Design funding approved for Auckland bus priority project

Design for a major project to improve bus priority measure through Auckland was approved by Transfund New Zealand on Thursday.

The Board approved $690,000 for its share of design costs of the Central Transit Corridor - an Auckland City Council project, comprising the rerouting of existing bus services along a priority corridor, linking key destinations of Britomart, Auckland’s university precinct, Auckland City Hospital, the Auckland medical school and Newmarket. Total design costs for the project have been set at $1.3 million.

The project will connect Britomart and Newmarket, enhance bus shelters and pedestrian areas, reduce bus travel times, increase reliability of services, provide public transport adjacent to the university and hospital, and provide a strategic link between the North Shore busway and the hospital and university.

Transfund chair Dr Jan Wright says the project will provide more frequent, quicker bus services for people travelling to the hospital or the university from Britomart or Newmarket.

“Currently, the hospital and the university are served by about 240 buses each day. This project is expected to increase this number to about 1340 per day, benefiting about 29,000 people each day.

“Auckland City Council’s modelling indicates the work will also result in time savings of up to 14 minutes for some peak-time services,” she says.

Funding is subject to the council developing activities both to minimise the impact the bus priority measures will have on car users, in particular those which would normally use Grafton Bridge, and on how buses will be routed through Newmarket.

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