New double-decker buses for West Auckland driven by demand
Photo:
Auckland Transport / supplied
A new fleet of 44 electric buses have been deployed in West Auckland.
Auckland Transport (AT) said the fleet included 26 double-decker buses to run on the Western Express WX1 service between Westgate and the city centre.
Each would carry 100 people, boosting the route's capacity by an extra 51,000 seats per week.
"We wouldn't be getting double-deckers if there weren't enough people to go on them, and it shows that West Aucklanders have really embraced the WX1 service," Henderson-Massey Local Board member Dan Collins said in a statement provided by AT.
"And you can charge your phone on them too."
The others would gradually replace diesel buses on the 11T, 11W and 12 routes in West Auckland.
Waitākere Councillor Shane Henderson on an electric double-decker bus.
Photo:
Auckland Transport / supplied
It brought Auckland's total electric fleet to 224 buses, which AT claimed was the most of any city in Australasia - with more to come.
"We're adding another 31 electric buses to our fleet by the end of June," AT infrastructure and fleet specification manager Edward Wright said.
"By August next year, we will have a fleet of 450 electric buses, which is around a third of the 1350 buses that operates AT's services."
A charging station on one of Auckland's electric double-decker buses.
Photo:
Auckland Transport / supplied
The plan was for all buses travelling to Auckland's city centre to be electric by 2030, and the rest of the fleet by 2035.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter
curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
14-07-2025
- NZ Herald
Media Insider: MediaWorks wins massive AT outdoor advertising contracts, valued in hundreds of millions of dollars
The four contracts are to look after advertising on street furniture (such as shelters), vehicles (such as buses and trains), transport hubs and stations, and billboards. The new deal comes into place on October 16. MediaWorks is now 100% owned by Australian outdoor firm QMS, and the announcement will lead to inevitable speculation about whether its New Zealand subsidiary retains its radio arm, or spins it off to focus on its outdoor advertising business. MediaWorks - which owns a suite of entertainment radio brands including the Breeze, More FM, The Rock, and The Edge - has been adamant that it is an integrated company. MediaWorks currently looks after advertising on AT buses and some billboards and was long rumoured to be the frontrunner to win the lion's share of the AT contracts. But there have been a number of other industry players who have also been in the running, such as OohMedia – which currently looks after advertising at bus shelters – JCDecaux and Go Media. The announcement today will be a blow for OohMedia, especially, which has had the co OohMedia currently has the contract to look after advertising at AT bus shelters. 'We are thrilled to announce our partnership with MediaWorks to manage what is New Zealand's largest out-of-home asset portfolio, following a very competitive process,' said AT chief financial officer Mark Laing. 'The out-of-home media industry is experiencing exciting growth and MediaWorks' proposal demonstrated strong delivery capability and alignment with AT's strategic objectives.' Laing says the partnership with MediaWorks will deliver a substantial increase in advertising revenues and is an excellent outcome for ratepayers. 'Under the new agreement AT expects to receive a minimum of $220 million revenue over the next ten years. Revenue will be higher than this if the market continues to grow as forecast.' AT currently receives around a quarter of the gross advertising revenue generated from its Out of Home media assets. Under this new partnership AT will receive more than half. 'Last year AT earned $7 million in advertising revenue. This coming year this will more than double,' says Mr Laing. 'Every additional dollar brought in through advertisements across the public transport network helps to offset the costs of operating our services and gets Auckland closer to meeting the Government's 'private share' targets for public transport.' MediaWorks chairman Barclay Nettlefold and chief executive Wendy Palmer. MediaWorks chief executive Wendy Palmer saidthe company was 'absolutely thrilled'. 'This win is a game changer and re-shapes the way New Zealand out-of-home will be planned and bought by advertisers. 'Our team approached the tender strategically to demonstrate the value and growth we can provide both Auckland Transport and our clients with a new exciting offering that sees street furniture integrated into our existing Auckland Transport portfolio.' Drawn out process The tender process has been a long, drawn-out affair, with today's announcement marking almost a 12-month delay. The new deals were due to be operational from January 1 this year but AT has been taking the outdoor companies on a not-so-merry ride. In December, when AT suddenly pulled the pin on the already 18-month RFP process, it refused, publicly, to say why. A media manager said at the time this was 'confidential'. AT's decision left the industry outraged and bamboozled, although few of the companies have been prepared to go on the record for fear it would harm future opportunities. 'It's been a clusterf***,' one source told Media Insider. 'They've had no idea what they've been doing. They had no idea of the scope of the project. And that is very evident in the fact that we are now going back to an RFP [request for proposal] again with new parameters after 18 months.' XXXX MediaWorks currently has the contract to run bus advertising for AT. AT had taken almost three months to release to the NZ Herald limited official information, including a notice that it sent to outdoor companies on December 10. In that notice, AT told RFP participants that it had decided to 'extend' the procurement process based on a 'further review of market dynamics and transition risk as well as market feedback. This review also suggested the RFP process would benefit from some modifications'. The use of the term 'extend' might be considered a stretch, given that the RFP will be reissued with 'modified evaluation criteria and bid structure'. The process essentially had to start all over again, although AT said in the notice it would 'endeavour to minimise any additional effort required from participants'. The notice said, 'This is not a decision that AT has taken lightly, considering the amount of effort to date from all parties involved. We understand that this is disappointing for participants and the out-of-home media sector.' Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand's most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME. Watch Media Insider - The Podcast on YouTube, or listen to it on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
RNZ News
14-07-2025
- RNZ News
Auckland Transport collects almost $19 million since parking fines hiked
Auckland Transport's collected almost $19 million in fines since October 2024. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro Auckland Transport's (AT) collected almost $19 million in fines since parking penalties went up 70 percent in October last year. That's the same amount in nine months as it collected in the whole of 2024 and double what was collected the year before that. Head of Transport and Parking Compliance Rick Bidgood told Morning Report said people were "getting the message" when it came to parking fines. "Look I think they are really getting a message now when it comes to fines generically across the range, but certainly that $750 mobility infringement is quite significant." But Bidgood said there was still some people making "not great choices" despite the infringement costs, which he said were not set by Auckland Transport. "These levels are set at a national level so its nothing that Auckland Transport has any input into... We haven't had a significant fee increase for many many years so I guess they just moving things up to make it as adherent as it needs to be so people make a positive choice rather than a negative choice." There were about 140 infringements issued across Auckland per hour, which Bidgood said was relatively low in comparison to the population. He also said staff on the street were just as important as the parking cameras. "I really need the guys and girls on the street because we got about 4000 requests for service every single month where people are having issues that we attend to." Examples of issues included vehicles blocking driveways, breaking downs and abandon vehicles, he said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
07-07-2025
- Scoop
How Effective Has The Road Cone Hotline Been?
More than 650 reports have been made to the road cone hotline within its first month, but how effective has it been on the streets of Auckland? It is lunchtime in central Auckland, and the Wellesley Street Upgrade project is well underway. One day it will be a connection to the City Rail Link - but right now there is construction noise and a bright orange line of road cones. "We work around here, so it's been like this forever. Just used to it now, but looking forward for them to go away," a woman who was heading out for lunch told First Up. Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke Van Velden announced significant shifts to rebalance WorkSafe's focus last month, kicking off with a road cone hotline. On the streets of Auckland, attitudes towards the hotline - which is actually an online form - were mixed. Some welcomed it. "I've been tempted (to report)," said one person. "I think there are way too many of them (road cones), I think they are overused." Some opposed it. "There's an excessive focus on road cones. They are a sign of progress, I love progress so I have no problem with excessive road cones." Some were not sure whether that was the solution to their problems. "Auckland has a lot of road works, but I don't know if I would call a hotline." Since launching in June, the hotline received nearly 400 valid reports in week one, 126 in week two, 71 in week three and 70 in week four. Road controlling authorities say The digital hotline collects complaints and sends reports to road controlling authorities. Among all road controlling authorities, Auckland Transport received the most complaints, with nearly 200 reported. Auckland Transport group manager for road corridor access Tracey Berkahn said she was not surprised. "I think that's fairly expected because we're the largest city, we've got the most people and we've also got quite a lot of development going on. So there are a lot of work sites." Berkahn said investigating all of the complaints had created quite a bit of extra work for her team of six, but it had led to improvements. "We had one particular case in Albany where it was in a business area where there was a piece of electrical maintenance work being done. We had diggers and generators and tools on site. But when we went out, we realised that the site probably had about 30 too many cones. The work site was larger than the plan what's submitted to us for approval, and we talked to the site supervisor and they removed about 30 cones to make that site smaller, to be less disruptive on the businesses and the motorists in the area." Berkahn said on an average day, there were 2000 active sites in Auckland. Among the 200 sites investigated from the hotline reports, 30-40 percent of them had either too many or too few cones. "Quite often when we go out (to investigate), we find where the customer thinks there are too many cones, it might be that there's been a lane created for pedestrians. And if you're driving past in a car, all you can see are orange cones. But if you're walking down that lane as a pedestrian, you're much safer because you're kept away from the machinery on the work site and the cars on the road are kept away from you." Berkahn said Auckland Transport had an existing cone reporting system, but the hotline generated greater public awareness. "The one thing that I would like listeners to understand is that it's been really positive having this relationship with WorkSafe and being able to contact customers about their queries and explain sometimes why those sites are necessary and how they're providing safety." Wellington City Council received 57 complaints in the first week but after a month that had dropped to just 8. The council declined to be interviewed but in a statement said they believed complaints had fallen because the novelty of the hotline is wearing off, and that no cones has been removed due to a hotline report. Meanwhile, Christchurch City Council has received 40 complaints. In a statement, transport operations manager Stephen Wright sid while they found most of the sites were compliant, any issue that needed to be addressed by the contractor were discussed from an education approach in the first instance, but it was up to the contractor to decide whether the cones were needed or not. NZTA, who received the 140 complaints, did not respond to First Up's request for comment. Word on the streets Back on the streets, Temporary Traffic Management workers were split on whether the road cones themselves - and the hotline - worked. "I think there's too many of them and it's a great idea there is an 0800 number," a worker with four years' experience in site management told First Up. "I think that (the hotline) is an overkill. There isn't a problem unless it's blocking a car park or it's limiting businesses to customers. Now I think the problem is people like myself are kind of bending those rules - more cones have been putting out than what's needed and some don't pick up their gear after they've finished their site. But then the other flip side to that coin is gear getting stolen, so therefore what was safe before was not safe anymore because there weren't enough cones. "If it weren't for people like me, people would be driving into trenches and driving into holes," a TTM manager with more than 10 years of experience told First Up. RNZ asked another worker how he would feel if I took half of the cones away from his site. It was a definite "no" from him. He said sometimes when pedestrians saw a gap between the cones they would try to cross the road, and the closely lined up cones kept pedestrians safe and made sure they followed the rules. WorkSafe said the road cone hotline will be reviewed at the end of the year.
