Auckland Transport has finally got around to publishing the August PT patronage report, and the results in it are fairly spectacular:
The total patronage for August is the second highest month of the last nine years, just ahead of March 2010 and only behind March 2011. Here are the 10 busiest months since January 2002: 
Here’s a breakdown of the patronage details for August:
Things were certainly helped by August this year having an extra working day, plus the huge crowds that used public transport to attend the Bledisloe Cup game at Eden Park (around 18,000 rail travellers each way).
Once again the highest growth rates were on the rapid transit network, and in particular on the Western Railway Line, as we have seen over the past few months. But I am finding it particularly pleasing to see the significant increase in general bus patronage in August as well – up nearly 10% on the same month a year earlier. When bus patronage goes up a lot, so does general patronage. Ferries also went up a fairly spectacular 21%, it would be interesting to know the reason behind that.
Here are the longer term trends, confirming that August was the second highest month over the time analysed:
You can see that the moving average for total public transport is now above 5.5 million a month. That means on your typical day there are around 183,000 public transport trips around Auckland – obviously more on weekdays and less on weekends. This also probably helps explain why the system fell over on opening night of the Rugby World Cup when there were over 420,000 public transport trips during that day. We just don’t have a PT system designed to cope with such numbers… yet.
As I noted earlier, rail patronage cracked a million trips a month for only the second time in August. One would imagine that September and October also have a chance of breaking this figure due to World Cup crowds:
It’s particularly good to see this significant bump in patronage after July’s somewhat disappointing result.
Northern Express ridership also increased nicely, getting close to the record numbers set in March this year. It would seem that the extra buses put onto the Northern Express (in April just after the March boom, ironically) have worked quite well – enabling the numbers in August to be achieved seemingly without the massive overcrowding problems we saw in March:
Looking at the details of bus patronage changes around Auckland it’s worth noting the fairly high increase in passenger numbers on isthmus routes throughout Auckland. I wonder if that has anything to do with the new Link bus services that were introduced at that time? It would be useful for Auckland Transport to show how patronage on those services compares to numbers using previous routes once the data settles down a bit:
Overall August’s patronage numbers are pretty impressive, particularly on the Western Line, the ferries and on the bus network. It will certainly be interesting to see the results for September when they are released.
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It appears that August is always a big month. I wonder why that is.
I think we’ll continue to see this kind of growth for years, until the system creaks at the seams. 2014 trains will be either a little too late, or just in time, but very much needed. Britomart constraints must start showing up soon too.
August is a big month as it’s near the start of 2nd uni semester, has 31 days and is not the school holidays.
Interesting to see that the North sector has enjoyed strong the strongest growth of the four. I wonder why?
Previous reports have said the Northern and Southern sectors have seen the best growth because they are the ones that have had their bus routes redesigned (although there is probably a lot more that could be done). The Western routes are shocking and AT is only just really starting on the Isthmus ones at the moment with the likes of the new link services. Its also worth pointing out that these sectors don’t include RTN patronage so shouldn’t be used for a bus v rail debate.
As I pointed out here, the patronage reported for the Onehunga Line proper (as opposed to the part that’s a service on the Southern) works out to a daily average of over 850, which is more than 70% above ARTA’s projection of 500 passengers daily. Another example of how applicable the phrase “Build it, and they will come” is to Auckland’s public transport. People want to use public transport, but it has to be convenient and affordable. We’re getting there on the convenient in many areas, finally. Next stop, affordability, though not with the current Minister of Trucks clutching tightly to the purse strings.
The Western line patronage has been really taking off since the works associated with New Lynn have finished, I can only guess that people were wary of delays brought about by construction but now that the work is finished people are giving it a go. It will be really interesting to see the change in individual station usage if AT ever releases them.
Another thing is when you look at trips per person, over the last year it has increased from 41.8 to 44.8 and that’s also accounting for population growth over the same time. Its still pretty low by international standards but at least heading in the right direction.
over the last year it has increased from 41.8 to 44.8
That’s a per-capita jump of 7%. With Auckland’s continued population growth (which is spectacular in comparison with the rest of the country), these kinds of increases can be sustained for a long time.
I also wonder what effect having immigrants makes, in terms of cultural attitudes. I would expect that there are a great number of people coming from places (UK, China, India etc.) which don’t place such strong emphasis on personal car ownership, and where using a bus or train is entirely normal.