This is a guest post from reader and friend of the blog, Shan L, He has also written about his new network experiences for the South, West and East when those networks rolled out.

On Sunday 8 July the new network for went live for central Auckland. Joined by special guests Steve and Matt I took my usual ride around to see how well it worked. Living in the area and being big users of the local PT network, this one is a big deal for us.

As with previous trips we have some rules:

No trip planning on a computer No smartphone realtime apps Some shopping or other business to attend to at each stop, unless it’s just a transfer on the way to somewhere else

The old network

The new network

The journey

Our not entirely made up goals for the trip:

Breakfast at Newmarket

Visit a relative in Epsom

Snack at Britomart

Lunch at the Pt Chev shops and visiting friends

Shopping at New Lynn

Shopping at Onehunga

Drinks at Mission Bay

Scenic walk through the Domain

Dinner at Wynyard Quarter

Dessert at Ponsonby

Some approximation of how we did it:

We decided to concentrate on the city and outer areas of the network – the group consensus was the lack of our beloved Crosstown 5 and Crosstown 6 routes from the original consultation would cause us too much grief, so the area would be best avoided instead of riding around in sadness/rage. Perhaps a test of the central, central network might be a good topic for a future post.

Leg 1a: Mt Eden to Symonds St

Service: ‘267’

Wait: 0 minutes

Travel time: 5 minutes

First step was to locate a map. Conveniently, this had turned up in the post a few weeks ago so I didn’t have to go on my usual quest to find one.

Wandering out to the nearest city-bound bus stop, past the signs being mysteriously installed in the middle of the footpath, I was immediately greeted by a ghost bus – a 267 which should’ve been a 25L. This was the first of about 4-5 other mislabelled buses we saw throughout the day – something I’ve not noticed with previous launches.

That aside, the minimum 15 minute frequency of both 25 and 27 buses that pass through this stop is a huge improvement – although there is a bus every few minutes at peak times, on a Sunday I’d not usually attempt to make a breakfast run by bus due to long waits and the terrible risk of hangriness. This is made even riskier due to the need to make a connection at Symonds St to get down to Newmarket. But now both bus routes are frequent at all times this is less of a worry.

There is a actually more direct route from here to Newmarket – it’s only two stops on the train and the station is a 5 minute walk away. But because of the more-often-than-you’d-like 30 minute frequency I hardly ever do this, much preferring to take two buses instead, as it’s usually faster (or at least not hugely longer) – and carries less risk of frustration if you happen to turn up at the wrong time.

As an aside, this is also the reason why I find the Purple Line in the post CRL rail network to be such a strange inclusion: this is surely a perfect use case for it but given its low frequency I wouldn’t bother, as I’m not bothering now.

Leg 1b: Symonds St to Newmarket

Service: 70

Wait: 7 minutes

Travel time: 9 minutes

The easiest way down to Newmarket from a Symonds St service is to transfer onto an eastbound bus at Symonds St near the inexplicable building with the Greek columns. Sadly, there is no convenient and safe way to cross the torrent of death here, so I took my chances along with everyone else. Luckily, being Sunday, there was reduced death, but it was faster moving.

It’s common to see people making this transfer at peak times – quite often old people who have trouble walking quickly – AT should make fixing streets like this for all users a priority, especially when their new PT network depends so heavily on transfers.

I had a slightly longer than necessary wait of 9 minutes – I could’ve got a 75 about 5 minutes sooner but I stuffed up reading the map and got a later bus by accident.

The bus shelter here is fairly minimal and to see a bus coming you generally need to stand outside in the rain. There’s plenty of space so it should be a candidate for much improved shelters in future.

Leg 2: Newmarket to Ranfurly Rd

Service: Outer Link

Wait: 7 minutes, including 6 minutes parked

Travel time: 4 minutes

Breakfast having been had, the next task was to get to Ranfurly Rd where I’d rendezvous with Matt (he’s a bit French) and quickly drop in on a relative. There are two main options to do this: the 30 or the Outer Link, both which go down Broadway; then Manukau Road.

Of course this involved a quick sprint across another Auckland special:

The bus stops at this location on Broadway are reasonable – just some signs under the awnings, but they work quite well.

After only a minute waiting an Outer Link turned up, so I got on, at which point the driver turned off the engine and we sat there for 6 minutes, while a 30 went by.

Leg 3a: Ranfurly Rd to Symonds St

Service: 30

Wait: 4 minutes

Travel time: 12 minutes

Visits complete, Matt turned up and we made plans to head down to Britomart to collect Steve, before making our way to the inner west. A 30 appeared without much waiting and we got on.

I made a foolish decision to get off at Symonds and transfer to a Britomart bus to avoid a walk down Queen St at the end of the 30’s route – but of course I should’ve waited until we got a bit further and there were more Britomart bound buses to catch.

However, it did give us a chance to take a look at one of the bigger Symonds St stops: like many others in centres it’s sheltered by the shop awnings but is otherwise very basic.

Leg 3b: Symonds St to Britomart

Service: 27W

Wait: 10 minutes

Travel time: 6 minutes

Britomart was surprisingly empty of information about the new network – the only thing that stood out was a poster. The rest of the group were after maps and timetables, but there was no one in high vis to help like there often is, so we asked at the ticket office – they’d run out.

Snacks achieved and Steve collected, we got on the Western Line to head to Pt Chev.

Leg 4a: Britomart to Avondale

Service: Western Line Train

Wait: 11 minutes

Travel time: 26 minutes

In an inadvertent simulation of the new network’s ability to cope with sudden change of plans, we got in an argument over the merits of metro style vs. front facing seating and missed our stop at Mt Albert, where we were intending on taking a 66 bus up to Pt Chev. So it was off at Avondale and on an 18 back to Pt Chev instead.

Avondale Station had wayfinding – but bizarrely with an emphasis on car parking and no information on connecting bus services.

We wandered down into the town centre, assuming the bus stop would be easy to locate.

Leg 4b: Avondale to Pt Chev Shops

Service: 18

Wait: 2 minutes

Travel time: 11 minutes

We easily located the bus stop.

But after a few minutes of complaining about how someone had forgotten to put new network signage up at the stop, we realised that this was not the 18 bus stop – or in fact a bus stop at all.

The actual bus stop is about 30 metres down the road: well patronised, but with some very old route numbers still stuck to the side of it.

Arriving at the Pt Chev shops, lunch was served:

Leg 5a: Pt Chev Shops to New Lynn

Service: 18

Wait: 1 minute

Travel time: 15 minutes

Our goal was to get to the New Lynn interchange so we could head over to Onehunga for some essential shopping, so we jumped back on an 18 in the direction we’d just come from.

Leg 5b: New Lynn to Onehunga

Service: 68

Wait: 9 minutes

Travel time: 30 minutes

Arriving at New Lynn, transferring to a 68 crosstown was straightforward and comfortable.

The 68 itself uneventful except for when it veered off the route marked on my map and onto the motorway instead – although it got to Onehunga all the same. The trip was fairly long and windy, so I get the impression the service will be more useful for short trips than journeys across the half the isthmus like we were doing.

At Onehunga there was a brief schism in the group over whether shopping was a necessity (obviously it was) or whether we should rush to get the 743 connector to GI.

Necessity bore out, and thanks to some quick extra shopping the resultant 21 minute wait for the next bus passed with mutiny averted.

The Onehunga Town Centre interchange is significantly less pleasant to wait in than the New Lynn one:

Leg 6a: Onehunga to GI

Service: 743

Wait: 21 minutes

Travel time: 41 minutes

The 743 was by far the most drawn out leg of the trip – but it’s hard to see how it could be done much faster. Things were exacerbated a bit by the detour through the Sylvia Park carpark, which was heavily congested.

Notably, the 743 was the first new bus we’d encountered on the trip so far (excluding the 18, which doesn’t count since it went live previously). Although the isthmus routes all have improved frequency you’ll still find plenty of older buses in service, ranging from comfortable but dated to probably-leaks-in-the-rain. This is a bit of a disappointment compared to the other new network launches, but on the plus side maybe it’ll mean they might go electric sooner.

Leg 6b: GI to Mission Bay

Service: Tamaki Link

Wait: 7 minutes

Travel time: 16 minutes

Next on the agenda was Mission Bay, via the new blue Tamaki Link. But the one that turned up for us was unbranded, so we didn’t get the full experience. They’re meant to look like this:

The stop where you wait is well signposted (the letters, which seem to be popping up everywhere, are particularly useful).

But the environment is pretty spartan and the “Buses replace trains” sign is about as misleading as you can get – buses did not replace trains.

Leg 7: Mission Bay to Museum

Service: 781

Wait: 4 minutes

Travel time: 30 minutes

This is a new service that provides direct access to the museum. The route’s a bit windy (and has a u-turn in the middle of it!) but it got us where we wanted without any trouble.

Leg 8: Museum to Wynyard Quarter

Service: 75

Wait: 16 minutes

Travel time: 15 minutes

After a gentle evening walk dodging vehicles in the Domain we took a new frequent 75 bus down to Wynyard Quarter. This passes east to west through the CBD, going over the Wellesley Street hill, right down to North Wharf, where our dinner was conveniently located.

Leg 9: Wynyard Quarter to Ponsonby

Service: 20

Wait: 10 minutes

Travel time: 7 minutes

The new 20 bus provides frequent access to Ponsonby from Wynyard Quarter. We used it to get dessert

Leg 10a: Ponsonby to Symonds St

Service: Inner Link

Wait: 0 minutes

Travel time: 6 minutes

Hometime! I needed to get back to Mt Eden, and unfortunately there aren’t many options here. The motorway severs Ponsonby and Mt Eden, with only the new 20 bus providing access to the northern part of the suburb over the Bond St bridge. But that heads off down to Morningside, and doesn’t provide any connection to Dominion and Mt Eden Roads. Neither is there any connection over Newton Rd.

So the only choice is what I’ve always done – and why I hardly go to Ponsonby – take the generally very unreliable Inner Link to Symonds St and transfer to a 25/27 bus.

Tonight though I was in luck, and an Inner Link turned up immediately and only took 6 minutes to get to Symonds St.

Leg 10b: Symonds St to Mt Eden

Service: 27H

Wait: 3 minutes

Travel time: 5 minutes

Here, there are plenty of buses heading the right way in the new network, even at 8pm on a Sunday. The service is good, but the transfer experience is awful: a terrible windswept motorway overbridge and a dangerous motorway onramp to cross to get there.

Unless we’re planning on putting shops and houses on the bridge the stops should be moved off it and back into civilisation as soon as possible.

Impressions

The central new network is a huge improvement over what we had – in terms of frequency, span of services and the fact that you can now read the map without getting a headache. The 7 day 15 minutes till midnight minimum for most of the major routes will make a huge difference for me: no more getting stuck in the cold waiting for half an hour for a bus to turn up, and no more looking quite as apologetic when I force some poor friend out of their car and make them do it with me.

But at the same time it feels less like a new network than the other ones – many of the routes are identical or very similar, and it doesn’t really open up much in the way of new travel for me, at least in the vicinity of my home. One of the things I want to do the most is easily move laterally between Ponsonby, Sandringham Rd, Dominion Rd, Mt Eden Rd and Manukau Rd. While we now have good 66 and 68 crosstowns for analogous movements further south, bizarrely, the more central you get, the worse the crosstown service becomes.

In my view we need at least two more frequent crosstowns to resolve this: an upgraded 650 (supplanting the messy Outer Link) and to morph the new 20 into the old Crosstown 5. Something connecting Ponsonby to Grafton via Newton Rd would be nice too!

Summary for nerds

Origin Destination Route Wait (min) Travel time (min) Mt Eden Symonds St ‘267’ 0 5 Symonds St Newmarket 70 7 9 Newmarket Ranfurly Rd Outer Link 7 4 Ranfurly Rd Symonds St 30 4 12 Symonds St Britomart 27W 10 6 Britomart Avondale Western Line Train 11 26 Avondale Pt Chev Shops 18 2 11 Pt Chev Shops New Lynn 18 1 15 New Lynn Onehunga 68 9 30 Onehunga GI 743 21 41 GI Mission Bay Tamaki Link 7 16 Mission Bay Museum 781 4 30 Museum Wynyard Quarter 75 16 15 Wynyard Quarter Ponsonby 20 10 7 Ponsonby Symonds St Inner Link 0 6 Symonds St Mt Eden 27H 3 5

Average wait time: 7 minutes

Average frequent service wait time: 6 minutes

Total number of services taken: 16

Total cost: $14.20

Share this