Subscribe to RSSHow To Kill The Northern Busway
The Northern Busway has been the shining success story for Auckland public transport.
Was, past tense.
Impressive increased patronage figures is also evident in feeder bus services - particularly those that link with the park and ride facilities in Albany and Constellation Drive.
My friends who use it have switched from using their car to parking and riding and smirk about sailing past the queues of slow moving cars as they roar in the Northern Express bus across the bridge towards Queen St.
This week, they all tell me they’re - reluctantly - going back to their cars, and they’re angry.
They say once bitten, twice shy , it was too good to last and other cliches, all reinforcing about how once again how some in charge don’t really get it when it comes to public transport.
How did they kill the busway? Easy.
The North Shore City council plans to start charging parking fees at the park and ride stations.
Free parking there was the main incentive for the public transport scheme and as my friends say, the fees take away the savings they made in going by bus.
Maybe, by the time you read this, the council accountants have had a re-think.
If they don’t, they give hundreds of North Shore people another good excuse to not use public transport.
7 Comments
Don’t blame the council. Blame central government. This is a result of their farebox receovery policy.
Yep, another example of National ripping apart Auckland’s transport infrastructure (whatever little there is), so people call for more roads when they’re back queuing in traffic and polluting the planet. How backwards can you get??
I don’t understand, isn’t it more expensive to park in the city than it is to pay for parking + the bus fare. I see it costs $8 a hour to park in the city — surely if you go for work it’s much cheaper to pay a dollar or two each day for parking on the North Shore and for a monthly pass on the Northern Express.
If I was in the same situation, I would continue to park there despite the cost of parking — or just catch one of the feeder buses. At the end of the day, CBD parking costs makes it an extremely unattractive option.
Yes, I will have an update shortly on the government’s role in this.
People would use the feeder bus services to get to the bus stations if there were decent connections. This is not the case in the evening due to no cross checking with the time tables.
ARTA aware of this but still did nothing about it. I moved to the other side to catch the train instead!
you gotta be kidding me!
The whole idea idea was to ATTRACT people! not scare them away!
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