By SCOTT MACLEOD
Beach Haven, Island Bay, Browns Bay and West Harbour have been tagged "top priority" for ferry links to central Auckland.
A draft Auckland Regional Ferry Strategy deems Takapuna, Te Atatu and Hobsonville second priority, with Howick, St Heliers and Beachlands, third.
The draft, presented to the Auckland Regional Council, aims to boost ferry services and identify the best areas for development. The long-term aim is to ease road congestion.
The report pushes for services to be started from the top-priority sites, but the council is more cautious.
Transport committee chairman Les Paterson said ferries would never play a big role in solving the city's transport woes, but they were already carrying more than 2.5 million passengers a year.
The next step was to seek feedback from communities, then assess how many people were likely to use each site, cost new wharves, ferries and terminals, and look at environmental impacts.
"Our message is: don't expect the services to happen overnight, but do expect them to happen," Mr Paterson said.
The draft says the Downtown Ferry Terminal should be secured as the hub of the future ferry system.
Other recommendations include an "image-building strategy" and integrating ferry tickets with buses and other public transport.
The draft report team, from engineers PPK Environment and Infrastructure, with PB and Tonkin and Taylor, looked at ferry services in Sydney, Brisbane, Seattle, Vancouver and Hong Kong. They found success factors included reliability, safety, frequency of service, integration with other public transport, and punctuality.
Recent figures show that more Aucklanders are spurning their cars. The Half Moon Bay to Downtown ferry run, which started in May, is already carrying 3000 people a week.
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