Big drive to get us taking the bus

By JASON COLLIE

Auckland's four metropolitan councils are setting aside almost $12.5 million from rates to improve public transport in the next year.

The $12.5 million, which is subject to annual plans being passed, will be on top of the $32 million in subsidies the Auckland Regional Council pays transport companies.

The moves include:

* Bus priority lanes - and other ways to speed buses past the 92 per cent of Aucklanders who do not use public transport - getting the biggest push.

* Cleaner and safer bus and rail stops.

* More park-and-ride depots.

* More frequent bus services and new routes, with better timetable information and plans to negotiate one ticket for buses, rail and ferries.

The initiatives may seem small in comparison to the planned $1 billion rapid-transit network.

But they will be in place much sooner, and the planners hope they will do much to address commuters' gripes about convenience, comfort and cost.

Such improvements to the public transport network are held to be vital to complement rapid-transit schemes in future years.

The multipronged measures are also needed to coax more than the present 8 per cent of travellers on to public transport, says Auckland City Council public transport development manager Roger Matthews.

"The problem Auckland has had in public transport since the 1920s is that we keep going for these king-hit, silver-bullet solutions we can never get going. We need to get a whole series of small steps we can bite off one at a time."

He sees the growth in bus passengers along bus-lane areas Mt Eden and Dominion Rds as a real gain.

But the big battle is winning over those who climb behind the wheel of their cars every morning and night.

Car-bound commuters responding to the Herald's Getting Auckland Moving campaign complain about unreliable transport services which do not go where they want to go. They also point to delays swapping from one service to another, high costs and long waits in Third World facilities.

However, the regional land transport chairman, Les Paterson, says public transport gets positive feedback from those who have switched over. The task is convincing car drivers to give it a chance.

The regional council plans to increase the $32 million in ratepayer subsidies it pays to operators by about 20 per cent in the next four years for new routes and more frequent services.

And the Government is signalling a boost to its contributions for subsidised services which will help the regional council to do even more.

Local body budgets across the region range from millions to just a few hundred thousand next year, but Manukau's infrastructure manager, Chris Freke, says: "In terms of what councils can do, it's mainly around providing support and infrastructure, and there are reasonably limited opportunities to do that."

Auckland City has committed $6 million a year from June towards public transport.

Waitakere has $80,000 set aside, with a proposal for a further $500,000 a year for five years for park-and-ride facilities.

North Shore plans to spend at least $5.4 million a year for the next three years, although much of that is for the rapid-transit busway beside the Northern Motorway.

Manukau's draft annual plan proposes $590,000 for rapid transit, park and ride and station improvements.

The improvements planned include: Bus lanes and bus-friendly traffic lights

Dedicated bus lanes do more than shave minutes off a bus trip, says Stagecoach Auckland's operations manager, Harold Williams. They also guarantee more reliability.

Morning passenger numbers last year increased more than 18 per cent in Mt Eden Rd, more than 10.5 per cent in Dominion Rd and almost 7.5 per cent in Sandringham Rd on 1998. There have been similar gains in the evening.

What was a 12-minute morning bus journey along Dominion Rd has been cut to about eight minutes. Motorists, on the other hand, complain that the loss of a lane has lengthened their travel time.

"It definitely helps when people see the buses hammering past in the traffic," says Mr Williams. "People can see the advantage in public transport, particularly with the new bus priority lanes making us more reliable."

Buses First - a partnership between Auckland City, the regional council, Stagecoach, the police and Bus and Coach Association - won an Energy Wise Award last month because of these measures.

Bus lanes and the traffic signal recognition system giving buses green lights through intersections are now planned for Great South Rd, Ponsonby Rd, Jervois Rd and Fanshawe St, along with an extension of the scheme in Great North Rd.

Auckland is also working with Manukau City on bus priority measures on the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway into Pakuranga Rd, leading to Pakuranga and Howick.

The bus lane in Onewa Rd, Northcote, running down to the Harbour Bridge approaches, is one of the granddaddys of priority lanes in Auckland.

The North Shore City Council wants to add priority lanes on the neighbouring Lake Rd and Wairau, Forrest Hill, Taharoto, Shakespeare and Esmonde Rds as part of the $130 million busway.

North Shore may also cast its net wider, with a further 14 smaller local lanes being investigated.

Waitakere is planning to put in bus lanes over the next three months in Lincoln and Triangle Rds to speed buses through intersections, while longer term it is also looking at one in Te Atatu Rd.

Buses will also get the jump on cars out west, with an increase of traffic signal pre-emption in New Lynn, says council roading traffic manager Roger Ward.

Park and ride Waitakere's draft annual plan has set aside $2.5 million in the next five years for park and ride, with Westgate, Bruce McLaren Rd and either the Lincoln Rd or Te Atatu Rd motorway interchanges the likely sites for motorists to quit their cars for buses.

Auckland City will put its proposed park and ride facility in Panmure for 500 to 800 vehicles at the top of its priority list once rail corridor negotiations with Tranz Rail are settled and rail services increased, according to Mr Matthews.

The success of such plans will hang on moving the Auckland rail terminus closer to downtown Auckland than the present Auckland Railway Station.

Manukau plans to spend $140,000 in the next financial year to increase park and ride at the Half Moon Bay ferry taking commuters to downtown Auckland.

Rail stations and bus stop improvements Many of the region's bus stops and rail stations will get a cleanup to make them more welcoming.

Manukau City has already spent $60,000 at Homai rail station, while plans for a similar facility at Papatoetoe will cost around $100,000.

Manukau's Mr Freke admits that some of the rail stations in the city are "pretty shocking."

"It's hard to quantify, but anything which addresses comfort and convenience will make a little bit of a difference."

Around 60 new bus shelters are planned in Waitakere in the next five years, while upgrades are also on the cards in Auckland and North Shore.

Integrated ticketing and timetabling Regional council transport director Barry Mein believes transport operators' aversion to a single ticket is being overcome.

A study three years ago found the companies opposed it because they felt there was not a large number of passengers using more than one service and operator and they were wary about how the revenue would then be shared.

But Mr Mein says there is now a realisation that, with rapid transit corridors planned, more people will be prepared to undertake journeys involving transfers, particularly with a single ticket to make trips easier, and probably cheaper.

"They are now more aware of how to grow the whole business. The focus is on how we effectively compete with the car, instead of among each other."

Technology may bring more up-to-date timetable information for commuters and shorter trip times with tickets bought at bus stops - something Auckland City is investigating for certain Link stops - or electronic tickets that can be scanned past a reader.

Auckland City also wants to increase the number of bus stops which display "live," up-to-date information on how far away a bus is.

More buses, more often The regional council will use the 20 per cent boost in subsidies it plans on both new routes where they are needed and increasing the frequencies of other services, says Mr Mein.

Many of these will be across the region instead of just feeding into the central business district.

Mr Mein says some of the problems of the past were a result of companies arranging timetables around what suited their operational needs instead of the needs of the passenger, but that was changing.

The regional council would wield its financial clout in some areas to make sure it got what the public wanted.

Mr Mein says overseas experience shows that groundwork is needed to get more commuters inclined to use public transport even before the major schemes have started.

"They found in Portland and Ottawa a lot of growth was prior to the light rail and busway being put in place. They reorganised the routes and make a real effort to develop the ethic of using the network.

"That's got to be important or we won't achieve our objectives."