KEY POINTS:
Buses
Northern Express buses carried almost 118,000 passengers last month for various distances between Britomart and Albany via the new busway - up 131 per cent from April last year.
Suburban services feeding into the busway carried a further 26,840 passengers - a rise of 63 per
cent.
Figures are not yet available for bus services elsewhere in Auckland, but the transport authority expects to report a hefty increase for last month after an 8 per cent reduction in March to 4 million passengers from the same month last year.
The authority blames the latest figure in part on Easter's occurrence in March this year, reducing the number of commuting days.
It expects a 5 per cent increase in the number of tertiary students using public transport - following a doubling to 40 per cent for fare discounts - to boost April's overall bus-patronage figures.
Northern Express operator Ritchies Transport has replaced five buses in the service's 14-strong fleet with larger vehicles, and has more on order.
Trains
Patronage kept growing last month to just under 643,000 passenger trips, representing a "rolling annual" growth rate of 14.2 per cent despite the challenge of running punctual services past major rail redevelopment projects such as at Newmarket and New Lynn.
The transport authority expects to add three new trains between July and August to its 14-strong locomotive-hauled "SA" fleet, to allow it to introduce new timetables.
Four new carriages due to arrive in late September will allow it to lengthen its two-and three-cartrains.
Authority planners are investigating the introduction of six-car trains to the network from mid-2010, requiring more powerful locomotives and the construction of longer platforms at 22 of its 37 stations.
Ferries
Patronage eased by 0.6 per cent in March, compared with the same month last year, to about 440,000.
The authority, which is upgrading the downtown ferry terminal and has plans for more redevelopment of its waterborne network, blames Easter for the decline.
Scooters
Leading Auckland motorcycle supplier Coleman's Suzuki reports a 60 per cent rise in scooter sales in the past year and about 30 per cent for motorcycles. Sales manager Matthew Humphrey said the increase was because of fuel price rises, traffic congestion and high parking charges.
Scooter e Motion owner Goetz Neugebauer said it was not just budget-conscious commuters who were flocking to his stock of Vespas and other two-wheeled machines, but also senior executives keen to "make a statement about using less road space and fuel".
Cycling
Cycle Action Auckland says its ranks have grown from 150 members to more than 1000 in three years, but inadequate provision by transport planners means most Aucklanders continue to view cycling as unsafe.
Even so, leading bicycle supplier Sheppard Industries - distributor of Avanti and Raleigh machines - says sales are growing in defiance of the general economic slowdown, and it is developing new designs for growing numbers of commuters.
Bike
Central commuter service centre co-owner Clinton Jackson said he usually saw "half a dozen" fellow pedallers on his early-morning 25km ride to work, compared with two years ago, when he was a solitary figure.
Customers using his centre's bike storage service included a man who kept a company car at work for daily errands but cycled home each night.
Car pooling
Several websites are sponsoring informal car-pooling arrangements, and Transit NZ reports a small but significant increase in vehicle occupancy rates on Auckland's motorways. It estimates an average 126 people travelled in each batch of 100 cars on Auckland motorways last year, compared with just 112 occupants in 2006.
That contributed to a slight decline in distances travelled on the region's state highway network - by 0.1 per cent, to 4.086 billion vehicle-kilometres - for the financial year to last June.
Transit travel-demand project director Peter McCombs expects more commuters to share cars once new priority lanes are introduced in coming months at 14 motorway on-ramps.
There, vehicles carrying two or more people will not have to stop for traffic signals.
