The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) is concerned weekend rail bus replacement services are failing passengers, and it shows senior management at Auckland Transport still have no idea of what is happening at the coalface.

PTUA National Coordinator, Jon Reeves, caught the 5:01pm service from Papakura to Britomart Station last Saturday afternoon. “I was disappointed to see AT has replaced two half-hourly 350 seat trains with just one, hourly, 40 seat bus all weekend between Papakura and Otahuhu (to connect with trains to and from Britomart).” Reeves said. The bus was full.

The disastrous service does not stop there. Only one space is available on the rail bus service for passengers in wheelchairs. If more than one would like to catch the rail bus they must wait an hour for the following service. “That is appalling. It is not fair and not first world public transport for disabled passengers” Reeves added.

The trifecta in AT’s failings is that the rail bus replacement services, with timetabled transfer to connecting trains, is far slower than the normal train timetable. Reeves said “As I experienced, even with average to light road traffic the rail bus could not keep to the slower timetable and even arrived at Otahuhu station five minutes after the scheduled connecting train had left the station, adding another 15 minute wait to the slow journey to Britomart. The journey took over one and a half hours by public transport from Papakura to Britomart!” By comparison, that can be completed in 30 minutes by car on a late Saturday afternoon.

Councillor unimpressed by AT’s rail buses

Auckland Councillor Mike Lee also caught the Rail Bus replacement service with his family from Puhinui to Newmarket late last Saturday evening. The Puhinui – Airport AirportLink bus operates 6 times per hour only to disappoint passengers with just one rail bus replacement operating per hour each way between Papakura and Otahuhu train station. “It’s is a tedious long wait at a station in suburbia for the hourly rail bus service” Lee said. “This cannot be AT’s finest solution to encourage the public to use public transport” he added.

While work on the rail corridor is very important, at least AT can run rail bus replacements at the same frequency as the cancelled train services. They must also ensure connecting trains do not leave the transfer station until the rail bus arrives. Jon Reeves said “However, for too long Aucklanders have put up AT’s well paid senior management delivering sub-standard passenger services. Weekend rail bus replacements are the icing on the cake of their incompetence.”

The PTUA wants to see all rail bus services frequencies to match the cancelled trains, at a minimum. Our organisation does not believe senior management are competent in managing public transport. “If this was the private sector, AT’s senior (mis)management would be “pivoting” into new careers” Reeves said.

If a member of the PTUA was on the Board of Auckland Transport we would be asking senior management the hard questions to get their act into gear for bus, train and ferry users of Auckland.

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