People queued up waiting for a bus to arrive on Wellesley Street on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
Auckland Transport says making sure commuters can get home in an emergency is still a work in progress.
The torrential rain in Auckland on Tuesday caused major disruptions to the public transport network and left many commuters stranded in the rain for hours. Throughout the day, train, ferry and bus services were cancelled, delayed and detoured around Auckland.
Those using bus routes through the city centre and the North Shore were particularly badly affected.
Auckland Transport executive general manager safety Stacey van der Putten agreed it was not good enough that the public transport system ground to a halt just when everybody was trying to get home.
Acting Auckland Mayor Desley Simpson told a media briefing that Auckland Transport could always do better and she had had some conversations with them about Tuesday's situation.
"Yes we are aware it didn't work as well as it could have yesterday, without a doubt, but it was also compounded with you know the lack of buses and the lack of drivers and Auckland Transport trying to bridge that gap as well."
The state of emergency that was declared was precautionary because the bad weather was coming faster than initially predicted, she told Morning Report.
The train lines then flooded which caused trouble for Auckland Transport, she said.
"Once the train lines are flooded that puts a stop to trains, puts more pressure on the buses, the buses were operating at off peak which rapidly turned to an on peak timetable that was required. So it did take a while for things to settle down."
"I really want to thank Aucklanders for their patience as they navigated some very tricky conditions and challenges in getting home last night ... it was quite challenging."
Asked whether she thought it was climate change or poor infrastructure that was causing the problems every time there was a severe weather event, Simpson said "it's probably a bit of everything".
But she said tropical weather systems were hitting New Zealand far more often than previously as a result of climate change.
There would be a wider conversation with Auckland Transport given that this would not be the last time this type of situation came into play, Simpson said.
Auckland Transport's Stacey van der Putten said buses got caught up in traffic jams which further delays. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
Public transport part of general traffic
Van der Putten said Auckland Transport was continuing to work on its network's resilience.
It was important to note that bus services were part of the general traffic, she said.
"So when there is a huge volume of traffic trying to get out of the city or to where they need to be - they are part of that so those delays are consistent in terms of for private motor vehicles as well as the normal bus services."
Asked why there were reports of empty buses driving past people who were waiting, van der Putten said it was likely rerouting with drivers getting to where they needed to be to start their journey.
"I think the bus operators yesterday did their best to obviously meet the surge requirements, off peak is when most of that sort of happened."
Bus operators worked to bring in more capacity at that time and bring in peak loading earlier in the day, but the traffic delays slowed things down, she said.
A big part of looking how to deal with surge volumes on public transport comes down to how public transport services were prioritised, she said.
For example, KiwiRail was undertaking a substantial rebuild programme on the train network which would increase the ability of the network to accommodate weather events, she said.
"Also with our bus network in terms of reprioritising that road space so that buses have priority in and out of the city."
When there are huge volumes of traffic, if buses do not have priority they become part of that general traffic which leads to further delays, she said.
In the short term Auckland Transport would be looking at what it could do when the next storm strikes in terms of ensuring buses are able to leave the city with bus lanes a priority, she said.
"As well as looking about how we can use technology across the network in order to be able to prioritise bus services.
"It is a work in progress and something we're always on and trying to do better and better. But yes acknowledge these weather systems are here to stay and we need to build a system that accommodates those."
Auckland Transport says travel is back to normal across the city (except on the Eastern Line due to the KiwiRail rebuild).
Ferries are running on normal timetables, with just a few services cancelled and alternative options available.
All roads are open but some surface flooding may remain.
