Deputy Auditor-General's overview
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangarangatanga maha o te motu, tēnā koutou.
Each day, thousands of Aucklanders rely on public transport services to get them where they need to be when they need to be there.
Auckland Transport, a council-controlled organisation, is responsible for public transport in Auckland. It must work with local and central government organisations and the private sector to provide public transport services. These organisations also need to co-ordinate effectively to maintain and invest in public transport infrastructure to meet demand over the long term.
The people who use public transport expect reliable and safe services. Research shows that, alongside convenience, concerns about reliability and safety are reasons why someone might choose private vehicles over public transport.
We wanted to understand how Auckland Transport makes sure that it is contributing to reliable and safe public transport services and how well it reports on, and communicates about, its performance.
What we found
We saw many examples of Auckland Transport working well with Auckland Council, KiwiRail Holdings Limited, operators, and others to improve the reliability and safety of the region's public transport. Together they have carried out work to address bus driver and ferry crew shortages, set up localised safety networks, prioritise late-running buses through intersections, and provide bus replacement services during rail maintenance.
In December 2024, passenger satisfaction with their most recent journey on any service reached 60%, the highest rating since 2022. Even so, and despite Auckland Transport's reliability and safety initiatives, research indicates that public transport is still a choice of last resort for many Aucklanders.
Communications about disruptions needs to improve
Although planned disruptions are generally well managed, unplanned disruptions are a major cause of frustration for those using public transport. Auckland Transport has invested in displays at stops and stations and a mobile app that many people use for information about their journeys.
Auckland Transport informs the public about planned disruptions well, but its complex "back-office" processes and systems make it challenging to manage, and inform people about, unplanned disruptions. In some cases, major disruptions have not been communicated to the public at all.
The severity and impact of incidents are not assessed consistently and this needs to improve. Auckland Transport's systems for dealing with unplanned disruptions can be overwhelmed when multiple disruptions occur at once.
Auckland Transport relies on up-to-date information from other parties, including operators, to manage unplanned disruptions. If this does not happen in a timely way, it can create significant issues. For example, we saw incident reports that highlighted multiple situations where caregivers and parents were unable to confirm their child's whereabouts because bus operators did not communicate about disruptions to school bus arrangements in a timely manner.
Reporting could better reflect passengers' experiences
In its 2023/24 annual report, Auckland Transport said that its services were punctual 88% of the time. However, this reporting combines the performance of buses, ferries, and trains. It is not possible for a reader to understand from the annual report how punctual a particular type of transport is, nor how punctual services on particular routes are.
Auckland Transport considers a bus trip to be punctual if it leaves the first stop between one minute before and five minutes after the scheduled time and arrives at the final stop no later than five minutes after the scheduled time. However, passengers might not ride a bus from the first stop to the last. In our view, it might be more useful to also consider punctuality based on more typical passenger journeys.
We analysed Auckland Transport's data on bus punctuality between 2018 and 2024. We measured punctuality at all bus stops. In our analysis, about a third of buses were either early or late to any given stop in 2022/23 and 2023/24. Our analysis also showed different patterns in different parts of Auckland.
Auckland Transport has recently improved its reliability and punctuality measures. Measures for all services now include cancelled trips and factor in the last stop in a trip. In our view, there is still scope for Auckland Transport's performance measures to better reflect passengers' actual experiences. We encourage Auckland Transport to keep refining the measures that it reports to the public.
Auckland Transport told us it is moving towards a "turn up and go" bus network, which schedules rapid and frequent services on key routes. On these routes, people would not need to rely on the timetable and the frequency of buses arriving will minimise delays or disruptions. This is positive. However, not all bus routes are part of the frequent network or do not yet have high-frequency services in place. In these circumstances, timetables are still necessary for setting passenger expectations about punctuality and to help them to plan their journeys.
Planning and monitoring of progress needs improving
Auckland Transport has set goals for the reliability of public transport. It has carried out many initiatives to improve reliability, such as preparing an asset management plan with KiwiRail Holdings Limited to understand how scheduled rail maintenance will disrupt public transport services. Many more initiatives are proposed.
Similarly, Auckland Transport has set goals for public safety and has work under way to address passenger safety concerns, and more initiatives are intended.
In our view, more detailed implementation planning is needed to ensure that these initiatives are successful and that Auckland Transport is well-positioned to achieve its reliability and safety goals. Auckland Transport also needs to regularly monitor the progress of initiatives and measure their impact.
Final comments
Auckland Transport has carried out significant work to improve public transport's reliability and safety in Auckland during the last two years. There is still more to do.
Auckland Transport needs to improve its implementation planning, monitor its progress, and prioritise work that focuses on reliability and safety – including how it manages disruptions. It could also improve how it describes performance in ways that better reflects passengers' experiences and provide more accessible public reporting.
We have made five recommendations to support Auckland Transport to improve its communication, planning, and reporting. We encourage all regional public transport authorities to consider whether the findings in this report are also relevant to them.
We thank staff at Auckland Transport for their assistance. We also thank the representatives from other organisations and groups we heard from – Auckland Transport's Whaikaha Advisory Group, Auckland Council, the New Zealand Police, and KiwiRail Holdings Limited – who provided valuable contributions to this work.
Nāku noa, nā
Andrew McConnell
Deputy Controller and Auditor-General
7 May 2025