Threat to services as Auckland bus use slides

Bus patronage has continued to slide in Auckland for a second year, prompting Stagecoach to ditch some non-subsidised services and notify regional transport officials of more cuts to come.

The company yesterday reduced the frequency of services on some key isthmus routes, mainly at off-peak times, and disclosed that some commuter trips might also have been hit had the Auckland Regional Transport Authority not stepped in to subsidise these.

It blames in part a continuing fall in numbers of overseas students for about 2.5 per cent less patronage than last year, when a regional council spot survey found a 5.5 per cent reduction in bus passengers from 2003, after a decade of growth.

Numbers have also been hit by industrial action over the past three months, including two strikes, but spokesman Russell Turnbull said it remained to be seen what impact this might have had on patronage.

Mr Turnbull confirmed that Stagecoach had told the transport authority it would be forced to withdraw from a number of other commercial routes in three months unless it gained subsidies for these as well.

Cuts to services yesterday meant there were fewer buses between 9am and 3pm along Dominion Rd, Sandringham Rd and New North Rd, and from Remuera to central Auckland.

A handful of morning peak services were also withdrawn, mainly from Remuera.

Mr Turnbull was unwilling to indicate how many more services remained at risk, saying the authority had yet to consider whether to subsidise some which Stagecoach deemed uneconomical to run unassisted.

Stagecoach already receives about $35 million from the transport authority for non-economic routes.

The authority is a subsidiary of the Auckland Regional Council, whose members were told of the latest threat to services in the confidential section of a meeting yesterday of its transport policy committee.

Committee chairman Joel Cayford would not discuss the threat for fear of jeopardising negotiations, but there is understood to be concern within the council that it could put substantial pressure on its budget next year.

An annual patronage survey by the regional council of commuters to the central business district found a 2.5 per cent decline in morning peak bus patronage, after a 5.5 per cent slump last year.

But rail enjoyed a 57.4 per cent leap in passengers, and ferry patronage grew by 14.3 per cent, contributing to an overall growth of 3.5 per cent in public transport use.

Buses still carried 77.2 per cent of the 27,285 people counted travelling to central Auckland by public transport between 7am and 9am on the morning of the survey, on Tuesday, April 12.

This compared with 2925 who went by train, and 3501 by ferry.

Demographer Stephen Horsley told the transport policy committee yesterday that the latest bus count might have been affected by the industrial dispute at Stagecoach, which was resolved only two days ago.

He said that although a strike was averted during the week of the survey, the threat of disruption might have reduced overall numbers.

But Mr Turnbull said the 2.5 per cent reduction reflected the company's own estimate of declining patronage, which it believed was still being hit by dwindling numbers of foreign students as well as the rebirth of rail transport.

The numbers

2.5 pc fewer bus passengers
57.4 pc more rail passengers
14.3 pc more ferry passengers