KEY POINTS:
Auckland's public transport agency is ramping up train and bus services past the big Sylvia Park shopping centre, just five months after it gained its own railway station for customers and staff.
New Lynn will also benefit from a greater frequency of bus and rail services announced yesterday
by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.
Shoppers and others will from Sunday be able to ride on cross-town buses between New Lynn and Sylvia Park, via Onehunga and Penrose, and extra rail services will be introduced on December 2 to both the eastern and western lines serving the respective centres.
Bus services will also run for longer periods between Otahuhu and central Auckland, via Sylvia Park.
Instead of running only between 9am and 3pm, from Monday to Saturday, the 717 bus service will be extended to 6pm on every day of the week.
There will also be extra weekend rail services from next month on the eastern line past Sylvia Park, including an extension of half-hourly calls until 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. That will mean a doubling of Sunday services.
Transport authority customer services chief Mark Lambert said the success of the Sylvia Park retail and movie theatre magnet, where there are 200 shops spread over 6.5 ha, had produced a greater demand for public transport to reach it.
The centre became infamous for a traffic nightmare on its opening day in the middle of last year, when cars blocked the Southern Motorway as shoppers scrambled for bargains.
That led to criticism of planners for not requiring better public transport links to be in place from the start.
It was not until this July that a $5 million railway station, paid for by centre developer Kiwi Property Income Trust, opened for business and quickly attracted throngs of passengers.
That was boosted by Kiwi's donation of 4000 free rail-trip tickets to centre employees to get them used to catching trains to work.
Transport authority spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said Sylvia Park was among the top five most popular stations in the September school holidays, when it was used by almost 2000 passengers daily, compared with about 1000 on an average business day.
Meanwhile, an extra late-night rail service will be added to the western line at 9.37pm between Britomart and Waitakere on Mondays to Thursdays from next month, and at 8.55pm to New Lynn on Sunday.
And from this weekend, buses will leave New Lynn for Onehunga and Penrose every 15 minutes from Monday to Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sunday, for most of each day.
Half of those services will continue from Penrose to Sylvia Park, and the others will head for Otahuhu.
Mr Lambert said these were the first instalments of a more general improvement of services for New Lynn, which was on the threshold of a "transport transformation" with a major rail and bus interchange about to be developed there.
"These additions are a small step in what will over time be much improved, faster and more frequent bus and train services for New Lynn," he said.
The interchange would be built in conjunction with $120 million of proposed Government spending on a 1km rail trench, a redeveloped station and bridges to connect roads, and a $20 million contribution from Waitakere City Council for urban improvements around the site.
Mr Lambert said the transport authority would over the next two years reorganise bus routes to make it easier for most people in New Lynn and its surrounds to catch services to the town centre and railway stations for connections to other parts of the region.