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Rodney Local Board will spend more than $2.5 million from its Transport Targeted Rate (TTR) to fund new shuttle bus services for Warkworth, Leigh and Sandspit over the next three years.
The new service will feature:
• an on-demand service for Warkworth
• fixed route/fixed timetable shuttles between Warkworth and Leigh seven days a week
• fixed route/fixed timetable shuttles between Warkworth and Sandspit, Friday to Sunday, to connect with the Kawau Island ferry.
The money will come from the Warkworth subdivision portion of the TTR, which is the only one with sufficient income left to fund the services.
At last month’s monthly meeting, some Board members said the high cost made the new service a risky venture.
“My primary concern is cost,” Warkworth member Tim Holdgate said. “$2.5 million locked in for three years, that’s a pretty significant funding risk. That’s venture capital.
“$850,000 every year when the roads are just falling apart as we look at them – it’s a big risk.”
However, Auckland Transport (AT) senior service network planner Dave Hilson said the new service would be reviewed annually.
“If it’s not performing, there is the option to cancel it, but we do need to give it a chance,” he said.
The meeting heard that an on-demand shuttle bus trial in South Auckland had proved a success and was being made permanent.
Board member Steven Garner repeated a concern he had raised at previous meetings about the lack of a bus service to the west of State Highway 1.
“What work is being done to extend the existing scheduled services to the western side of Warkworth, past the high school, along Woodcocks Road and down through Hudson Road, which is where a large number of people commute to and from?” he asked.
“The majority of people who commute go to the western side of town. It doesn’t make sense that we don’t have that service from Snells Beach and Matakana.”
Hilson said that to extend the existing bus routes from Algies Bay and Matakana would either require an extra bus being brought in or cuts to the timetable, and the new on-demand service was designed to fill in such gaps.
“Part of the purpose of on-demand is to serve the west and to allow a lot more travel through Warkworth itself,” he said. “At the moment, we’re only covering a small area of Warkworth. This would do more than connect to the western side of the state highway.”
He added that with the Warkworth to Leigh service, there was scope to pick up and drop off passengers along the route, rather than just at official bus stops, and stressed that it wouldn’t be an ‘off the shelf’ bus service.
Beth Houlbrooke said the new services had been requested by residents and community groups, and the focus should not simply be on the estimated cost, as they would provide invaluable social and economic benefits to the wider area.
“Remember how much growth we’ve got coming, demand will only grow,” she said. “We need smaller, shorter, more flexible routes like this. And there is still enough money in the Warkworth TTR to carry on with building footpaths, trails and so on,” she said.
AT said after the meeting that the new services would not start until next year.
“We had to wait until the Local Board passed the resolution to fund this, before we could start work in earnest,” a spokesperson said.
“On-demand rideshare is relatively new for Auckland Transport and there is still a lot of work to do to get these services up and running.
“When we introduced the bus services funded by the Local Board in 2019, we were able to piggy-back on existing bus contracts, including vehicles and drivers. This meant we were able to implement these relatively quickly.”
