At the start of May, the Northern Express Bus service was said to be upgraded and improved by Auckland Transport. There are more buses and the times have been extended too. The changes include:
Buses will now leave Britomart at midnight on week nights
Buses from Albany to Britomart will go until 2:30am on weekends and 11:30pm on weeknights.
Services will start earlier in weekday mornings and the frequency will increase to one every three minutes from Albany between 7-8am on school days. It used to be every four to five minutes.
Bus service from Britomart will increase too between 5pm-6pm except school holidays.
The 5-minute Northern Express bus service will start earlier each afternoon at 3pm to lessen queues.
The first bus of the day will leave at 5:30am instead of 5:45.
Buses will run every 15 minutes from Albany at 6:30am, then it will be changed into every 5 minutes up until the three-minute service at 7am.
The changes were due to rising complaints about long queues and overcrowding of the Northern Express Bus service.
The popular Northern Express bus service from the North Shore to the city.
Source: Google Images.
I have seen a difference in bus frequencies and the service has definitely improved. From the past weeks, I haven't experienced the long queue in Britomart that I usually end up in on Fridays. There are more buses available and they are not overcrowded with passengers. It's about time the service has caught up with the demand.
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.
Every Friday, I dread taking the bus home from the city. I live on the North Shore and the only way I can get home is by taking the bus. I take the Northern Express bus to and from Uni. (Driving is simply not an option especially with the increasing petrol prices and expensive parking costs in the city).
In previous years, I didn't have a problem using it and I actually found it efficient because it came every 10 minutes. Having the Northern Busway helped too as we avoid peak-hour traffic. However, every Friday after 3pm since Uni started, I find myself lining up for more than 15 minutes just to get on the bus. The queue is so long it almost reaches the Westfield Downtown Mall entrance. I took a photo from last Friday when I was lining up:
For the past year and a half that I have been taking the Northern Express, I have not seen a queue as long as what I have experienced for the past three weeks. On March 11th, I was on a much longer queue so on Friday, I rushed after class and pretty much speed-walked from Uni to Britomart. It was annoying because waiting in line for twenty minutes is not something I want to do on a late Friday afternoon. I want to get home as quickly and efficiently as I can. It also doesn't help that the bus stop is by the corner so the queue blocks people walking and crossing to Queen Street. We are not only in this long line but we get stuck with a cluster of people who are waiting to cross as well. I can just say that it is not the best experience. For people who have no idea of this situation, I found a video of the queue for the Northern Express in Youtube:
There is no question that the public transport system for the North Shore is overloaded. The Northern Express is the main transport for most people who live there. The Northern Busway was a good initiative for people to use public transport but situations like these, would definitely put people off too. I am hoping it gets better every week. Maybe a good solution is to have more buses in peak hours to prevent long queues (instead of having buses every 10 minutes make it every 5 instead, though it is questionable that they will arrive on time) and have a faster boarding system.
In relation to this topic, There was a post on the NZ Herald about someone's experience on using the Northern Express. He stated:
I find myself arriving ever earlier to the Constellation park and ride (just to fight it out over the last parking spot), only to then be greeted by a line of equally frustrated 'passengers' standing in a queue longer than those experienced outside Studio 54 at the height of its infamy. Once on the bus, if in fact you get on the first or second one that comes along, you are squeezed, face to armpit, on to the most uncomfortable journey imaginable. But at least I get on ... spare a thought for those poor souls at Sunnynook, Smales or Takapuna, who watch overcrowded bus after overcrowded bus trundle by groaning under the weight of all those commuters. In a World Cup year, you have to ask yourself ... how will Auckland cope? Right now, it's not."
He has a valid point. What will happen to Auckland's transportation system during the Rugby World Cup? Will it get worse than what is is now? How can this issue be solved? Will the transportation system get better for us who live in the North Shore? Or will we keep on wasting our time in long queues just to get home?
