The Auckland bus network is best described as resembling what happens when you throw spaghetti at a wall. Complex, confusing, counter-intuitive and very difficult to understand. Furthermore, there are some incredibly bizarre anomalies in the bus system that I simply can’t make sense out of.
Like what’s up with the 018 bus?
It runs just once a day, from Herne Bay of all places to Otahuhu – of all places. It only runs in the morning – at the lovely hour of 5.45am and there’s no return trip, so too bad if you wanted to get home! I wonder if anyone ever uses this bus, maybe I should do a LGOIMA request of Auckland Transport to find out.
Another candidate must surely be the 550 bus. It must be Auckland’s shortest route – running from Otahuhu to Otahuhu in about five minutes. The map below shows its route:
It doesn’t even connect to the train station, and at weekends operates at the brilliant frequencies of around one bus every two hours!
Knowing the efficiency (or lack thereof) of Auckland’s bus system, I can almost imagine that the bus operating this route would do its five minute run, then sit in the same place for almost two hours before doing another five minute run.
What other silly bus routes are out there? And how can we eliminate much of the stupidity of Auckland’s bus network so it operates more efficiently? Surely that second question must be at the top of Auckland Transport’s mind, as they’re in a situation of rising patronage without rising funding.
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Great stuff Admin, let’s have a bit of a contest to see who can add to the list. I know Paul Mees will put them in his next book.
It’s hard to imagine now, but Otahuhu was, during the 1960s through mid 1980s, a strong industrial working class suburb, with people employed in the meatworks, the rail workshops, car manufacturing, and other light and heavy industrial and processing jobs. It may have been the case that this 018 route provided steady patronage in the morning runs. Herne Bay and Ponsonby haven’t been working class since the 1980s, so I suspect this route is something that is better found in a museum.
Seaside Park is an isolated isthmus, a long walk from anything. It’s worth the trip to satisfy your curiosity. So you can see what was in their minds decades ago when they commissioned the route – providing a service of last resort for those otherwise unable to use motorvehicles. The 550 served the carless housewives and invalids during the day. However, it doesn’t even go as far as Great South Road, so I’m skeptical of its use to workers even in previous decades.
So yes, there’s a case for reexamining every bus route in the entire greater Auckland region. Not a single one should be spared scrutiny. There is a role for buses as a social service to those unable to access cars for some reason, but there are costs to this, obviously. It may simply be cheaper to give invalids and similar living in remote suburbs taxi chits to use for their weekly shopping. I don’t know. Just putting it out there.
Hey, I used to play football at Seaside Park, the 550 was better than nothing.
These sorts of routes do reflect a desire to meet coverage goals like “a bus stop within 500m” of every home. These goals are admirable, but need to be considered in the wider context of how much money that is available. AT should decide how much of their budget they want to spend on patronage vs coverage services (eg 90/10) and design the best network accordingly. That may mean that some houses, such as those as Seaside Park, are more than 500m from a bus stop – but you will end up with a much better network.
Routes like the 550 could have a place, but surely you could do it smarter like making it run from Otahuhu East to Onehunga via Mangere Road, or something like that – connecting to the train station at Otahuhu and eventually providing a good connection between places in Mangere and the Onehunga train station.
I think these coverage goals could be provided by a separate, dedicated service. Just put a dial-a-ride service in that area together with the main route. A person would phone up the day before or 2 hours before (the wait is needed to that more people have the time to phone in and ride together) and get a service to their front door.
This leaves the normal bus routes to focus on getting patronage, while the “social service” needs are still met through a dedicated service that is more useful than a fixed schedule, fixed route bus service.
You can have your cake and eat it too.
Taxis could be used for this dial a ride service as well. So instead of sitting around for 2 hours or whatever and then doing a 5 minute run, the taxi could just start doing its normal taxi business. If the taxis are smart card enabled (I don’t know do they take snapper on taxis?) then you could also charge normal bus fares for this kind of journey.
They take Snapper in Wellington Combined taxis, although that isn’t much help in Auckland. 😉
A bridge from East Tamaki to Seaside park for a train that runs between Botany and Westfield Station would eliminate the need for this bus route (dreams are free)
The 550 is like the soon-to-be Tank Farm Tram Loop, but with an extension leading to a park.
Except the tram loop is an obvious first step towards a useful and necessary link to Britomart, whereas the 550 is just…. well, I’m not quite sure how to describe it.
In my area, the 643 runs just once a day too and it’s actually a school bus! I don’t know why it’s still on the public timetable.
The 695X does just one return trip a day, and deserves an award for false advertising. This so-called “express” service is *slower* than the regular 625-655 buses, because it helpfully bypasses the new Remuera Rd bus lanes. In addition, it’s actually an all stops service – the “express” sign is just for decoration! No wonder there’s plenty of empty seats on this one.
Yeah the 695X takes 50 minutes to go from Glen Innes to Britomart. The train takes around 13 minutes to do the same trip.
I lnow its an old thread ,but just FYI in case someone goes looking for it:
As of Sunday 9 February 2014, the 695X bus is no longer operational according the AT website.
http://www.maxx.co.nz/info/service-updates/bus-service-changes-starting-from-sunday-9-february.aspx
should be easy to add the 550 route onto an existing route terminating at Otahuhu. Maybe combine it with a route that does the Panama Road loop and back to Otahuhu. Alternatively could be an extension of a Mangere – Favona – Otahuhu station – Otahuhu town route or similar.
I have always found the feeder bus for the Northcote Pt ferry that is run by Birkenhead Transport to be a pretty useless route. It is a fantastic idea in theory, however there is no information published about the route anywhere. It seems to run at random times. It doesnt appear to be synched with the ferry timetable. I have never seen anyone actually on the bus as it goes down Onewa road.
Likewise, in terms of poor signage and useless timetables, the Birkenhead Transport bus that goes to University of Auckland is like a lucky dip. Who knows when it is scheduled to run.
I’m a bus driver in Australia. In Darwin there used to be a bus (Route 74) which ran from the Interchange to the Hospital every 40mins. The hospital is just 500 metres from the interchange. The ‘average’ time to complete the trip was 3mins – unless you got caught at the red light.
Anyone know if routes 018 and 550 are still operating?
550 changed bus number to 324( same route but has extended it service to mangere town centre) in the new bus network and is now hourly
550 changed to 324( same route but has extended it service to mangere town centre) in the new bus network and is now hourly