The Gulf Harbour ferry service is back to a full schedule of sailings from Monday, after years of frequent cancellations and reduced timetables.
Ferry crew shortages meant many commuters were stuck using hours-long replacement buses or even taxis to take them the 50km by road from Auckland's central business district to the Whangaparāoa peninsula.
Then last year Auckland Transport proposed canning the service altogether, prompting backlash from the community and a petition to keep it running.
Now the service's problematic past appears to be behind it, but it will take time and effort to win back the trust of the locals.
The ferry heading away from Whangaparāoa, to Auckland central on Monday morning. Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro
Monday was a beautiful morning in The City of Sails, with blue skies and still water.
"Oh my god, it's a blessing for me. Because it just takes 45 minutes from here. I just get dropped off at the ferry terminal and walk to work, fantastic, " said local Geet Vashisth.
"We're all gonna get behind it, we're all going to use it," said fellow commuter Kathy.
Gulf Harbour is near the end of the Whangaparāoa peninsula, and the drive in peak traffic was a long and slow option for Vashisth.
"You need to come with me in the car in the morning, and it will take forever to reach the city, or anywhere outside this area. But having a ferry is such a convenience."
The extra sailings would take some cars off the roads, Kathy said, but she hoped Auckland Transport had not promised too much.
"My biggest worry is that we've been set up for failure, with 24 ups and downs a day when they could barely service four."
The timetable board for sailings on Monday. Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro
The newly beefed up timetable of 24 return trips includes morning sailings from Gulf Harbour at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30 and 8:30.
Up until today there were only 2 to 3 sailings each day from Gulf Harbour.
A one way trip costs $11.80 for an adult and $6.30 for a child, with a hopcard.
But some commuters were caught out by the new timetable, which no longer had a 7:45 sailing.
"I didn't bother to check, I don't check the website every day, right. I said 'if there's no change it's 7:45' - but coming here I saw the ferry going away and I said 'bugger'," laughed one unlucky commuter.
Although locals Checkpoint spoke to were happy to see their ferries back, they had not showed up in numbers yet.
Only about 15 to 20 people boarded each ferry during the morning peak on Monday.
Albany ward councillor John Watson said it would take time to build those numbers back up.
"It's a lot harder building things back up than it is to let them run down," Watson said.
"So there's going to be a real campaign required now to attract people back. At one stage there, we were getting 18,000 boardings a month, which was really good."
The Gulf Harbour ferry Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro
Auckland Transport public transport operations manager Duncan McGrory said they had worked hard to improve the service with their contractor Fullers360: "To make sure that they do have the right amount of people.
"They do have the right amount of people, they do have some contingencies if they do have vessels that have mechanical issues."
McGrory said he expected to see more people catching the ferry from Tuesday, as he said work from home arrangements often meant a slower start and end of the week for public transport.
