OPINION: Auckland Transport is Giving Absent Father

Words by Maia Ingoe (she/her) 

With Metlink, I thought I’d seen the worst: overcrowded buses too full to stop, late buses rounding the corner just after you’ve ordered an Uber, one empty number 2 bus crawling directly behind a very overcrowded number 2 bus.

Then I went to Auckland.

I could talk for hours about my hatred for roads, highways, and car dealerships (apologies to Hamilton for getting most of this). It’s clear to anyone reading this that Auckland's reliance on the private vehicles for transport has resulted in a human-engineered trap of urban sprawl and skyrocketing fuel prices.

But I’ve got a bone to pick with Auckland Transport.

When Auckland Transport announced that a key portion of its Eastern Line would be closed for 10 months, I got the sense it was bad. When Elton John concert goers were left stranded in the midst of severe flash flooding after Auckland Transport begged them to drive rather than train, I knew something was seriously up. But it took travelling to Auckland to realise the abandonment of Auckland Transport by local government.  

It took two hours, catching two buses and a train, to get from the airport to my mate’s flat. We waited for an hour, watching peak hour traffic crawl by, for a rail replacement bus that never came. This resulted in a 40-minute walk to Mt Smart Stadium. Fumbling through feather boa chaos to leave after the concert, we caught a rail replacement bus – to the station south of where we needed to go. This meant a 20-minute journey turned into two hours: catching a train to Britomart and another bus back out again. Rail replacements, you were nowhere to be seen.

Metlink, please take me back.