Busway commuters' free parks at risk

Aerial view of the Constellation Drive park'n'ride for the Northern Busway. File photo / Brett Phibbs

Commuters leaving their cars for the day at stations attached to Auckland's successful Northern Busway are in danger of losing free parking.

A North Shore City Council committee will next week consider imposing parking fees at the Albany and Constellation bus stations in response to a 26 per cent Government subsidy shortfall via the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

Cleaning, security and gardening budgets may also have to be trimmed, raising fear of a potential loss of standing for the busway in the eyes of the thousands of passengers who use it daily.

A total of 910 parking spaces now provided free of charge at the two bus stations are usually full by about 8am each day, as the Northern Express service between Albany and Britomart prepares to carry its four millionth passenger before the end of this month.

But a staff report to the council's infrastructure and environment committee is proposing several budgeting options, including daily fees of either $1 or $2 at the two big park-and-ride stations.

Although the report says even a $2 charge will be competitive with central Auckland daily parking fees starting at $7 a day, and feeder bus services costing $2.60c from North Shore suburbs to the busway, councillor Chris Darby fears reaching a "tipping point" at which some passengers will return to their cars.

The report says other cost cuts would cover less than half of a threatened annual funding shortfall of $368,000 so the balance would need to be found from parking charges, extra rates revenue or attempts to extract more money from the transport authority and the national Transport Agency.

But the transport authority already faces a $60 million shortfall on what it had sought from the agency for the next three years for projects throughout the region, and is considering a range of other cuts including restricting hours for free travel by pensioners on trains, buses and ferries.

Mr Darby, who is North Shore's representative on the Auckland Regional Transport Committee, yesterday blamed the busway's predicament on a shift in the Government's funding focus from public transport to extra state highway construction.

He said he was referring in particular to a proposed $2.3 billion highway from Puhoi to Wellsford, to which the Government is according priority as one of seven designated roads of national significance.

A scheme assessment had yet to be undertaken on that project, yet the $300 million busway had demonstrated "unparalleled success" since it opened as a dedicated two-lane highway for buses in February last year.

Mr Darby said his council, which paid for the busway's five stations and contributes $945,000 to annual operating costs of $2.36 million, had placed a high emphasis on ensuring a safe, secure and clean environment for passengers.

"If you're a single woman walking home late [from a bus station] you know security cameras are picking you up and there is a visible security presence, that's part of our effort to make the thing hum.

"But if we lose that reputation, if there is a risk to personal security or it is perceived as being grubby like public transport used to be, it will take reinvestment to regain passengers," Mr Darby said.