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Mahurangi residents will get a second chance to show they want a bus service to Silverdale following a public meeting with Auckland Mayor Len Brown in Warkworth last month.
The Mayor was in Warkworth to discuss transport issues with the community and brought representatives from NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Auckland Transport (AT).
About 20 people attended the meeting, along with 10 Council staff, including Rodney Councillor Penny Webster and Rodney Local Board members Steven Garner and Greg Sayers.
The meeting quickly turned to frustration that a bus service connecting Warkworth to the Silverdale park and ride had been delayed for at least another year.
One woman at the meeting said she had moved to Warkworth from Auckland three years ago based on AT’s proposal for a bus service to Silverdale.
“We did our homework and looked at what was planned for the area and decided to relocate and build a house, but the bus service still isn’t here. My husband works in the city and has to drive every day. What about a Kowhai Commuter service?”
Rodney Local Board member Steven Garner echoed her frustrations.
“About 18 months ago we were told we would get a link to the AT network and it never happened,” Mr Garner said. “There’s a huge population of over 65-year-olds and younger people who have no alternative transport and it’s only going to get worse.”
AT chief strategy officer Peter Clark said results from an AT survey last year showed there was insufficient support for a service. Nearly 400 people filled out the survey and 68 said they would use a service daily.
The service would need to have at least 25 passengers per trip to make it viable, he said.
But he said AT would conduct a survey next year to gauge support for the service.
The Mayor said a bus link recently started from Waiuku to Papakura, after residents campaigned for seven years.
“We need a very clear commitment that a new bus service in Warkworth would be used. We don’t want to set Warkworth up to fail.”
Mr Garner said there had never been a culture of public transport use in Rodney and it could take time for a service to gain support.
Warkworth resident Dennis Brown asked Mayor Brown whether Rodney was getting value for rates and asked for figures on the total rates collected for transport in north Rodney and how much is spent on transport in the area.
“We pay a transport rate and a targeted rate but we have no bus service, no train, no ferry,” Mr Brown said.
“Most of us travel on the motorway which costs us $2.20 a trip.”
Mayor Brown said he would get back to him with a response.
