NEWS MEDIA RELEASE

Busway Brilliance!

February 26, 2008

North Shore City Mayor Andrew Williams had a great opportunity to test out the new Northern Busway on Monday when he travelled to Auckland City for the 8th NZ Integrated Transport Summit and Inaugural Urban Design and Planning Summit.

Not relishing the idea of spending a good part of the morning in his car to make the 8.30am conference registration time, the Mayor opted to catch the bus from the Constellation Station – and he was well rewarded.

“I was presenting a paper at 9.05am and with the conference being held at the Stamford Plaza, driving and getting there on time – with the traffic congestion of peak hour - was always going to be a challenge,” said Mr Williams. “Instead, I bought an $8.60 day pass, jumped on one of the new Northern Star Express buses at 8.10am, drank my coffee bought at the bus station, read the NZ Herald and only 20 minutes later stepped off the bus just 100 metres from the Conference venue,” he continued.

“This was in stark contrast to my two mayoral colleagues from the north and south, one of whom met the tail end of northern motorway traffic at Greville Road at 7.35am – and whom I met as we walking into the hotel together, and the other who stated that he had sat for an hour in his car in traffic on the Southern Motorway”.

Mayor Williams was delighted with his experience, taking a mere third of the time of the other Mayors, and he urged those travelling over the Harbour Bridge to use the Busway service whenever possible. “It’s a great way to travel, very relaxing, with helpful staff and drivers, and buses that leave for the Auckland CBD every 5 minutes during peak hours,” commented the Mayor.

“If you do have to travel away from the North Shore to work or study, then this is surely the best way to do it,” he stated, “and the nicest part of all was that at the end of the day, it took only 23 minutes to return to this wonderful city of ours”.

ends

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