Brian Rudman: Getting some ground control into Auckland's tin cans

COMMENT

Isn't 21st-century technology amazing? With the aid of eye-in-the-sky satellites, Auckland Link bus passengers can now stand in their shelters and read how late the next bus is going to be.

But despite all the technical wizardry, the transport boffins and bus operators Stagecoach have yet to deliver the 10-minute service promised for week days between 6am and 7pm, and 15 minutes at other times.

I guess the only good thing about now being able to see that your next bus is 22 minutes away is that you can start walking, safe in the knowledge that it's not going to blast past you a few minutes later while you're stranded between stops.

It wasn't until I read they were suffering a few teething problems that I realised the 48 electronic signs on the Link circuit were finally up and running. After a year of them broadcasting nothing but electronic gibberish, I'd long since stopped noticing them.

That was certainly the situation a couple of weeks back, one hot and sticky evening, when I decided to forgo the dubious pleasures of a walk home in favour of a leisurely trip on the approaching Link bus.

If I'd known how leisurely the trip was to be, I would have kept walking.

As the bus hove into view, three of us stepped forward to watch it sail past with just a handful of customers on board. We looked at each other in disbelief, then furiously waved as another one pulled in soon after.

We climbed aboard then went nowhere for three or four long minutes. Then it moved off - slowly. Two stops on, just down the hill at Victoria Park, we stopped again and this time the driver went walkabout. As he left, one disgruntled passenger gave up and disappeared. Eventually the driver returned to his increasingly sweaty tin can and called his base. He got no reply. He tried again and again. Still no reply.

Another passenger moved forward and spoke to him, then she departed.

I gave it a few more minutes then got up and asked "how long?"

The driver said he was waiting for his change driver. He had no idea how long that would be, but he would wave down the next Link for me. When? He just looked back at me, bemused. I'd been on the bus 15 minutes by that stage and had had enough. I walked, too.

About 15 minutes later I was at the Ponsonby lights at the top of College Hill and I had not been passed by a Link bus. What happened to the other passengers, I'll never know.

I messaged Stagecoach on Monday asking for a $1.20 refund, generously offering to let them off the cost of my pain and suffering. In reply they asked for the number of the no-stop bus, and my ticket. Unfortunately I'd not noticed one, and screwed the other up.

I've heard nothing since, but now my research into the spy-in-the-sky technology offers a glimmer of hope. I'm told the ability to telegraph the time of arrival of the incoming buses to each bus stop is but one of the system's magic tricks.

Its best is being able to turn a traffic light green as a bus approaches - or to extend a green signal long enough for the bus to get through the intersection.

But getting back to my dark night: not only does the system record each ticket sale and telegraph it back to Big Brother, it also records each stop made and at what time. As I've already reported the time of the incident, I'm guessing that getting to the bottom of it all should be a doddle.

As for Denis Mander, Auckland City's chief traffic planner, he's fizzing about the information-gathering potential of the new system once the full $7 million version is ticking away.

Then there'll be a full record of such details as how many people travel from each stop, when and whether buses are running on time, and if services are being skipped.

If a customer complains, the records will be there to check.

The system can also be used, he says, to tell drivers to slow down or speed up, warn about bunching, transfer passengers to another bus and divert an empty bus across town to ensure the 10-minute timetable is maintained. A 10-minute timetable? Can such a feat be possible? After all, it's only the 21st century.