Major delays have plagued an Auckland bus line after changes made some peak services “substantially slower”, even though they were meant to speed buses up.
Passengers have been left fuming as some buses ran up to 30 minutes late with the changes on the route 12 bus going into effect last week.
The popular route, previously known as the 120, is the main line linking West Auckland and the North Shore, running through Massey, Hobsonville Point and Greenhithe.
Last week, the service had a route change and a renaming, which also included the introduction of new electric double-decker buses and a new operator.
But frustrated commuters soon took to social media over the delays, describing the situation as “a joke” and a “dog’s breakfast” in local community groups.
Greenhithe commuter Miles told 1News he had been using the 120 bus for years, but had stopped as a result of the “shambles” with the service.
“You can’t rely upon the scheduled time. You basically just have to look at the app to see when the next bus is coming, because you can never rely upon the bus that you want to catch being the bus that actually turns up,” he said.
“There are throngs and throngs of people all waiting for the bus at Constellation station, because the bus that they were expecting to arrive at 4.30pm never turns up.
“The bus that then actually turns up for the 5pm route is actually the bus that was meant to be there at 4.30, so it’s a shambles.”
There were never the same issues with the old 120 bus and the previous operator, which typically still departed its first stop on time, he said.
“Most people, in fact, we’ve resorted to just getting a pickup. I can’t rely on the bus to turn up, so I just get my wife to pick me up.”
In a social media post, Upper Harbour Local Board chairperson Anna Atkinson said the board had received “numerous complaints” over the issues with the 12 bus.
‘Substantially slower than expected’
The change in route number came with a promised boost in frequency and faster journey times along the Upper Harbour Motorway, SH18, instead of using local roads.
But Auckland Transport (AT) public transport operations group manager Rachel Cara said trip times on the 12 had been “substantially slower than expected” in the morning peak.
The upgrade in frequency to every 15 minutes, outside of rush hour, was also delayed from the April launch of the new route.
Cara said the change to a shorter and more direct route on the motorway was designed to reduce travel times throughout the day.
“This was expected to have the additional benefit of freeing up buses and drivers to run more return trips,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the journey times for the changed bus route have been substantially slower than expected for some of the busiest trips during the morning peak.
“The slower journey times, particularly heading along SH18 towards Constellation, are leading to flow-on delays and cancellations throughout the morning.
“This congestion is leading to the issue of buses running but not showing up in the app or on the passenger information signs because the trip started too late to be tracked.”
She said the delays and slow journey times were “disappointing”, but denied they had anything to do with a new bus operator being assigned the route.
Tranzurban began operating the service on the same day the new motorway routing went into effect.
“Our teams are looking at options to quickly address this problem so that Aucklanders can rely on the 12 bus route to get them where they need to go,” Cara said.
“Although AT switched to a new bus operator for this route in late April, this has not been the cause of the reliability issues with route 12.
“Our bus service partner Tranzurban has been using its full peak-time fleet, but this isn’t enough to overcome the underlying journey time issue.”
Cara added: “Once we have identified the right solution to this problem, we will promptly share this with the local boards and our passengers ahead of us making any changes to the route or timetable.”