March Madness: Transport bosses gear up for busiest time of the year

A double-decker bus heading into the city. Photo / Auckland Transport

Auckland's transport sector is gearing up for "March Madness" with extra services, but warns there aren't many spare buses and companies are struggling to hire drivers.

Late February and March is the busiest time of the year on the city's congested roads - with university students starting the academic year at the same time the majority of workers have returned to the office, causing a spike in demand for public transport alongside an increase in motorists.

Auckland Transport (AT) says it is well-prepared for the annual phenomenon after re-jigging bus services last year added more than 1700 trips every day to its network. But warned that if numbers explode, there may be problems finding enough drivers to move the fleet.

In a bid to fend off commuter chaos, AT will add more buses to key routes across the city, and also has what it calls "banker buses" on stand-by.

"We will also be running more extra large and double-decker buses on some key routes," Derek Koper, bus services manager, said.

"We have recently added more double decker services on Dominion, Mt Eden, Manukau and Remuera Roads and other routes, with 193 double deckers now in service."

"We have also identified some other routes which are going to be busier than normal and we will be using what we call 'banker buses' to help with capacity."

Over the past three years AT has introduced extra services to cope with the increased demand for public transport - AT currently runs 12,937 weekday trips compared to 11,200 at the same time last year - which Koper said would enable AT to cope with most of the capacity issues.

"But some routes have grown faster than predicted, so we will try to add some extra services where we can," he said.

"However, there aren't many spare buses and we know that operators are struggling to recruit new drivers, so that will add to the pressure."

Trains are expected to cope with the increased number of travellers, while additional ferry sailings have been added to the Hobsonville Point service.

Daily monitoring to check capacity started this morning.

"We will be checking which routes may need more services and we will be moving buses around where we can to help with the demand," Koper said.

"Unfortunately some buses will be full and passengers may have to wait for the next bus. On busy routes, if you can, travel outside the morning or afternoon peak.

"We apologise for any delays, but we are doing our best to try to provide enough services."

Last year, Herald reporters raced to work using different modes of transport - car, bus, bicycle and train - during March Madness to test which method was quickest. Cycling came out on top.

BY THE NUMBERS:
12,937 bus trips each school day, or 82,422 per week
This drops to 12,489 trips during school holidays
120,000 people use Auckland buses every weekday, making 220,000 trips