Public transport in Auckland

AT Metro

An AT electric train
Parent	Auckland Transport (AT)
Locale	New Zealand
Service area	Auckland
Service type	Bus service, commuter rail, ferry
Hubs	Britomart Transport Centre
Stations	40
Fuel type	Diesel, electric
Operator	NZ Bus, Transdev Auckland, Ritchies Transport
Website	at.govt.nz

Public transport in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area of New Zealand, consists of three modes – bus, train and ferry. Services are coordinated by Auckland Transport under the AT Metro brand. Britomart Transport Centre is the main transport hub.

Historically Auckland was well served by public transport, but the dismantling of its extensive tram system in the 1950s, together with the decision by William Goosman not to electrify the rail network and instead heavily invest into a motorway system, led to a collapse in both mode share and total trips. Major projects have been undertaken in recent years to improve public transport, both smaller-scale initiatives such as bus priority measures and large-scale bus and rail infrastructure projects. Public transport use grew by 4.4% over all modes in the year to June 2008 (with rail passengers up 18.4%), and later accelerated even more, growing by 8.3 percent in the year to February 2011 (with rail passengers up 17.9%), with Auckland for the first time reaching 1950s overall numbers again.

There have also been significant gains in the distances travelled by public transport in the Auckland Region, with an associated improvement in subsidy efficiency - with subsidy totals rising 14% in 2008-2009 (to account for increased patronage), but leading to a 39.4% increase in the kilometres travelled (during the same time, patronage in terms of trips increased 7.7%). The increased travel distances were mostly considered to be due to longer rail trips and more trips on long-distance services such as the Northern Busway.

Despite those strong gains, Auckland still ranked quite low in public transport use as of 2009^[update], with only 41 public transport trips per person per year, while Wellington had 91, and Sydney 114. The Auckland Region, with 34% of New Zealand's population, in 2007-08 had 47% of national bus boardings, 37% of national rail boardings, and 93% of national ferry boardings, showing a level of patronage that was above-average for New Zealand.