to manage road maintenance central area, and manage serious road reconstructions on night shift so do know what can be done if given green light. Len doesn’t know how much firepower he can authorize. Civil Defense overrides everything! Ambulances now delayed just say it and we’ll setup two prefabs Queen Wharf , a road layout team, an implementation team and fix this shambles.
A lot of prior good work is being undone. Change light to Code Red , a top notch layout team, and all road maintenance sectors on a gigantic team effort for 10 days prep, and 3 weeks all guns blazing. Auckland fixed.
As an update on the Onehunga line train, I’ve been catching it for 4 months after moving to the area and today was the first time it was standing room only by the time it reached Ellerslie! Good to see that its becoming a popular choice for people.
I clearly recall the official research with all the usual doom and gloom tales from anti PT and anti rail experts that Onehunga would be lucky to carry 300 passengers a day or something similar. Well hasn’t a half decent service and set up proven that wrong!
Unfortunately the way that line is with platform lengths and lack of passing loops, it can’t cope with much more growth. Is anything planned?
To be honest this blog is the first place I saw promoting the idea of “March madness”. Then AT appeared to pick it up. The whole idea is ridiculous. It’s just normality and our transport network should cater for it.
March madness (the name and the issue) had been a ‘thing’ for many years. AT has been aware of it for many years.
AT now seem to be taking PT more seriously so hopefully they address this for next year. Perfect quote from Chris above that matches my thoughts exactly: “Next year AT need to plan to provide enough capacity for March Madness and convert the surge into long-term growth.”
Fair enough, it’s a shame about the name though. March madness implies the problem lies with unreasonable demands happening in March, rather than a lack of capacity. It’s like when companies explain the fact people have to wait on hold for ages by saying its due to high volumes of callers. No, it’s because they didn’t employ enough staff.
It is a period of higher demand, both for PT and car traffic. The thought behind it is that all schools are back so parents are all working, no one is on holiday and the first month of Uni is the only time that students actually turn up (I assume it takes that long to be-friend the sucker who’s notes you will steal).
Someone on here posted a comment about ordering extra centre carriages for the EMU’s (i.e. turning them into 4 car trains rather than 3 for trains that don’t require the full 6 car set yet). I think this is an excellent idea as these carriages are the cheaper ones (no motors etc) and since CRL won’t be operational for some time yet there won’t be any traction issues with the extra weight (and by then the extra units can be inserted back in to make 6 car sets). If they ordered them now you would think they could be in place before March madness next year.
But apparently public transport is “Congestion Free”
Of course not, especially when undersupplied. But as you are referring to our Congestion Free Network there of course the term ‘congestion’ is short hand for traffic congestion, it is, as you know a proposal for a network that is separate from general traffic, so any congestion would be of it’s own making. Completely free of other traffic however, unlike most of our current Transit system. Nice try though.
My morning commute along Jervois Road is pretty tame compared to some discussed here – the crunch period happens around 8 to 8.15 when the Outer Link and 005 fill up with students going to Ponsonby Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, and St Mary’s College. Anecdotally things were very busy earlier in the month – buses still packed at 8.30, full buses driving past at 8.15, or standing room only. The congestion seems to have eased off a little since, perhaps because of people adjusting their commutes to tak earlier or later buses.
Take your car folks. At least you will get home even if it is a slow journey.
The new train network is a shambles. The new trains are slower than the old diesel units.
http://e-edition.franklincountynews.co.nz/#folio=1
Perhaps most of AT staff needs dumping and getting a new CEO may help.
AT can build a new Parnell station, 1km from Britomart and 1km from Newmarket, but cannot electrify the Pukekohe link.
As usual downtown gets all the money and nothing for the outer limits of this great city.
You say the new trains are slower than the old ones but then immediately make a plea for electrification. I’m confused.
Ultimately, you need to blame the pollies for this. Particularly the blue ones who are only interested in funding new roads. In spite of the step-change improvements we have seen in recent years, PT is still funded on the cheap compared with roading.
And still no word from the Govt that the CRL is any closer than 2020 start. History will judge these obstructionists.
Take the bike folks. Cars are for mugs who want to sit in traffic.
You need to send this to Mathew Dearnaley at the Herald
One hopes that AT will take note of these comments and plan for this, next time.
But it shouldn’t take this blog to report these issues. Bus drivers who can see that they are leaving passengers behind should be the first to alert the planners to this. Real-time feedback by radio even. And then if there are simply no more buses immediately available, AT should at least publicly acknowledge the problem with apologies etc, and get cracking on funding more reserve capacity. There is no excuse for this debacle to keep repeating itself.
My experience of management models in NZ is to never ever ask the people who work at the coal face anything that could assist the planning and improvement their business unless it is done for appearances only to satisfy a KPI, “I asked X people about their day job etc”. So your crazy but thoroughly good idea about using drivers as a source of information will go unheeded!.
1. Double Decker buses for popular routes
2. Bus lanes, prioritized traffic light and both doors hop on/hop off. So bus can travel faster, meaning serving more people and higher frequency using same number of buses
3. Use more bus to increase the frequency to a level of ‘just turn up and go’.
4. Off peak bus serve as shuttle and school bus
4. Light rail for long term
Just to complete the picture, the roads in the peaks are definitely far more busy than previous Feb/Mar in my opinion. Possibly driven by low petrol prices? Where are all the people coming from to fill both cars and PT?
AT should be trying to keep the patronage up. Perhaps setup a roped area to queue for NEX in the evening outside Britomart and get street performers to take away some of the boredom. I see 100 ppl waiting sometimes.
Ahh the magic conundrum! This may cost AT several million to fund with operators, but here goes with my recommendations based on my time with bus and train companies and interactions with AT surrounding March Madness.
In my opinion March Madness requires a Special Event / Project approach with AT leading engagement with operators. During RWC addtional buses ran on key corridors which required additional service. This could be done for the busy 6-7 weeks leading up till Easter with extra services provided during 9am-4pm (all operators have plenty of vehicles not operating so is easy to dial up). Some operators are doing this, but on a tiny scale over March (maybe 50 extra vehicles running across the city).
STAFFING:
It does require some clever staff planning i.e. embargo on staff leave over this time, which needs to be spread out over the other 44 weeks. AT and operators would need to begin this now ahead of 2016 so that leave is managed.
VEHICLES:
In terms of extra vehicles being available in peaks this is easy in the PM (10-20% less than AM). The morning requires a different approach to maintenance during Feb-April. There is usually 6-8% of fleet not available due to maintenance so operators would need extra night-time and weekend maintenance to increase availibility.
This should be done as BAU but issues with unions and staff not willing (or being rewarded) to work nights and weekends and matching this to business costs have presented a challenge. Would an ideal long term solution be to have one ‘mega-workshop’ that does all maintenance for all operators and runs from 7pm – 6am and double shifts in weekends?
What is POSSIBLE?
We could have another 100 buses running in the all important morning peak, 200-300 during interpeak and 200 in PM peak if AT, Operators and Unions to jointly come to the party.
Are you the former Network Design Manager for NZBus? Provides context to your suggestions.
Harvey Specter
March 11, 2015 at 12:45 pm · Reply
Are you the former Network Design Manager for NZBus? Provides context to your suggestions.
..
Yep Harvey – that’s me. Always keen to see the huge patronage potential of March realised and retained for longer term growth. With 15-20% increased patronage in March compared to monthly average, if a quarter of the extra/new people using PT were retained that could deliver 3-4 million annual patronage. Paying for the additional maintenance, fuel and staffing over this 6 week period is an investment on ongoing revenue. The challenge is getting everyone aligned with this one common aim and agreeing a joint funding scenario which works for everyone.
Completely agree – short term pain by all involved (except hopefully passengers/customers) will result in long term gain for everyone (including unions as more passengers means more buses means more drivers which means more members)
“embargo on staff leave over this time,”
That just leads to resignations which exacerbates the problem rather than relieving it.
Mark, your comments look like an eminently reasonable approach to a peak issue that would last for 4-6 weeks.
My comment would be that once you get the level of service correct for the peak in Mrarch you are likely to generate long term conversion to PT and not only are you robbing Peter to pay Paul in terms of maintenance, but you’re also suppressing leave to achieve the result, so I find your response too narrowly focused and the sort of short sightedness that created the issue in the first place.
If we consider the network as a whole, with different modes, (Road, Rail, Water), the network will reach equilibrium as people adjust their behavior within the constraints of the entire system. All modes have a role to play, with the question becoming how do we make incremental improvements that unlock capacity of the entire system.
The issue becomes how investment becomes cumulatively positive (each bit of investment adding more than it costs), with the current tool for assessing this being BCR. The current approach of adding more road capacity doesn’t seem to work particularly well.
At some point expensive infrastructure projects, (Waterview Connection, CRL) will be required, but how can the most be made out of current infrastructure in a sustainable way.
I was at a bus stop in Newmarket yesterday and someone from AT was handing out a brochure with a list of extra buses they’re putting on during March and April. So it looks like they’re doing something. Still, I had to wait for another bus because the first one to come past was full…
It sounds like the main problem is the vehicles are too small. Introducing double deckers onto the NEX and Dominion rd services will allow the bigger six wheeler buses to cascade down onto routes currently served by the little 4 wheeler ADL buses.
I wonder if it is just particular services. I travel the southern line and while the trains are packed between 0700 to 0800 from Manurewa , no-one is being left behind at any of the stations on the route. Services between Penrose and Britomart are very frequent now. Outside of those times the trains are busy but not packed. I thought I saw somewhere that 6 car EMUs have been put on the eastern line to deal with March madness, does anyone know if there is space for people now available for people at Meadowbank/Orakei?
Maybe it is just services out west, NEX and 27x routes? Electrification and EMUs on the western line should increase capacity for March 2016. I don’t understand why double deckers are not being used for all services during peak time on the NEX route or are they all packed as well? Is it just a March issues with NEX or is it busy all the time?
It seems that H & E are buying Double Deckers to increase capability (maybe in time for March 2016). It seems that the problem may capability planning and getting private bus companies to provide the necessary peak response. Is this because there contracts are up for renewal soon, therefore they will not spend money on assets unless they know they will get a return on investment ?
I find it strange that bus size does not seem to be matched to demand for services (based on comments from this log). I know that 456/466 services use big buses to move between 2 -15 people (I have never seem them more than 1/3 full). It makes me wonder if everybody is waiting for the new networks to be rolled out and see if this solves the problem. It would be nice to hear something from AT about it and there plans to deal with the issue. Is it possible for Auckland transport blog to ask them directly about the problem and write up an article?
The delays to PTOM must be impacting on some capital investment (ie. new buses). Your not gong to rapidly expand your fleet (at $500k each for a large bus, or just under $1m for a double decker) with each bus havng a life of 10 years (ctually longer but cant be used for AT contracts after that I think) unless you know you will have a contract in place. Losing just 10% of your routes means you probably dont need new buses for a year or two so knowing you will win some is no enough.
A bouquet and a brickbat. The bouquet for AT putting on transport to the cricket on Saturday. Seamless from Albany Park n Ride to Eden Park and back.
Brickbat for the Park n Ride at Silverdale. Woefully short on parking, and people being asked not to get on buses unless they are commuters, not going shopping!
Did you know that, once again for the cricket, AT only provided services for bus and trains. I’m sick of their bias against ferry users.
Only special event buses are free for the cricket.
My bus driver attempted to stop two high school students from boarding so that there was more space for commuters. He was promptly put in his place and told what to o to himself
I had a Link driver tell the leader of a group of 10+ tourists (who were all about to pay individually with cash) to catch the next bus. Luckily it was just coming around the corner so wasn’t an issue but not a good look for tourism.
Have to say that AT transport from Newmarket to Eden Park for the cricket was appalling. Not good look for PT. I took family by PT that day and they all swear they will never take PT again. Glad they got right from Albany.
The March thing always seems to last until daylight saving finishes (at least for cars on the roads). I think it is made worse by the squeeze that occurs between getting up in the dark and arriving by the start of work or school. John Oliver claims we only have daylight saving because the Germans wanted to save energy in WWI. Maybe it would help to get rid of it, or as he says “Why is this still a thing?”
1. Madness on the Western Line – many of the 5-6 pm services are 4-car SA sets. The carriages are packed to capacity at Grafton, and there’s rarely spare seats before New Lynn. Surely there are spare 5 and 6 car sets now that the rest of the network is electric?
2. Madness on off-peak buses. On Monday and Wednesday I stood outside Grafton station looking for a bus to University. I waited more than 10 minutes both times for any bus, and both buses that arrived were standing room only. Similar issues on the return journey to Grafton an hour later. It’s not just a peak issue.
Yeah, I often catch the outbound train at Grafton 5-6pm too and it’s crazy when it’s only a 4 car set. I always have to push in and stand in the doorwell area. One time everyone had to shuffle in just to let the doors close. We desperately need 6 car electric units and more frequently than q15minutely. The proposition that the 10minute frequencies might be delayed on the western line until Sarawira is grade separated is ridiculous. AT should just move to 10minute frequencies on all lines and that should make for less objections by the locals at Sarawira as they get held up at the at-grade crossing and just want it fixed.
The good thing about the trains though, even though they are full, they still at least stop and you can squeeze in. Not like the bus which just drives on past full and doesn’t stop.
I’d love to post a positive comment in response to this, but after AT’s track record on breaking promises regarding the western line I’m getting a little jaded in this respect. I’m back to biking in part because the western line is too full. I’m independent, healthier, and it’s even faster (Glen Eden-Parnell).
What I can foresee happening is the western line getting further delayed on electrics, in order to service the growth on other lines. Either that or we will get served up just 3-car sets in parts of the peak hour, akin to what Ran Derson is describing. As I’ve said here before that will most definitely be a downgrade in capacity.
I’m not a betting man, but mark my words one of these scenarios will be in play within 2015.
This mornings text alert from AT:
“The 07:31 am Western train from Waitakere to Britomart is running at full capacity from Avondale.”
Nuff said.
Did the Round the Bays on Sunday, so interesting hearing the conversations around me while waiting and catching bus back downtown.
With a special event putting around ~30K people in one place (St Heliers/Mission Bay) around midday on Sunday, there was always going to be a lot of pressure on PT. There was a massive array of buses (including a NEX branded bus) lined up at Madills Farm; but think they were all charter buses
From the RTB site “In addition to scheduled Sunday services, the event will have Ritchies Coachlines running a special shuttle service. The cost is $5 per ride, per person (cash only). running back and forth to Britomart”.
Note – no HOP card which seems like a pretty silly limitation, and it turns out there was only one pick up point on Long Drive. Didn’t see the Ritches shuttle, but maybe I just missed it.
Anyway, after the BBQ, my daughter and I wandered down to Mission Bay and tried to jump on a ‘scheduled Sunday service’. Turned out many other people had the same idea (plus I presume normal Sunday bus users).. Really should have taken a photo of the crowd building up on the footpath outside shops. People watched as dozens of charter buses (with varying numbers of people onboard drove by) and the ‘real time display’ continued to show buses that didn’t arrive. When a bus finally appeared, all seats were taken, some standing passengers, but probably 30+ people including myself crowded on anyway before the bus driver had to turn people away. Not sure of the maximum load on the standard sized buses, but felt very overloaded, by the time the driver managed to pull away. Few people paid by HOP & the driver was running out of change.
During the trip to Britomart, we passed by more people waiting at stops who were looking pretty frustrated. Guess they saw the scheduled service on the RTD and then we sail on by….
Getting into Britomart, I ended up chatting with a couple of cruise liner passengers who were looking at how they could get around Auckland on a short day trip. Quite a queue building up at the ticket counter at Britomart so think they gave up on any ideas of getting a day pass.
Although Auckland was buzzing and full of life on a beautiful sunny Sunday, with shops and cafes doing a roaring trade, still a bit disappointing to see that AT still don’t seem to be proactive enough for big events. I am still getting frustrated by the Devonport ferry loads as well, even if they are not as bad as buses, they need the Kea back in service or a similar sized replacement.
As I’ve commented before, along with others, *everything* about the public transport system should be analysed from the rider’s standpoint. AT has a hard time auditing their own service because they know too much. The average rider doesn’t know and doesn’t care, he just wants the bus/train/ox cart/what-have-you, to be on time, have a seat and get all the way to where he wants to go.
I commented last week – the post about 1 million rise in ridership in 5 months – that straining capacity has its downsides, potentially putting people off PT. Looks like it’s happening. Not unpredictable.
It’s hard to plan for peaks, because at all other hours – most of the time – fleet utilisation is low, and therefore costly. But having some buses to throw in as trippers makes basic sense. Problem with transit is that it has strong competition in, of all things, cars. People are used to cars, know what to do with them, find them very predicatable (It will start, you will have a seat, radio works), so it’s erally easy to go back. AT should be thinking very clearly about how to avoid that now.
This may be overstating the situation but this could be a defining moment for PT in Auckland. A lot of people are voting with their feet right now and choosing PT. That’s a dream situation. AT needs to be working very hard that they get the benefit of the doubt now before interest wanes.
PS: “March Madness” is a registered trademark of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. And they’re ruthless.
Totally agree now is the moment to pull out all the stops for PT. Literally pull out all the stops ie free flow. Now is the time to reboot all main roads with a protected cycle, PT and ped focus
Not just by Pohutakawas but fricken everywhere. Roadmarking is cheap and fast and there are numerous signal contractors in place. New plans, new layout.
When one neither believes in nor is willing to back one’s own product set, this is what you get. Wake up AT seniors, your bed is burning.
I linked this on to Reddit. Hope you don’t mind. 😛
In the context of a network that is growing it makes sense for AT and the operators to gear up for March each year. Any subsequent spare capacity will tend to be consumed by background patronage anyway.
But it is true the re-tendering of PT contracts has been greatly hampered by central government dilly-dallying (both Labour and National) over the new contracting model. The fact it’s taken us 10 years to implement a new contracting model is largely to blame for skyrocketing PT subsidies.
Given the funding issues with expanding our transport networks, having all transport unprimed or subsidised looks very silly right now.
That should read unpriced
March Madness 2015 – AT FAIL
There are some management actions that seem to be illogical.
1. All the 5 and 6-car train consists should be deployed on the Western line, with the 4-car trains redeployed on the Southern line. The Western is currently limited to a 15-minute frequency at peak, whereas the Southern has a 10-minute frequency and some of the busier stations also served by EMU’s on the Eastern line.
2. Relief buses should be short-starters rather than attempting to run the entire route. In the morning peak they should start about the point on the route where crowding starts on regular services, and at the end of the route return as “not in service” to the part way point to pick up another load. This way the relief bus can provide perhaps twice as many relief services as if it attempted the entire route.
3. If there are limitations in bus companies procuring more buses, surely AT could call for tenders for financing them as a lease directly, which would then be made available to an operator (as is practice with the trains). I believe bus lease through a bank is a requirement for bus franchise operators in Britain, to reduce problems should the franchisee not win a follow-up franchise.
I tried catching the bus yesterday – so I walked over 1km from my villa all the way to Onewa Rd only to find all the buses that went past were full. Not just full, full of people from poor suburbs like Beach Haven, Birkdale and Glenfield. I pay much more rates than the people who get on the bus earlier. AT should start reserving seats (maybe 20%) for us high rate payers who live only a stage or two from the city. When I did finally get on a bus, I had to stand the whole way, even though I subsidise the bus much more than all the people who were already sitting.
If Northcote Point residents hadn’t opposed the a busway interchange at the bottom of Onewa Rd, you wouldn’t have such an issue. As for reserving seats based on those who pay a % in rates – self entitled much?
I don’t want seats reserved based on those who pay a % in rates, I want seats reserved for those people who only a stage or two from the city. You young kids are always going on about inequality, how is it equality if people who live close to the city centre are always bypassed by full buses?
Kevin. You will be happy to know you do not subsidize that bus at all – it will be being run fully commercial.
What I don’t understand (if you really did walk over 1km at Northcote point) is why you didn’t walk the other way and catch a ride on the heavily subsidized ferry that would have had plenty of seats reserved for tossers like you.
For all those poor people in Beachhaven and Glenfield who have to bear with those rich people looking down on them (literally since they have to stand and while you have a seat), I understand that more buses have been ordered and are currently being fabricated as we speak, which should help (admittedly a bit to late).
The ferry only runs every half hour where as Onewa Rd has a bus every five minutes, and the ferry doesn’t stop near my work at Wynyard Quarter – perhaps that needs be changed if Wynyard is going to get to 70% non car goal.
If only there was some way we could get from Northcote Point to that new Westhaven Promenade that goes nowhere – and don’t say SkyPath – that’s just going to be crowded with cyclists who will piss on our lawns and wear out our historic concrete roads.
Honestly Kevin that’s pathetic. I also work in the Wynyard corner and it’s a pretty easy walk from the Ferry terminal over the nice, and popular pedestrian bridge to the Wynyard quarter area. Lazy much?
Haha taking the piss. Love it.
I have been working weekends in Mt Wellington recently and both the NEX and the Eastern line train have been very well patronised on the days I have used them. Several times now, I have had to wait for another NEX at Britomart (with a queue of people behind me) because the bus is full. Usually, there is standing room only by the time we leave town. On a Sunday! I wish AT would remember that people use these services at times other than 7-9am and 4-6pm week days.
AT are handicapping themselves by not meeting demand. This issue isn’t limited to March, I’ve been standing in bus and train door wells for years now.
Yep I’ve been taking the bus from Morningside the past two weeks since my bike is broken. I’ve travelled anywhere between 8:30 and 4:30, often just outside the peak, and my bus has been full every single time. I’ve had some completely full buses pass me as well, especially in the morning when heading to work.