Half of all March commuters into Auckland CBD jumped on public transport: AT

Each weekday morning, 620 buses bring Aucklanders into the city. Photo / Supplied

Almost half of all morning commuters used public transport to travel into Auckland's city centre last month - a new record.

It means there were 767 fewer cars in March driving into the city in the mornings, despite more people commuting.

Auckland Transport's Stacey Van Der Putten said 48 per cent of all commuters used buses, trains and ferries to get into the city between 7am and 9am in March.

"It's great that Aucklanders are getting the message that there are options other than driving," she said.

In total, Auckland residents made just over 10 million trips on public transport last month, which was another new record.

Each weekday morning, 620 buses bring Aucklanders into the city, many of them using dedicated bus or transit lanes.

AT said more than 500,000 city residents now lived within 500m of a "frequent service" that ran at least once every 15 minutes all day.

This was partly due to the transport provider rolling out new bus networks in the central suburbs and North Shore, AT said.

"More bus lanes, electric trains, double decker buses and improved facilities mean more people prefer public transport as a quick and comfortable option," Van Der Putten said.

The data came from AT's "active" monitoring of its networks, the transport provider said.

It said it was now giving priority to public transport, walking and biking to "manage the growing demands on the city centre network.

Fine weather in March also led to more people walking and biking into the city, up from 7 per cent to 9 per cent of all commuters.

There were 25,000 bike trips on the Nelson St cycleway last month and 43,000 trips on Quay St.