Auckland's ferry network should be a standout feature of life in the city, says councillor John Watson. Photo / Michael Craig
Auckland's ferry network should be a standout feature of life in the city, says councillor John Watson. Photo / Michael Craig
Opinion by John Watson
OPINION
Auckland is a maritime city with a proud history of transportation by sea. During its heyday, Auckland’s wharves were packed with people heading off to every conceivable part of the region. In recent times, however, the performance across significant parts of our ferry network has not been so impressive,despite the fact there are now just nine main commuter runs to operate.
To be fair, some of these services are very reliable but others not nearly so.
In this respect, there could be no more graphic example of what’s going wrong than the Gulf Harbour ferry service. Only a couple of years ago this run was a successful and thriving service that had met the needs of the Whangaparaoa peninsula for more than 25 years. Patronage was growing fast and the number of sailings were increasing incrementally.
Flash forward to 2023, however, and it is the most unreliable and most cancelled public transport service in the country.
Since November 2021, this service has been progressively run down with a chronic cancellation rate that is now in excess of 50 per cent. That means the ferry turns up less than half the time it is timetabled to. Prior to 2021, the average cancellation rate was barely 6 per cent.
Remarkably, this situation will get worse. From October 1, Auckland Transport reduced the service even more, with a staggering 83 per cent reduction to the normal timetable.
As a result, there have been distraught commuters, packed public meetings and a record number of submissions from the community opposing yet a further proposal by Auckland Transport to withdraw the service altogether in 2028.
The Gulf Harbour service is one of four routes that operator Fullers 360 is being paid $351 million of public money to deliver over the next decade (the others are Devonport, Half Moon Bay and Hobsonville).
Auckland Transport is the agency responsible for overseeing the ferry network and for upholding the public interest, their performance to date similarly less than inspiring.
Unfortunately, what’s been happening at Gulf Harbour is indicative of concerns elsewhere in the ferry network and comes at a time when people are being exhorted to use public transport.
When this contract was signed less than a year ago, former ARC chair Mike Lee said the deal was “… very expensive and provides little tangible guarantees for ferry users”.
Subsequent events have shown him to be right. There are other ferry operators keen to provide competition but to date most have been shut out of what is a tightly controlled market.
With the latest round of service cuts starting this week (and due to last for a further 18 months), it will be well over three years of sub-standard service to places like Whangaparaoa Peninsula that has compromised the travel lives of significant parts of the community, many of whom bought houses in the area on the basis of a functioning ferry service.
John Watson. Photo / Nick Reed
Other services like Half Moon Bay will have a reduced timetable as well, while only last month the Waiheke local board made a desperate plea to Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee for help in relation to pricing and capacity concerns they have with the Waiheke service.
Others, too, have their own versions of the Gulf Harbour experience that continue to persist.
As the “City of Sails”, our ferry network should be a standout feature of life in Auckland as it was for our predecessors.
Instead, we seem to be going backwards. In my view there needs to be an urgent and independent inquiry into the provision of these services. That’s essential if we are to arrest a downward spiral that has already been allowed to go too far for too long.
- John Watson is the Auckland councillor for the Albany Ward.
