Aucklanders have made 100 million public transport trips in the past year, numbers not seen since 1951.
Auckland Transport has announced on June 23 the public can travel free on buses, trains and most ferry services to celebrate this accomplishment.
“It’s a gesture by AT to say thank you to Aucklanders and to encourage new commuters to try out public transport,” says Auckland mayor Phil Goff.
“We need more and more people on public transport to ease congestion by the yearly growth of population by more than 40,000 in Auckland. Every person on a bus, train or ferry is one less car clogging up the roads and adding carbon emissions to our atmosphere.”
The key drivers of recent public transport growth include increased frequency of services, the new and improved network, and a simpler fare structure, allowing customers to transfer between buses and trains for a single fare.
Trains run every 10 minutes during peak-times, 20 minutes off-peak, and high frequency bus routes run at least every 15 minutes from 7am to 7pm seven days a week.
Every day, there are more than 13,000 bus services operated by 1300 buses. There are 57 trains, with 15 on the way.
Goff says there is more that needs to be done and these changes are coming, including extending the Northern busway, the Eastern busway construction and the Puhinui Bus-Rail interchange and rapid transit to and from the Airport.
Transport minister Phil Twyford says 270,000 trips are taken on public transport in Auckland every day.
“Our government is investing nearly $2.2 billion on public transport in Auckland over this three-year period and the growing trip numbers are evidence that if you invest in more and better public transport, people will use it.”
The last time public transport number were this high was when trams were still running, trolley buses and ferry numbers were high and eight years before the Harbour Bridge.
In the past year, ferry services travelled 1.5 million kilometres, trains travelled 6.4 million kilometres, and buses travelled 60.2 million kilometres.
