AT LOCAL is a new form of public transport that's currently being trialled for a year at an estimated cost of $1.3 million in Devonport.

OPINION: Auckland Transport has revealed surprising ambition for the future of publicly-run local rideshare schemes.

The council agency has pitched for $10 million, to buy 100 electric vehicles, in the long-list of ideas being pruned over Easter by Auckland Council for submission to the government's $800 million shovel-ready funding round.

AT's bid for rideshare to end up on the council short-list is a double surprise really.

Not just the scale of the ambition to go from 3 to 103 electric minibuses within a year, but because the jury is still out on its 16-month pilot scheme for rideshare in seaside Devonport.

READ MORE:

* Will Auckland Transport's rideshare be its Apollo 11 or Icarus?

* Auckland rideshare trial: Publicly-funded service subsidised $11.72 per trip

* $1.3m subsidised rideshare in Devonport attracts mostly walkers, bus users

* Residents of upmarket Auckland suburb ferried around by $1.3m Uber-style service

AT has so far spent $1.4 million on the Devonport pilot, which it hoped would reduce traffic and trial a new way of providing community public transport.

The development of an app through which users would order and pay for their door-to-door trips, and using specially-bought electric minibuses, AT viewed as cutting-edge.

When its initial 12-months was up in November, Auckland Transport's board was unconvinced, and gave management a further six months to prove it was a good use of precious budget.

Chris McKeen Dedicated electric minibuses have been bought for the AT Local trial in Devonport

At that point, each AT Local trip was being subsidised to the tune of $11.72, a figure which may have since fallen.

Four months into the extension, the pilot was paused due to Covid-19 and the risks for passengers in close proximity in small electric cars or minibuses.

At headline level, Devonport's AT Local has worked, eventually reaching its target of 200 trips a day.

However, along the way to reaching those numbers, the service dropped the lowly-patronised weekends, offered almost-free $1 companion fares - used 177 times in one February week, and gave away $10,000 of free credit.

None Patronage on Auckland Transport's Devonport rideshare scheme has reached its 200 trips per day target.

The initially-proposed $3 fare was never reached, with AT hanging on to the $2.50 "introductory rate" after a slow start.

A survey by AT in mid-2019 found only 43 per cent of AT Local users had switched from cars.

More than half had switched from either walking (31 per cent), getting the bus (13 per cent) or cycling (8 per cent).

AT has continued to describe its progress in upbeat reports, with rising patronage, and high satisfaction levels.

In January, in response to doubts raised by Stuff about AT Local's performance, the chief executive Shane Ellison wrote a defence posted on his LinkedIn page, and said: "Everything you'd expect to get from a pilot has been delivered."

Chris McKeen/STUFF Electric cars from Auckland Transport's fleet have been co-opted into the AT Local fleet

Ellison said that not only had the rideshare useage risen, but so had patronage on revamped feeder bus services to the ferry terminal.

"Route 806 patronage is up by 43 per cent and Route 807 patronage is up by 60 per cent," he said.

However, the impressive rise in percentage terms, was based on movements in wafer-thin patronage.

AT's own data provided to Stuff showed that in the morning peak, those getting off the 806 buses arriving at the terminal rose from two to five, and on the 807 from 23 to 27.

In the evening peak, the numbers boarding the 806 route rose from three to eight, and on the 807 from seven to 12.

Chris McKeen AT Local drops-off and collects Devonport locals mainly from the ferry terminals for $2.50 each

The already transport-privileged Devonport residents, this month get those bus trips fare-free if they connect with a ferry journey, as part of AT's regionwide ferry fare integration initiative.

It is unclear whether AT Local will return once the Covid-19 alert falls to Level 2 or lower, and whether a chance for an in-depth survey of its impact has been lost.

Auckland Transport always saw AT Local as a forerunner for other rideshare services in other parts of Auckland.

It had begun work discussing the concept with community leaders in the poorer southern suburb of Mangere.

The reality of post-Covid-19 budget pressure at Auckland Transport might change everything, and make spending on experimental ideas, unlikely.

That is the real surprise in AT's $10 million, 100-vehicle pitch, a bid which might not make it through the Council's Easter weekend number crunch, to reduce a list of 119 projects, to 20, to pass on to the Government.