[Bergita]

I've read in the immigrant survey posted by willsken that 30% of immigrants disliked the poor quality of public transport in NZ. My husband drives, but I don't as I'm epileptic, and I was hoping that the public transport system would be more useable than here. Any comments?

[KerryS]

It depends on where you are located. In the large cities there are reasonably reliable bus and train services. In the countryside there's pretty much nothing.
I commute by train as I hate the Auckland rush hour traffic - sitting on the motorway is not my idea of fun. It takes about ten minutes from work to home, and is cheap as chips too! (Much cheaper than the cost of fuel at the moment.)

[Bergita]

Thanks Kerrys, that's eased my mind a bit. We're planning to be in Auckland so that should be ok.

[Moorf]

I agree re rural services, in Chch there's good bus services but the further out of the suburbs you get the more sparse the service, if at all. No train services apart from the touristy tracks really or longer journeys coast to coast / picton-chch etc

[katandbob]

In Invercargill they have a FREE city bus...picks up straight outside my rental...So My boys can walk or catch the bus and explore next week when they arrive and I am at work

Kat

[Howie]

You can certainly make it work in Auckland, you'll just have to be a bit choosy about where you live. There's even a fair number of commuter ferries into the CBD. What a cool way to get to work that would be.

Chris

[Bergita]

Excellent news, thanks everyone.

[Diny]

We're in a rural location and the bus service is dreadful. There's 1 bus a week, going into town at 9.40 am and then back again at 1.40pm.

But ...... if it's raining, windy, too hot, too cold, driver had a bad night, wrong kind of leaves on the road, a 'Y' in the day or too many birds singing it won't turn up. Living out here it's essential to have a car.

I know that a few people out here run a car pool for getting into town (Palmerston North) - which I think is a good idea and quite popular throughout NZ's rural locations.

Diny

[Bruckner]

Diny, your post made me realize I just might miss commuting on the New York City subway system.

Emily

[Jax]

Mostly I would say the public transport is pretty bad esp compared to other cities. What you need to take into consideration (at least for Aucklands point of view) is it is such a massive sprawling city - twice the size of London, with relatively low level of population density hence it isn't economical for sophisticated public transport. Also NZ has pretty much higest car ownership in the world.

Having said that, I have noticed massive improvments since I left 3 years ago. Town side rail has been boosted by Britomart http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/auckland/transport/britomart/default.asp
And on Nth Shore there are dedidcated bus lanes all over and new stations opening.

Anyway, you should be fine and it is also safe to travel on public transport.

jax