This guest post by Christina Robertson looks at how the frequent network is so much more than an orange bus. Christina is a City Vision member of the Albert-Eden Local Board and a long-time rider of the OuterLink. The views presented here are her own.
Back in 2011, when it arrived in time for the Rugby World Cup, the OuterLink was a game-changer. It was the first frequent route across the isthmus, linking key destinations like St Lukes, Newmarket, the universities, Ponsonby and MOTAT. Alongside its siblings, the InnerLink and CityLink, the colourful branding stood out and made the case for a network that connected suburbs not just to the city centre, but to each other.
I was as excited as anyone about this new crosstown service, having spent my high school years catching one bus into Khyber Pass and then another out again, just to get from Sandringham to Epsom. (It was faster to walk the 4km directly – and much cheaper, especially before integrated fares – so a couple of days each week, I did just that.)
Also new was the idea of a service that was so frequent you didn’t even need a timetable. Every 15 minutes, all day long, you could just turn up – and a bus will be along any minute. It’s hard to overstate how revolutionary this was.
Fast forward to 2024, and Auckland has now fully embraced the idea of the frequent network, with turn-up-and-go frequencies on most arterials. With the success of the InnerLink and OuterLink having proven the demand for crosstown travel across the isthmus, east-west journeys are now also served by routes 64, 650, 66 (the beach express!), 670 and 68.
Crosstown buses with all-day frequency are especially important for journeys beyond the 9-5 peak commute. These diverse non-commuter trips make up the majority of travel in our city, and are also more likely to be made by women and children. Connecting neighbourhoods to each other makes it easier to run errands, drop a child at school or daycare, or visit family and friends.
An intersecting network of frequent routes with easy transfers makes more destinations accessible all day. And a network is much more than the sum of its parts, as most recently seen in the rapid growth of patronage on the new network in Auckland’s northwest.
What’s wrong with a bunch of oranges?
But going back to the big orange bus that began this boom: the initial strength of the OuterLink (a loop route circling around many of central Auckland’s major destinations) is also its worst downside and biggest bugbear for many of those who use it.
The key issue is that loops are much more prone than linear routes to bunching. In simple terms, buses get stuck in traffic and catch up to each other. The longer the route, the worse this effect is, and the OuterLink is a very long route.
[Ed: as the Greater Auckland archive shows, this issue was pointed out at the route’s inception, and has been the subject of vigorous discussion and proposed redesigns for over a decade.]
The OuterLink is the proverbial jack of all trades and master of none. It was designed when we had few to no crosstown options, so it has always tried to do as much as possible, at the cost of doing none of it very well.
Waiting for an orange bus can feel like the old saying: you wait ages for a bus, and then three come along at once. The OuterLink promotes itself on frequency and freedom from timetables, but I often find myself looking anxiously at the live bus tracker, wondering if one will be there when I need it, or bunched somewhere else on the circuit.
This bunching is also the reason for the well-known and unbeloved Victoria Park Pause and what I’d like to christen the St Lukes Shuffle, where passengers often have to get off one bus and transfer to the one ahead.
Unbunching the OuterLink
The solution, which will be implemented as part of Auckland’s newest Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP), is to unknot the loop in order to give the route a reliable beginning and an endpoint.
The OuterLink will still travel most of its former circuit, in both directions – but running back and forth from each end of the new route (St Lukes to Newmarket via the city centre and vice-versa) will make for a much more reliable service, one that truly fulfils the OuterLink’s promise of frequency and freedom.
The major change – as can be seen by comparing the above map of the new route (PDF version here) with the original route map below – is to the southern section between St Lukes and Newmarket via Mt Eden. This has always been a particularly circuitous portion of the Outer Link route, meandering via Balmoral, Valley Road, Mt Eden Village and Manukau Road.
After the changes, passengers looking to travel this southern section will have a choice between:
- an enhanced route 64 between St Lukes and Newmarket, via Grafton
- a newly frequent route 65, running in a direct line between Point Chevalier and Glen Innes via St Lukes, Balmoral and Greenlane.
Additionally, secondary school students will benefit from a new school bus between St Lukes and Epsom schools. Auckland Transport also is upgrading the transfer points at major intersections such as Mt Eden Rd/Greenlane Rd, bringing bus stops closer together, adding shelter and wayfinding, and improving pedestrian crossings.
These changes were consulted on last year as part of the RPTP, including a dedicated consultation page setting out the proposed changes to the OuterLink in the context of the central bus network. The proposal also addressed concerns raised in previous consultations in 2016 and 2019.
Public feedback on the changes was strongly supportive, calling out the inefficiency and unreliability of the loop route. Following consultation, the plan was finalised and adopted in November, and implementation is now well under way.
Communicating the changes for better
The OuterLink has been part of central Auckland life for over a decade, and some people who use the route are understandably concerned that the changes might mean a loss of service.
The main gap in the new central bus map is between the Dominion Road town centres and Mt Eden Village. This could be filled by a tweak to the 64 route, which at the moment runs between Kingsland and Newmarket via Mt Eden and Grafton, patching the gap in the Western Line until Maungawhau Station reopens. The RPTP extends the 64 down Sandringham Road to St Lukes. The Albert-Eden Local Board has proposed to Auckland Transport that after the City Rail Link opens, the 64 should run via Dominion Road instead, connecting St Lukes, Balmoral, Dominion Road and Mt Eden Village – a real town centre express.
Unfortunately, a few politicians – not ones usually known for their support of a vibrant and well-funded public transport network – have been belatedly playing on these concerns, at the risk of undermining what will be a more usable and reliable network for many more people.
In August, the C&R-affiliated chair of the Albert-Eden Local Board, Kendyl Smith, presented to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee’s August meeting to express concerns over the consultation, alongside the chair of the Mt Eden Business Association, Frances Loo, who praised the OuterLink for its patronage and popularity and argued against the changes.
In fact, the OuterLink’s boardings per service hour are distinctly average – outperformed in January-June 2024 not only by stars like the 25, 27 and 70, but also by the four-year-old 64. The OuterLink’s total patronage is mostly attributable to the length of the route, which, at nearly 25km, is longer than any other isthmus bus route (even the legendary – and legendarily long – 70 to East Auckland, which still outperforms it handily on total boardings).
As for popularity: during March Madness 2024, the OuterLink’s punctuality was a dire 68.2%; and its 15% passenger dissatisfaction rate is nearly twice the average over all of AT’s routes.
Referring to the upcoming changes, the local board chair was concerned that a ‘lack of clear consultation’ could undermine faith in both Council and AT. In fact, the OuterLink changes are a consultation good-news story: AT has listened and responded, not only to the 2023 RPTP feedback, but also to issues raised back in 2016 and 2019.
Moreover, AT has presented on the issue a number of times to the local board, and has heard our feedback: once the CRL opens, they’ve committed to investigating the alternative route for the 64 via the Dominion Rd town centres. Listening to local concerns and incorporating local knowledge while pursuing the overall good of the citywide network is exactly how this should work.
The network is so much more than the orange bus
This belated surge of interest in the upcoming changes – resulting in national coverage on RNZ – perhaps reflects the other strength-turned-downside of the OuterLink: its branding. In 2011, the bright colours of the Link family sold Aucklanders on the value of crosstown travel. In 2024, even people who don’t take buses recognise the orange bus.
(Of course, the sudden interest could also simply be opportunism: choosing a hi-vis topic, playing on understandable uncertainties, and raising false expectations that a plan adopted last year can be suddenly unravelled, to sow a few seeds for next year’s local government campaign.)
What they should also know (and maybe try for themselves) is how vastly the network has improved since 2011. The network, like the needs of those who use it, is much bigger than any one route – even the most visible and familiar one. Regular bus riders know the frustration of waiting at the bus stop, and know that the changes will give us more frequency and better reliability.
It’s neither necessary nor helpful to politicise a long-overdue refresh that enhances the overall network. Rather than fighting to preserve in amber a route that was designed before we had the frequent network and crosstown services we have today, we should fight for services that work, that take people where they need to go, and that turn up on time. With a reliable new OuterLink route, a frequent 65, and a better 64, we can have the best of all worlds.
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Excellent explainer, thanks.
I like “preserved in amber” for the bus colour! It’s a pity that the colourful buses are limited to signature routes. “Other” routes are single-livery so that buses can switch between routes as necessary, but the Midnight/Road urban camouflage of most of the fleet is a limitation of happy colours. The mix of blue, yellow, silver and grey of the train fleet is still very smart, but blue grey and yellow for NX got drabbed-down to blue and grey for the standard livery. A livery change will be quite expensive for the fleet as a whole, but a gradual change for new buses might be worth considering.
Yeah that livery was a bit disappointing IMO. Birkenhead Transport was sometimes ridiculed for having such an old fashioned livery, but there was a window in time where you could see both on the streets, and the old livery was really obviously better. Much more visible in a lot of situations.
Bring back a yellow like the ARA days. So much easier to see than dark grey and dark blue.
And the advertisements make it more difficult again. Currently, an orange advertisement on the back of some Inner Links make them look like Outer Links, if approached from behind in the rain / evening light.
Yes amazing how in the corner of your eye (due to looking down at their app and such, lol) you see a dark mass approaching and panic when it’s just a dark truck or similar. So you are trained to be so sensitive to that and next minute your bus wizzes past.
I like the Wellington lime kind of green they have, stands out well.
*trained to not be so sensitive to that …
100% to bring back the ARA Yellow!
Auckland’s own version of the iconic red London bus.
Yellow is supposed to be AT’s designated colour for public transport too, in all the design guidelines (green for active modes, blue for cars)
A sorta-inversion of the current bus livery – a yellow background with deep blue embelishments – could be an eye-catching alternative IMO?
Or something with ‘Shore Blue’ which seems to be the new main colour – I do think the Mission Electric livery on the electric double decker isn’t half-bad
Yes, “Mission Electric” is a nice colour scheme in all respects.
Thanks for the article. Hopefully my days of waiting ~30 minutes for the bunched OuterLinks to make it out of Newmarket some evenings are numbered!
Progress, there will always be a few that dislike change, but in the end, public transit must serve everybody, and businesses require patronage to function.
The better our rapid transit network, the better for businesses.
Colour is very important, our buildings and footpaths generally carry a tone of grey or beige, and our dress sense is in general rather morbid, even if you believe that black is the new black is the new black. My kids will count buses but an orange bus is an orange bus and a green bus is a green bus and a red bus is a red bus and fire trucks are also red…B E C A U S E nothing is black and white grey is horrifically tedious.
Bus is the first three letters of business, the first three letters of busy, and the first three letters of busted.
More public transport, less private motor vehicles.
Less private motor vehicles, less ram-raids on businesses.
We are the biggest city in this land, and we need to add a few million more inhabitants to be taken seriously on a global scale. This means apartment living and reliable public transport.
As a city we a shuffling in the progressive direction, despite what central government might try to slow us down on.
We are bigger than Wellington, and as proud JAFAs, proud Tamaki Makaurauns, proud citizens of the city; we deserve good public transport and good apartment living.
bah humbug
No. No. No. For those of us in Mt Eden the WHOLE POINT of the Outer Link is that it LINKS St Lukes with Dominion Rd and Mt Eden. It’s the most useful part of the loop. This proposed change is nonsensical and clearly no-one consulted people who use that part of the route. This is a dreadful proposal. Sure, sometimes the buses bunch, but dropping a chunk of the route creates other problems, and is a reduction in usability. I’ll be back to resorting to car again, as I often use it for the Mt Eden Rd to Dominion Rd linkages. If this proposal stands, one bus trip becomes three trips. Bureaucracy at its worst.
…isn’t that sorta what’s being proposed? once Maungawhau station opens and the 64 isn’t needed for the Kingsland-Newmarket section, shift that to fill in the exact St Lukes-Eden Valley-Mt Eden-Newmarket leg that’s being cut out of the Outer Link. Why not accept that the change to the Outer Link is being made and advocate for the next best solution going forward? There are other improvements that would make transfers less of a hassle, like improving frequency from 15 minutes to 10 minutes and coordinating transfers at St Lukes.
“clearly no-one consulted people who use that part of the route”… three whole rounds of consultation (four if you count the original New Network), I struggle to believe that at least some users of the outer link’s crosstown leg weren’t consulted.
I’m with you. I live mid Dominion Rd & use it to get to Eden village and Newmarket or in reverse to get back. Thanks but not thanks
I live near Balmoral and my plan for trips to Mt Eden Village is the 65 up to Mt Eden Rd, then transfer to the 27. Or if I’m starting from further up Dominion Rd, the 25 to the top of View Rd, then walk down to the village or use the 27 to adjust as necessary. Or the 64 up Valley Rd.
I definitely agree a Balmoral-Dominion Rd-Mt Eden Village connection is useful, so I was really pleased AT took up the board’s suggestion to review the 64 post-CRL and consider routing it via Dominion Rd.
This will technically make life a little more difficult for people going from Mt Eden Rd (between Valley Rd and Balmoral Rd) to Dominion Rd, which is unfourtunate.
However it also makes life easier for anyone north of there, and obviously benefits the rest of the network considerably.
Literally any time you alter a bus route, you are going to make life more difficult for someone, but you should still make those reforms if it makes bus network as a whole better,
“This proposed change is nonsensical and clearly no-one consulted people who use that part of the route. ”
Or it was clear from ticketing data that the number of users benefitting from the changes was much greater than those disadvantaged. The consultation that happened isn’t there to ensure that no-one is worse off.
Thanks, Christina. You’ve helpfully linked to the long history of these changes and have given a description of the improvements. Thanks for touching on the politics of the situation.
It’s disappointing that C&R don’t advocate for the many people these changes will benefit. Their website promises they “believe that success will not come from the tired old ways of doing things”, and claims C&R stands for, “Doing the basics well” and “Responsible Spending” (amongst other things). Yet C&R’s advocacy to prevent a network upgrade departs from what they promise. The Outer Link is a “tired old” service; advocating for preserving it interferes with AT “doing the basics well”, and amounts to preventing “responsible spending”.
Hopefully, AT will hold their position this time. Good networks are not designed politically
It’d be nice if the C&R and City Vision Local Board members could work together and ask AT for clarification on improvements at the “key transfer locations”. AT say on the project page:
“Following the consultation in 2019, AT paused the project for the following reasons:
… 2. We needed to consider what improvements could be made to bus stop infrastructure at key transfer locations to make it easier and safer to change from one bus to another.”
Will improvements be made? Transfers on these key routes are poor. Still. This long after the New Network team planned for huge improvements. Please, this is so overdue. Some political pressure to get bus stops near all the key corners would be very welcome. The issues are not difficult to grasp; it’s all about traffic flow obsession vs a functioning bus network.
They seem to be already making some changes. At the Mt Eden Rd/Balmoral Rd intersection they are moving one bus stop closer to the traffic lights – presumably to make transfers easier.
Here’s the feedback we resolved on the Mt Eden Rd/Balmoral Rd interchange (item 15): https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2024/05/20240523_AE_MIN_12492_WEB.htm
It was a work in progress the last time I went past but the changes are looking pretty good – visible wayfinding, closer bus stops, safer crossings to the islands. Manukau Rd/Greenlane Rd is next up.
Thanks, Christina.
The Manukau Rd intersection is particularly critical for people visiting the Greenlane Clinic; this intersection requires accessibility co-designed with discerning users who have different mobility understanding. Is that something you could point out and request?
I realise from the feedback that AT is barely involving the Local Board in these designs, yet I’d still love it if AT was reminded that slip lanes are not good practice; “safer crossings to the islands” is lipstick on a pig. To achieve the halving of VKT that our families need for a healthy transport system (and that is Council policy), all these intersections and arterials need to go on a diet. The way to get bus stops at the corners is to reduce the number of traffic lanes.
Slip lanes are superior as it means the distance across the main part of the road is reduced making it easier to cross – especially for those that are mobility challenged.
AT wonders why it runs out of money – yet it’s going around spending hundreds of thousands (the ridiculous cost of which is another story), converting slip lanes into regular intersections.
Realist, how much tarmac fumes have you been inhaling?
1. “the distance across the main part of the road is reduced” don’t make me laugh. an awful lot of slip lanes are tacked onto already overwrought multilane intersections and clearly only used to convenience left-turning traffic, not to reduce the size of the intersection or make things safer for pedestrians.
2. Most of the sliplanes I’ve had the displeasure of crossing as a pedestrian have NO zebra crossings; and so are as much a danger to cross as an uncontrolled interactions. just another game of ‘will this driver slow to let me cross the road’ russian roulette.
Thanks Christina I’ve shared this with my neighbours as we’re all affected and some of their kids use the bus to get to school. I’m crying a bit about the missing bit but hopefully once CRL magic happens the 64 can be fixed up. No doubt we’ll adapt
bunching is not limited to circular routes. The 13 basically goes along Te Atatu Road all day and I quite frequently see two about a stop apart:) Largely due to the sh!tshow getting off the Peninsula
When you say “ The Albert-Eden Local Board has proposed to Auckland Transport that after the City Rail Link opens, the 64 should run via Dominion Road”, where did you get this information? I am the only Board Member still advocating this and the only one insisting AT change their mind and I’m pushing the board to make a resolution in support, but NOTHING yet.
Thanks, Jose. In the link Christina has provided above (in reply to me) there is this resolution the Local Board made:
l) request that Auckland Transport review the 64 route after Maungawhau Station opens and consider routing it along Dominion Road, noting that Kingsland will then be connected by rail services to Mt Eden, while the Dominion Road town centre will no longer have a direct connection to the Mt Eden town centre after the crosstown bus changes.
MAGS students are many a victim of the “St Lukes Shuffle”. This post was so relatable it felt like me and my friends discussing the shortcomings of our commute on the outerlink, great job!
It would be handy if AT put up an updated map all the the related routes together. There is one on the old 2019 consultation brochure but that has the shorter version of the 64 (640 back then) and who knows what other minor changes since.
We live on Balmoral road and the Outer Link has been a vital part of our daily family travel. None of the new or alternate options listed in the article will work for us to replace the Outer Link. Great that some people will be better off but I’m not sure what we are going to do. For us a bad service is better than no service.
The new #64 and school bus special will be High used by BOTH the proposed Students AND the general public. Noting that School special fills that gap removed in changes of service to St Luke’s to Newmarket horseshoe section used by many. Despite School designated title, expect others to use that service off peak travel times to get about Central Epsom especially for elderly, mobility impacted, Green Lane Hospital patients whom live along the Double horseshoe section.
Security of off peak hours connections and need of transfers will affect many attempt to make appointment schedules for work, interview, safe dry travel and more. Especially mobility challenged by age or health conditions.
Lack of confidence in Eden Albert community board and AT unchanged after past Outer Link service reviews. Results confirmed in surgical changes to handicap vulnerable users in Epsom Electoral zone.
Hiding behind social media and hidden surveys of predetermined structured outcomes, AT has done much to undermine confidence of Public Transport users once again.
Few are actually aware of the pending November 2024 changes to be thrust upon them.
The #64 route should follow the school bus route proposed to cater for the passengers to be most inconvenienced by surgical changes to Orange bus service.
The location of new bus stops at major intersections is mega ripple effects network accidents / Injury awaiting prediction of long term residents, whom are aware of past dangerous stops removed over 30 yrs ago. Short memories of the decision makers.
Feedback of a few inconvenienced and frustrated, weighted against common sense a no d experience of the local frequent users across all time periods of existing service times 6 am to after midnight.
Entertainment, hospitality, general commuters will be most affected, that include the workers employment in such industry groups.