With current alternative public transport options, her round trip will take five hours every day.
Neate told the Herald it’s concerning to think that her daughter will need to be on public transport for a long period of time that could otherwise be attributed to her studies.
“There’s an element of her safety that I’m concerned about because she’s a young girl travelling by herself,” she said.
“That’s also five hours out of her day where she could be studying because I don’t really think it’s that practicable to study on a train or a bus.”
Neate has also tried other avenues for assistance, to no avail.
“We tried to get her a scholarship for being rural or out of zone but because she’s within the Auckland City boundaries, she doesn’t qualify, and they don’t take into account the travel time,” she said.
“Because we work as parents, she doesn’t qualify for any student allowance so if she wants to live in [university] halls to stop having to travel, she has to fund that herself.
“I just don’t think from an education point of view, they’ve put anything in place to encourage anyone to want to go to university.”
Auckland Transport (AT) have acknowledged the impacts of the disruptions to thousands of students like Jorja.
“We understand this is a challenging time for public transport users and we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our customers.
AT is looking to implement AT Local in Pukekohe in mid-2023, subject to funding.
“This is a ride-share service which connects people to public transport. We introduced this service in Takaanini and Papakura in 2021 which we have received great feedback from locals who have flocked to the service.”
KiwiRail is undertaking a major upgrade of the Auckland rail network over the next few years, in preparation for the City Rail Link (CRL) opening.
The CRL is New Zealand’s largest transport infrastructure project ever.
There are several upgrades being done to improve Auckland’s railway network and KiwiRail general manager Jon Knight says there is much work to be done to raise the existing network to a modern metro standard.
Knight said KiwiRail’s focus is on the foundations the tracks sit on - some of which are around 150 years old.
“It is a massive job, which involves taking up the track, digging down up to two metres, and replacing the rock base that the tracks sit on,” he said.
“The tracks then have to be put back in. And this has to be done across around 20 per cent of the entire 184km Auckland network.”
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has funded KiwiRail’s railway programme – the Rail Network Rebuild – which will focus on repairing the underlying foundations of the tracks.
A number of temporary speed restrictions have been put in place across the network, to ensure safety – resulting in longer journey times, which has frustrated commuters.
Knight says KiwiRail and AT are making significant strides to ensure minimal impacts on commuters.
“KiwiRail and AT need to make sure most of the work is done before CRL opens, while minimising the impact on commuters.
“That is why we are taking a staged approach, where one section of the network will be closed for work and trains can keep running on the rest of it. Because the stages move around the network, different people will be impacted at different times – depending on where they live and where they need to get to.”
There are still concerns about the convenience of alternative commuter services with the shortage of bus drivers. There is a nationwide shortage of 800 bus drivers, 500 of those are required in Auckland.
The ongoing driver shortage has been compounded by drivers calling in sick during a particularly bad flu season and Covid-19.
New statistics, published in the Weekend Herald, show almost 270,000 scheduled bus trips have been cancelled already in 2022 - a significant rise on previous years.
