HPSauce

We're arriving in Auckland in just a few weeks time, hubby has a job and the company are based in Henderson near the motorway. I've been looking at areas to live and the transport option as I don't know where I'll be working yet and want to try and make sure I can get around, the MAXX site seems to suggest there are lots of buses and the trainline runs into the city from further south of the area, why do I keep hearing the public transport in Auckland isn't very good? What is wrong with it, it seems pretty good as an outsider looking in?

thanks HP

P18PPS

there are only a few train lines and certainly not all the city is covered by these. trains tend to be one or two carriages.

buses can be good, though in my experience a bit hit and miss and in order to appear to satisfying all areas a bus journey that may only take 15 mins in a car could take an hour by bus.

ferries are a good option if you live/work adjacent to a terminal.

Auckland is so spread out though - to give you an idea, it is the geographic size of London, though with the population of a small uk city residing in it. really having a car is the best option.

Ninja757

Henderson is on the Western line (Waitakere to Britomart) with a train approx every 15 mins during peak times (every half hour outside peak)

Southern line is from Pukekohe to Britomart, Eastern line brings you from Otahuhu to Britomart via Glen Innes / Sylvia Park.

You also have the Onehunga line and the brand new Manukau line.

The trains are between 2 and 6 carriages long, but are quite old and prone to breaking down every so often. New electric trains are arriving in 2013.

The signals / lines etc are also being upgraded (ready for electrification) and most of the stations are being upgraded also.

If you live / work near any of the stations, then I suggest that the train is a better alternative to driving (and finding cheap car parking) I live on the North Shore though......NO TRAINS!!!!!

simonsi

As with most public transport, if it matches your proposed journey it is great, if not it is pants

Bo-Jangles

The biggest complaint is that none of the transport is joined up although it has improved since the super city shake up and Mayor Len Brown doing his level best to convince Government that it needs funding and improvement.

For me the 1km+ walk uphill to a bus stop to wait for a bus that may then only take me for bit of the journey before I have to swap to another bus to do the rest, makes it a totally unviable option in terms of both time and effort.

The few times I have taken the bus I have sworn never to bother again as the cost benefit of bus fare over cost of parking is negligible and not likely to incentivise one to make the effort.

davros1984

This is not me having a go at you P18PPS - your comments are very valid. Its more a general mindset, especially amongst the locals and S-Africans.

And there lies the problem... specifically this mindset that you must have a car!

Public transport in terms of getting to and from work is pretty good - in my opinion far superior to what you get on average in the UK - i.e. dedicated bus lanes help.

Its when you want to go to places other than the obvious places of work that a car is warranted. Sadly I work with many people, all who commute into the cbd by car despite the fact that most of them live within a 10 minute walk of a bus stop or station. It's pure laziness and all it does is add to Auckland's ever increasing traffic problems.

We have a car, but we save it for weekend trips away. If I were to drive into Auckland CBD it really feels like you're home trying to commute into Guildford at rush hour *yawn*.

P18PPS

agree

and agree- to the OP you WILL need a car if only for weekends - you categorically cannot rely on public transport to show you the country and explore.

P18PPS

HP - where are you currently?

Clappy

Use the journey planner on http://www.maxx.co.nz/ to try out some examples.

I use the bus and it is a two-bus journey to work for me, but they run frequently and the door to door journey takes forty minutes.

One of the advantages of taking the bus is that I don't have to be sober.

HPSauce

Thanks everyone. To answer / repond to a few comments:

1. We live in Farnham in Surrey at the mo and I spend over an hour commuting each way at the moment by car M3, M25. I really want to get away from that.
2. We're planning on getting car, one or other of us can use to commute and for weekends
3. The good thing is we have some flexibility at the moment, I don't have a job and plan to temp for a while to get the lay of the land, we will be renting accomodation so can relocate appropriately before settling somewhere longer term.

Appreciate your input and i think the comment that says, it's good as long as it goes where you need it to, is probably true of any city transport links.

I am hopefully that I will be able to avoid senarios like the one I had just this morning, whereby it took me 2 hours to do 34 miles! ONLY 6 more days to go before I finish work

Charismatic

The Resource Management Act has forced New Zealand cities into having a sprawling urban areas without a dense enough housing to support proper public transport services. That's why the best planned cities in New Zealand are either small or have geographic constraints on growth area.

Well you did ask!

sr71

To be pedantic, Auckland's population makes it bigger than all UK cities apart from London, in fact apart from Birmingham (which Auckland has about 500,000 more residents) it has almost 1 million more residents than the next most populated UK city - Glasgow.

Nevertheless, the public transport is rubbish if you don't live near the routes on it's spartan network.

Robbo25

I would say that the North to South spread of greater Auckland makes it far larger than London, whilst maybe in overall square miles it may be similar or even smaller.

Personally, I use the bus for travel into the CBD each day and it's wonderful as far as I need it.

P18PPS

interestingly enough I didn't believe you there, so googled the population, ... my hat off to you that it does appear that the city residents are larger in auckland than brum.... however being a brummie there is now way on this earth that auckland is as big as the greater birmingham area, once you start to include the peripheral towns, which, auckland doesn't have, unless you start to include the tron as an extension of auckland!

Bo-Jangles

It's been said time and again on this forum and people either can't conceptualise or even want to entertain the notion that Auckland is bigger and more populated than almost all of the UK cities.

For some reason when trying to make Auckland out in a good light, they will refer to some other 'Megacity' that's worse and then proceed to make some ridiculous assumptions and comparisons between Auckland and London. Look to any other UK city and all would be less congested and easier to get around. Places such as Birmingham and Leeds provide much more meaningful comparitives.