New service starting Monday August 19
A temporary park and ride service will open at Lloyd Elsmore Park on Monday to provide east Aucklanders with more travel options during Stage 1 construction of the Eastern Busway between Panmure and Pakuranga.
The new service will offer free, secure parking for more than 250 cars and will connect people with recently launched express shuttle services to Panmure Station and onwards to other parts of the region.
Additional measures to minimise traffic disruption include maintaining all traffic lanes during peak travel times, live monitoring and adjustments of traffic signals and carrying out more disruptive work during off-peak travel times, holiday periods and weekends where possible. A T2 and bus lane was also launched on Pakuranga Road in June to improve journey times for buses and multi-occupant vehicles.
“We have been monitoring the new T2 lane and have seen improvements to journey times, increased bus patronage and minimal impact to the travel times of general traffic along Pakuranga Road,” said Duncan Humphrey, AMETI programme director- Eastern Busway.
“We have also been reviewing journey times across the wider east Auckland area, including Waipuna Bridge and Lagoon Drive and there has been very little impact on journey times for cars or buses as a result of construction.”
Humphrey said this shows that people are taking advantage of the new options and we expect the new park and ride service to add to this.
“Alongside providing more travel choice, these new transport measures are also focused on giving these local communities better access to public transport and increasing the amount of people that can travel along this busy stretch of road during peak travel times and offering the opportunity for people to leave their cars at home,” said Humphrey.
Auckland Transport is also working with residents, schools and businesses in local communities of Pakuranga and Howick, offering personalised journey plans that provide alternative options for people travelling around the area. This initiative has been running for three weeks and 500 people have signed up for the initiative so far.
The $1.4 billion AMETI Eastern Busway will bring rapid transit travel options to one of Auckland’s fastest growing areas with a congestion-free, high frequency, Busway that will carry more than 7500 passengers during peak hours between new stations in Botany, Pakuranga, and Panmure and onwards to other parts of the region.
The park and ride is planned to operate until 2021 when construction of Stage 1 is complete.
