Petrol pain

Hannah Schipper has noticed the trains getting busier. Photo / Doug Sherring

Soaring petrol costs are forcing people on to public transport in record numbers.

Bus companies report a spike in patronage since 91 unleaded fuel hit $2 a litre in February and passengers have told of having standing room only on their daily commutes.

The increase has been particularly big in Auckland but repeated in other major North Island centres.

Ritchies bus company director Andrew Ritchie said there had been a 10 per cent growth in passengers over the past year, with the trend gathering pace in recent months.

"There's no question that it's on the increase. We've never been loading as heavy. We certainly noticed it once we got to March."

He said the "psychological trigger" of petrol prices topping $2 a litre had driven people from their cars.

His company was in talks with Auckland Council to put more buses on the Northern Express route along the Northern Busway to meet demand.

"Our growth has exceeded our estimations so we're playing catch-up at the moment."

New Zealand's largest bus company, NZ Bus, has been carrying significantly more passengers than usual.

Chief commercial officer Rachel Ockenford said the company was ordering 120 new buses costing about $50 million.

They were expected to be on the road by June.

"There's no doubt that petrol prices have a significant impact on patronage," she said.

Auckland Transport spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said the number of journeys on public transport had risen 8.3 per cent in the past year to just over 64 million.

On the rails, that period included the opening of the double-tracked western line and Onehunga line. On the roads, it meant new and redesigned services in the northwest of the region.

Auckland mayor Len Brown campaigned heavily on public transport policies last year.

His plans include electrifying the rail network and creating an inner-city rail loop - despite the Government raising doubts about funding after the Christchurch earthquake. "Aucklanders currently take 63 million public transport trips a year - I expect that will increase to 150 million by 2021."

With some services at capacity, a large chunk of rate money will be needed to cope with demand.

"These are matters which our planners, Auckland Transport and the operators of bus services continue to work on," Brown said.

Asked how the council would pay, Hunter said Auckland Transport was working through funding options with the Government.

The number of public transport journeys in Hamilton rose 120,877 in the year to February.

Transport policy adviser Vibhuti Chopra said that was because of new services, such as an orbital city service, and an improved bus fleet.

In Wellington, there were 116,874 more peak-time journeys in January than during the same month last year.

In Tauranga, there was a 112,327 increase in the number of journeys in the year to March.

TRAIN TRAVEL GETTING BUSIER

There were plenty of seats available on the train that left Greenlane for Britomart at 8.45am on Friday.

That could have been because loudspeaker messages told passengers to take alternative transport because of a breakdown at Takanini.

Regular travellers who waited forgave the mishap, saying it was the first breakdown in months and rail was the fastest way to town.

Waitress Hannah Schipper, 19, left, said she took the train most days and had noticed them getting busier over the past few months.

"As soon as you get on to the train, even if it's early it's packed. Petrol prices have gone up heaps and that's also to do with why the train is so full."

Engineer Shaun King recently moved to Greenlane and said the rising cost of petrol had led him to leave his car at home.

Technical writer Gordon Nuzum, from Remuera, said the train had been more crowded of late, but 15 years in Tokyo had shown him how busy railcars could get.

WAITING IN TRAFFIC: 'IT SUCKS, MATE'

The daily grind to work is a hassle for most drivers, but Mathew Tse's hour-long commute to Auckland city from the North Shore is "horrendous".

The IT support technician drives from his home in Hillcrest to the Vero building in downtown Auckland. The 13.6km trip can take as little as 15 minutes outside peak times, but in rush hour it can blow out to an hour.

"It sucks, mate," said the 36-year-old. "I can see my flat from where I work - to take an hour to get [to work] from the Shore is just horrendous."

Although Tse carpools he can't use the T3 transit lane on North Shore arterial routes because he carries only one passenger.

He said it was frustrating to see one lane empty while the other was backed up for hundreds of metres.

Along with time wasted sitting in his car, an hour of stop-start rush-hour driving was pushing his petrol bill up.

MOTORWAY AVERAGE RISES BY ABOUT 2 KM/H

It might not feel like it, but average speeds on Auckland's motorway network are getting faster.

Figures from the New Zealand Transport Agency show average morning peak hour speeds were 37km/h last year - up from 35km/h in 2009.

The figures confirm what most commuters know, that average speeds plummet in peak hour.

One of the biggest decreases is at the Esmonde Rd interchange on the North Shore where average speeds drop from 95km/h to about 25km/h during the morning peak.

That's about 5km/h slower than February 2007.

The agency's Auckland motorways manager, Tommy Parker, said an average speed of 25km/h on a state highway was "below the level of service we want to achieve".

But he said improvements to other parts of the network had speeded up rush hour traffic elsewhere.

The average speed of evening southbound traffic at the Mt Wellington interchange rose from about 55km/h in February 2009 to 80km/h last month.

And the speed of morning citybound traffic on the northwestern motorway increased from 40km/h in 2009 to around 60km/h.

Parker said drivers were starting to see the benefits of huge investment, such as the new Manukau Harbour crossing, and traffic signals on motorway on-ramps, one of the cheaper solutions, had helped too.

Automobile Association communication manager Simon Lambourne said the ramp signals had allowed the agency to get more out of the existing network.

The AA will launch a new service next week allowing drivers to compare travel times on key parts of Auckland's road network.