Yesterday’s item on Radio New Zealand about the South Auckland bus network set for shake-up as CRL nears opening (Link) has inspired me to get writing. In particular was this comment by Stacey van der Putten, Auckland Transport’s interim chief executive:
“With that in mind, we’ve actually got the team doing a bit of a review, particularly on that bus integration aspect to make sure we’re maximising it and working with the community to understand how people want to travel.”
Hopefully this open letter will give the team at Auckland Transport some assistance in their review so that the objective of getting more public transport usage in South Auckland can be achieved.
First my bona fides. I am a regular user of public transport services in South Auckland, being found on the fourth carriage of the 7am from Papakura each morning, usually with my head buried in the Herald, and then doing the return trip in the afternoon. On occasion I can be found on weekend services as well depending on the activities that I have planned for the day. My own experience and those of my fellow passengers are informative of why the residents of South Auckland might not be using public transport that much.
Reliability, Reliability, Reliability
It is somewhat ironic that I’m writing this open letter on an evening when Southern Line trains had to run express to Otahuhu because the line via Newmarket was closed due to “infrastructure issues”. To add insult to injury, there were also several bus cancellations – I was aware of two consecutive 33 buses that were cancelled, along with a 364 bus at around the same time – which left gaps of nearly an hour in the timetable.
At least Auckland Transport recognise the need for a reliable network to restore passenger confidence in the public transport system. The problem is that Auckland Transport broke a promise made in 2014. When they announced in 2014 that direct bus services from South Auckland to the Auckland Central Business District were going to be largely cancelled, this is what they said:
“Passenger trains in Auckland are in the process of being replaced with electric trains, which will be more reliable and have increased passenger capacity”
As the internet forgets nothing, a copy of the report can be found here.
The last six years has seen the same message repeated – a need to fix up issues with ageing infrastructure, however some things do not add up. None of the reports released at the time of Project DART or electrification indicated there was further needed to fix issues with ageing infrastructure and the experience of Auckland passengers from 2014 to 2020 certainly gave no indication of any major infrastructural issues post electrification. The average commuter had assumed that the milder reliability issues back in diesel days had come to an end, and it was a massive surprise to Aucklanders when in August 2020 the rail services had a temporary speed limit imposed due to issues with the track. The only saving grace at that stage was the fact that Auckland went into a three-week lockdown at the same time and by the time Aucklanders were back at work, the temporary speed limits were being eased.
This of course begs the question, was there incompetence or was there deceit? Did Auckland Transport and its predecessor organisation, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority not know of the issues with ageing infrastructure, or did they deceive Aucklanders when they said in 2014 that electrification was going to result in a more reliable rail network? Certainly, the disruption of the last six years would have been far more bearable if South Aucklanders still had their pre-2016 bus network – I suspect a decent chunk of passengers would have switched back to the likes of the 477X route if it still existed.
At the moment, all Auckland Transport are offering is “trust us bro”. Unfortunately, the saying once bitten, twice shy is applicable here and it will take several years of flawless operation for faith in the rail network to be restored. Flawless includes not requiring Southern Line trains to run express to Otahuhu because of “infrastructure issues”.
Service Speed
At least van der Putten had the honesty to finally admit that the $5.5 billion City Rail Link will not deliver meaningful travel time savings for South Auckland commuters. Of course, this is yet another broken promise – indeed, a former Minister of Transport, Simon Bridges, had this to say back in 2016:
“CRL is one of Auckland’s top transport priorities. It will double the capacity of the metro rail network and provide significant travel time savings for commuters, particularly those travelling from fast-growing western suburbs”
When one looks at the Southern Line timetable, one sees a steady slowing down of service times to a snails pace. Post City Rail Link, a person travelling from Papakura to Downtown all stops will be taking 55 minutes. This is a minute slower than the current 54 minutes, five minutes slower than the 50 minutes that was a feature of the pre-2024 timetable, and a whopping eight minutes slower than the 47 minutes that was a feature of the pre-2005 timetable. For those who remember being thrashed about in the ex-Perth DMUs, it is hard to believe that they could do the run into the City a full 8 minutes faster.
And as someone that provides receipts, here are the links:
2004 timetable – https://web.archive.org/web/20040720213849/http://www.rideline.co.nz/pdf/train_south_v3.pdf
2018 timetable – https://web.archive.org/web/20181220160433/https://at.govt.nz/media/1977610/t03_southern-line_august-2018-web.pdf
It is worth noting that the 2004 timetable included stops at Southdown, Mangere and Wiri, which were dropped by 2005. The weekend timetables of 2005 (here) suggest that a 45-minute trip was possible using the DMUs.
If we want to encourage people to stop driving their cars and use public transport, then we need faster journey times. The first thing that Auckland Transport can do is change the planned routing of the Southern Line so that it runs counterclockwise (i.e. Newmarket, then Parnell) rather than clockwise (i.e. Newmarket, then Grafton). The second thing that Auckland Transport can do is see what can be done to restore the service times that were possible a mere 21 years ago.
Service Integration
Until now there has been a mismatch between the base frequency of bus services and the base frequency of train services – the 15 minute frequencies of Frequent Routes and the 30 minute frequencies of Connector Routes have not matched up with the 20 minute frequencies of rail services. With rail services being restored to 15 minute frequencies (there were 15 minute off-peak frequencies from south of Otahuhu to Downtown from 2006 to 2014), this inherent mismatch will be resolved.
Of course, this does not address the biggest problem and that is poor service integration and flexibility. I have seen too many instances of a train running late by a minute or two and the feeder bus pulling away in time to leave passengers waiting for their next bus – which at night can often be an hour away, an unpleasant experience especially during the cold winters.
For example, the 376 bus from Papakura to Drury is scheduled to depart 2 minutes after the train arrives in the evening. If the train is even a fraction late, the transferring passenger is going to be forced to wait half an hour in the cold for the next bus.
This presupposes that the services are even designed to meet each other. An excellent example of extremely poor service integration is the timing of the 379 bus from Papakura to Clarks Beach. During the day, the bus is scheduled to depart at 44 past the hour, which happens to be the time the train from the City arrives.
The solution is twofold:
- Ensure that there is a reasonable gap between scheduled rail arrival times and designated feeder bus departures, taking into account the need to move from rail platform to bus stop.
- Allow designated feeder buses to depart up to 5 minutes after their scheduled departure time without penalty if the scheduled rail service is running up to 5 minutes late.
Fares
Auckland Transport have discussed the need for more affordable fares, and needless to say the situation there is reasonably complex.
When engaging in economic decision making, the decision maker must disregard sunk costs and must focus on the marginal costs of their decision. When it comes to the choice between driving and using public transport, it must logically be assumed that the decision maker has a car and therefore the fixed costs of car ownership such as vehicle registration and annual insurance are sunk costs.
Fortunately, New Zealand has a credible source of marginal cost of driving data. Since 2018, Inland Revenue has released annual mileage rates with two rate categories; Tier 1 rates, which take into account the fixed costs of car ownership along with the marginal costs of travel, and Tier 2 rates, which only take into account the marginal costs of travel. According to Inland Revenue, the marginal cost of driving a petrol fueled car is 37 cents per litre. The one zone fare in Auckland is $3, which means that the marginal costs of driving will be lower than the public transport fare for trips of 8.1 kilometres or less. Given the majority of trips in Auckland are 6 kilometres or less, this means that public transport fares are higher than the marginal costs of driving.
The other problem is that fare zone boundaries result in considerably inequitable solutions. A retail worker who lives in Otara and works in Sylvia Park ends up paying a two zone fare of $4.90 to get to work; meanwhile an office worker who lives in New Lynn and works in Newmarket ends up paying a one zone fare of $3 to get to work, even though the latter is travelling a longer distance than the former.
Van der Putten mentioned the desire for a family travel pass. However, children under age 15 get free travel on weekends and public holidays at present. There is an argument to be made that could be extended to cover school holidays as well, however, those free fares for children basically eliminates the need for a family travel pass
Fares must be looked at to ensure an equitable solution. I would suggest looking to switching to distance based fares similar to what is used in Sydney and Singapore. The zonal system used in Auckland was designed in a time when paper based tickets were expected to be a feature. Distance based fares do not prevent the implementation of a fare cap such as what exists at the moment and what the opposition is proposing to make more generous – indeed, both Sydney and Singapore have fare caps.
Service Reach and Service Span
The other significant issue facing South Auckland commuters is the limited service reach and service span.
The recent service improvements have made things considerably better. The service cuts of the late 2010s, which saw hourly evening service across much of South Auckland was reversed, and most routes now run through to at least 11pm. On the other hand, there are still nine local routes in South Auckland, meaning that residents serviced by those routes often have to endure hourly frequencies. There must be a plan to bring the remaining non-rural local routes up to at least connector standard.
The other issue is that of service span, which does not necessarily work for the average South Aucklander. Someone whose shift at Auckland Airport finishes at 2am cannot take a ghost bus home and will instead drive with their tangible car. There must be consideration of 24 hour, 7 day a week bus services along key routes. In the case of South Auckland, this will need to be the 33 and Airport Link at a minimum. An example of what can be achieved is in Sydney, where the NightRide network replaces trains between midnight and 5am, as well as the 333 which runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Personal Safety
Another significant issue is that of personal safety. I personally would avoid waiting at the Manurewa Interchange at night due to concerns about my own safety, and this was before the stabbing at the Manurewa Interchange a couple of months ago. People must be safe and feel safe taking the bus and train, and while stories of stabbings and fights permeate the news, it is going to be difficult to
The solution would be to introduce a dedicated transport police force, as we proposed earlier this year (here).
Conclusion
As a South Auckland commuter, I can provide excellent insight into the trials and tribulations for the average person here. Government and Council have invested $5.5 billion into the City Rail Link, along with billions more in rail generally, and that investment must yield a return in patronage.
