Auckland Public Transport

I saw them coming always on point and always being clean etc. But the busses and also the trains are so slow that I don’t know the sense of going with publics anymore. The way this train goes in 45 min would every other train do in highly 20.

Auckland transport is about as useful as a submarine with fly screen windows. Always breaking down or just cancelled and then they never tell you. Useless! No wonder our traffic is bad in Auckland.

Dear Auckland Transport,
Why do you hate me? I just wanted to get to Mt Albert.
It was raining.
About to become totally drenched on my bike, I came up with a ‘seemingly brilliant’ idea: I’ll take the train (which already crosses the hurdles of no bikes on Auckland buses AND that Mt Albert actually has a train station).
But then… upon arriving at the train station I see an evil orange poster declaring that oh hey, all the train lines are closed for maintenance. For the entire weekend. Oh?
Unfortunately, this is not atypical for Auckland Transport and it makes me very sad. Not only do the ‘rail replacement buses’ take about 3x longer to get from point A to B, they also (as mentioned earlier) do not cater to those with bicycles. WOMP.
Cue me entering the Mt Albert housewarming party comme une drowned rat. Tres chique, je sais.
Side rants:
1. The extreme disappointment with Auckland Transport’s 2015 open streets event. I.e. by ‘open streets’ they mean 300 people cramped on one side of Quay street, making cycling legitimately impossible.
2. The fact that the Red link bus is now 50c per ride (used to be free for HOP cardholders). Realllly? Like you could discourage using public transport in AKL even more.
Apologies for all of the negativity but AT really needs to sort their sh*t out. The compliments I can give are:
1. The frequency of Inner and Outer Link buses, which can get you around a good portion of the city.
2. The express bus lane through to the north shore.
3. The promise of a city rail link (!!!) Plllllllease.

Delays are the one thing constant about Auckland Transport. They usually don’t tell you about the delays until later on. The announcements and excuses always sound robotic & generic. There’s no personality.
Good luck trying to get any sort of compensation.

Public transport gets such a bad rap in Auckland. I say what is there to complain about when you never know who you are going to meet on the bus? Just the other day I met a charming fellow, fresh out of Prison, who offered me a bottle of southern comfort just to hang out with me for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I disapointed him when I said I don’t actually do AgRobs and he left the bus pulling fingers and yelling at me. It’s a laugh a minute on the bee-​line !
In reality, the buses are far too expensive for the service provided. It costs 9 dollars to go to and from town — when I could drive in and park close and walk for free, using about three dollars petrol. There is also the added inconvencience of buses either being supremely late — or two minutes early, pulling out of the bus stop as you run after them frantically waving. No doubt this is a highlight for most bus drivers day, but a sore niggle in mine.
I can’t comment on the trains, as I live nowhere near a trainline, and every time I have tried to catch one, there has been rail buses put on instead.

I like that where I live in Mt Eden there is very frequent buses.
In the mornings, unless you are really running late there is not much point running for the bus because they seem to come every 10 — 15 minutes anyway.
The Auckland Transport app is really handy — I use the Real Time Board feature a bit (to see how fast I need to walk from my house to get the next bus). The journey planner is also really useful.
Most of the buses seemed to be air conditioned which has been really nice in this hot summer.
I haven’t had too many issues with the Link buses, which go around inner city suburbs (city, inner and outer). The big plus with these I think, is that they have free wifi! I love this and wish more buses had this on offer. I know FlyBuys were shouting it on a few buses for awhile and it always makes for a more interesting journey with free wifi I feel…
I do wish there was a way I could top up my Hop card on the bus though — so there you go Auckland Transport, one improvement for you!

After being overseas for 7 months and frequently using transport that worked like clockwork (and overhearing people having fits because the train was a couple of minutes late), it is almost comical coming back to New Zealand and trying to get anywhere on a bus. In saying that, they do have very well thought out routes around the city, however the problem is that they just don’t come frequently enough or arrive at the time they say they should. This is not such an issue with the inner city Link bus systems, which are very efficient, however unfortunately for suburban dwellers like me, I live far too faraway from these more efficient routes and have to catch a less reliable bus instead. I understand that the very spread out population density of Auckland is what is keeping the Auckland Council from doing anything, but this does not annul the continuous frustrations and panic attacks I seem to have at the bus stop each morning. My advice for any people reading this — arrive at your stop at least 5 – 10 minutes before the bus is supposed to come, because it might very well be early. But who knows, it could be late too.

Offering bus transportation from the city to the surrounding areas. Purchase a hopper card from the local shop and also top up there too for convenient travel. Download their free app to your phone. Select journey planner then destinations: where you are leaving from and going to and what time and the app will tell you what bus stop to go to! I use this service every day and on the whole it’s pretty reliable. I have found the bus drivers to be lacking in knowledge of the local area so make sure you know where you are going first.

I think it’s fair to say Auckland’s public transport isn’t the best. Especially the buses. Many times I have been waiting at the stop patiently for the bus only for it never to arrive. Or arrive 30 minutes after it’s supposed to. And the excuse «my bus was late» gets pretty old after a while. I wish they would just sort it out. Even though it costs me $ 13 a day to park at my work I would honestly rather pay that than take the bus. And for a country that’s supposed to be «clean and green» surely our city should be providing decent public transport as an alternative.