All across Aotearoa New Zealand, the problem is the same: public transport services don’t run often enough. Despite much improvement even Auckland’s bus frequency isn’t there yet, with nearly half the population without services that run every 20 minutes or less. Meanwhile, a recent examination of public transport in our small-to-medium cities found most didn’t meet minimum frequencies recommended for network-oriented planning. (The few that did, like Queenstown, had seen significant passenger growth.)
If bus frequency is a cause for concern, our inter-regional train timetables are frankly embarrassing. One weekday return service on the Capital Connection (Palmerston North-Wellington) and two on Te Huia (Hamilton-Auckland) – seriously?
