Increase in Public Transport.

In a NZ Herald article by Matthew Dearnaley, it talked about the increase of public transport use in past twelve months due to increasing petrol prices. There is a high demand for public transport at the moment because of rising price of fuel. Over the past year, there has been an increase of up to 7.9% in bus trips, 13.9% on trains and 3.5% on ferries.

Auckland Transport also released Public Transport Figures yesterday, outlining the massive increase of users. These are some of the points Auckland Transport has released:

• Northern Express bus passenger numbers for February increased 20.7 per cent on February 2010. Total Northern Express for the past 12 months reached 1.97 million passengers
• Total bus patronage exceeded 50 million. An increase of 3.36 million boardings or 7.5 per cent growth
• Rail patronage reached 9.2 million for the past 12 months with passenger numbers for the month of February up 17.9 per cent on February 2010. For the first time one million journeys were reached on rail in one month.
• Rail patronage on the Western Line for the month of February increased 25.6 per cent on February 2010 to reach 305,208.
• Ferry patronage totalled 4.6 million for the 12 months to February, with passenger numbers for the month up 12.6 per cent on February 2010
• Of the 30,002 attending the Super Rugby Blues vs. Crusaders at Eden Park on 19 February 31.9 per cent took special event public transport services.

I know that the Northern Express is an efficient bus service in the North Shore and I have noticed year by year the increase of its users. Currently, it is over capacity but it truly shows that more and more people are using public transport. In the article, it noted that Ritchies Transport is considering adding more buses to the Northern Express service and there has been talks about developing a more efficient loading system at Britomart due to long queues.

I think the increasing number of PT users is great news. People are changing their minds about driving and thinking about other options. I don't think the only reason is because of rising petrol prices. Public Transport has improved (though it has been at a very slow rate). Little by little, Auckland's transport system is getting better. These figures have proved it so. Yes there are still multiple problems and a lot of work to be done to the public transport system but it is definitely better than what we used to have five years ago.