Subscribe to RSSBus Changes To Benefit Students
Auckland Transport says one benefit of the proposed changes to bus services would be the high frequency of buses going to the universities area for a low fare.
Auckland Transport is proposing to move the Mt Eden Rd b line service, which leaves every 10 minutes, to the front of Britomart for journeys to the universities area. The very low inner city fare, currently 50 cents, would be charged. For trips to the universities area this would provide the same journey as the City Circuit, which is proposed to be replaced with a five minute Inner City Service along Queen Street.
There are also plans to better promote services that leave at least every five minutes from the Britomart area to Auckland and AUT universities. This could include improvements to electronic real time passenger information.
Changes to the LINK route may also impact university students and staff. This would see the route moved from Victoria and Queen streets to run direct to the universities area along Wellesley St.
The changes would improve the reliability of the LINK by avoiding areas of high congestion.
Auckland Transport modelling says the improvements to make buses quicker and easier to use will increase the patronage by 10%.
You have until Friday to make submissions. I certainly have. Its easy and doesn’t take long.
The stated changes are:
New Outer Loop service – Similar to the LINK, this 15 minute frequency service would connect suburbs surrounding the CBD. This would provide many more connections for people going between Parnell, Newmarket, Mt Eden, Dominion Rd, St Lukes,Unitec, Pt Chevalier, Herne Bay, College Hill and Wynyard Quarter. It will replace the LINK for journeys between Ponsonby, Britomart, Parnell and Newmarket.
New inner city service – Running every five minutes 7am to 7pm and every 10 minutes at other times. This service would link Karangahape Rd with Britomart via Queen Street with every alternate trip servicing Wynyard Quarter. This service would replace the City Circuit.
Better connections to Wynyard Quarter – The 010 bus, which comes from Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Western Springs and Pt Chevalier, would be extended to Wynyard Quarter. The area would also be well served by both the frequent inner city service and the Outer Loop.
New Western Bays routes – Areas not covered by the new Outer Loop (Freemans Bay, Richmond Rd, Westmere and the tip of Pt Chevalier) would be served by two new routes. To speed up trips they would run from Britomart via Albert St instead of Queen St.
High quality new buses - Introducing new high quality buses, similar to the LINK, on the new inner city and outer loop services. They will exceed Euro 5 emission standards, be wheelchair-accessible, air conditioned, and have more seated passenger capacity. Auckland Transport and NZ Bus are also investigating options for introducing the latest technology hybrid-electric buses to the Auckland CBD.
3 Comments
The 15-minute frequency for the Outer Loop seems to be a big downside. At present the Link provides a 10-minute frequency from Britomart to Parnell, which allows for good connections for passengers from the ferries and Northern Express, as well as many tourists heading to the Museum and the shops at Parnell and Newmarket.
Any high-visibility service like this needs to have 10-minute frequencies as a minimum. In fact I have thought for some time that the Link service needed to move to 5-min frequencies at peak time.
15min is hopeless for a loop service. With 15min services you will need to look at a timetable, but as it is a loop it will never stick to its timetable.
Newmarket should be the timing point a this seems to be the quietest point of the service.
Hopefully the real-time displays will work properly for this service because they are essential for most stops on the service.
This uni service should be free for those transferring when the hop is up and running, as well as the City Circuit.
Will be good for rail and NEX passengers especially, but every 5mins not 10mins is necessary.