KEY POINTS:
Traffic around the country was relatively smooth for the return to school this morning as the new $300m busway opened on Auckland's North Shore.
Transit's Auckland network manager Joseph Flanagan said congestion on the Northern Motorway started about 15 minutes earlier than normal but other motorways were no
different to last week.
Further south in Christchurch traffic was also at normal levels.
Transit's regional manager for Christchurch, Colin Knaggs, said there have been no reports from police or transit engineers of any problems.
Not all secondary schools in the region started back this morning but traffic cameras have not shown any unusual traffic backlogs.
Although selected buses have used Auckland's $300 million Northern Busway in a no-stop trial between Constellation Drive and Esmonde Rd since December, today was the first business day when local services can use all four stations on its 6.2km route.
Prime Minister Helen Clark led almost 1000 people on a celebratory walk along the two-lane road built by Transit NZ, next to the Northern Motorway, for the busway's inauguration at the weekend.
A fifth station has operated at Albany for two years, but buses from there will have to keep using shoulder lanes along the Northern Motorway to reach the start of the busway at Constellation Drive.
Although the 1.7km busway section between the new Smales Farm station in Westlake and the Akoranga station near Takapuna was shut to buses during the weekend's festivities, at least 100 "walking school bus" children joined those following the Prime Minister down the new road.
Dominique Cantin, 9, of Sunnybrae Normal Primary hoped the busway would help improve air quality by reducing cars.
Veteran event producer Logan Brewer, of Northcote, said the busway offered North Shore residents their first integrated transport system since the trams of his childhood and their connections with ferries were abolished in 1958. He hoped the busway would help to reconnect communities divided until now by the motorway.
North Shore mayor Andrew Williams, whose city council built and owns the five bus stations, invited those spending "the best part of an hour" commuting by car across the harbour bridge each day to consider the advantages of halving their travel times by catching buses.
North Shore City staff and helpers are ready to deal with passengers likely to be confused about bus connections and a new ticketing system, which lets passengers transfer from local buses to Northern Express services on single tickets.
The tickets entitle them to unlimited travel in two-hour, daily or weekly lots.
Northern Express services will be boosted today by 50 per cent to a five-minute frequency at peak times.
* COMMUTERS ANGRY AT BUS TRAVEL DISRUPTIONS
Not all bus patrons are happy about changes to services tailored to the new $300 million Northern Busway, and some are threatening to drive to work.
Although Milford resident Sue Proffitt found herself staging a one-woman protest among almost 1000 people who walked along the busway before its opening ceremony on Saturday, she said many of her neighbours shared her dismay at losing the 822 bus service between Castor Bay and central Auckland.
She said it had provided her with an efficient way to get to work for the past three years, taking between 30 and 40 minutes each day, compared with a crowded and unreliable alternative 858 service lucky to make it to Auckland in 70 minutes.
Although the authority has since suggested that passengers on the alternative service will be able to keep their trips to under 50 minutes by transferring to a Northern Express bus at the Smales Farm station, she said it was not mentioned when a brochure was distributed announcing the demise of the 822 buses.
