Route 7 Service Uplift

Five weeks ago ECan starting running more buses on Route 7. There is now a bus every 10 minutes virtually all day (5:30am-6:30pm weekdays). Apparently this was the only public transport improvement outside of Auckland that our national government didn’t cut funding for, so definitely something to savour.

I tried it out the other day and immediately experienced the benefits. First I checked the timetable and was impressed by the formidable line-up of options available to me to get me into the city in time for my 11 o’clock appontment.

I thought I’d timed it perfectly to walk up to the bus stop and straight onto the 10:11, but I was foiled by my easily-distracted seven year old stopping to look at every flower along the way, and watched it zoom past while we were still 100m away.

Normally I’d be really annoyed at having to wait for the next bus but, with 10 minute frequencies, it felt like hardly any time before we were jumping on board the next one, and we still comfortably made our appointment in town.

On paper 10 minute frequencies might not sound that different to the old 15 minute frequencies, but in real life that 5 minutes feels like a game-changer: it certainly made my experience much more positive. It really is true what they say: “frequency is freedom”. The bus was fairly full so perhaps it’s already having an impact. I’ll be watching with interest over the next year or two to see how much bus usage increases due to this improvement.