12. ANN HARTLEY (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Transport
What benefits is Auckland seeing from the opening of the Northern Busway?
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Transport) Link to this
In the week ended 17 February, patronage on the Northern Express bus service has increased by 48 percent compared with last year, to 17,967 passengers. This is a magnificent result, and I expect that investment in public transport will continue to pay huge benefits to the quality of life and economic well-being of our largest city.
The Northern Busway management team is working on developing options to consider the use of high-occupancy vehicles on the busway. At present both Transit and the local authorities involved want to ensure that the busway is working effectively before they give consideration to opening it up to other traffic, but they are working on this issue right now.
Keith LockeAfter the success of the busway in reducing traffic over the harbour bridge, will the Government be supporting the current proposal to provide a cycleway over the bridge?
Transit New Zealand and its regional partners Auckland City Council, the Auckland Regional Council, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, and North Shore City Council yesterday agreed to jointly look at all options for walking and cycling on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The partners will joint fund the investigation, and consider the connection points at either end of the bridge. The options include but are not limited just to Cycle Action Auckland’s proposal. So they are already on the case, investigating the feasibility of that.
The Government has contributed $210 million to the total cost of the $300 million Northern Busway project. This is another example of the Government plugging the deficit left by the National Government in the 1990s—where public transport expenditure was capped at $40 million for all of New Zealand. I would like to show the House this graph of just how much money this Government has put into Auckland land transport since we became the Government The difference is very clear indeed.