Te Ara Hauāuru - Northwest Rapid Transit

19 December 2024

Kia ora koutou, 

We hope this message finds you and your whānau well as we head towards the end of the year.

We’d like to say a big thank you to you and everyone else who has engaged with us this year on the Te Ara Hauāuru – Northwest Rapid Transit project.

We enjoyed meeting many of you during our pop-up information events this year where we shared our proposal for a busway alongside State Highway 16 between Brigham Creek and the city centre. It was great to hear your support for the project and what is important to you.

The project team are progressing our investigations, and we look forward to sharing updates with you in the new year.

We wish you a safe and happy holiday season and thank you for your ongoing support while we investigate options to provide fast, frequent and reliable public transport for people to get around the northwest of Auckland.

If you have any questions or would like to talk to the team, please contact us by emailing nwrapidteam@nzta.govt.nz or calling 0800 469 727 (0800 4 NWRAPID).

Please note the project office will be shut down from 20 December 2024 to 6 January 2025 for the holiday break.

WX1 patronage growing

The new Northwest bus network has exceeded expectations and delivered more than 5 million passenger trips in its first year.

That’s 1.5million more than was forecast when AT launched its flagship Western Express (WX1) bus and the 11T and 11W buses. These services run between Westgate, Lincoln Road, Te Atatū and the city centre in both directions every 5 to 10 minutes from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week.

“It’s fantastic to see the new bus services have smashed their target,” Waitakere Ward Councillor Shane Henderson says.

AT’s Head of Public Transport Services Planning and Development Pete Moth says the numbers speak for themselves.

“When people have access to frequent and well-connected public transport, they’ll vote with their feet. Being able to just turn up and go gives people the freedom to travel wherever they want, whenever they want," explains Pete.

More public transport improvements are still to come, including:

• A network of bus priority and T2 lanes to improve the speed and reliability of buses
• A new bus station at Westgate
• Increasing the frequency of some bus services 
• Introduction of a new frequent 12 service, replacing the 120 between Henderson, Westgate and Constellation, which will run at least every 15 mins, 7am-7pm, 7 days a week.
• 40 new electric buses from April 2025 on the WX1, 11T, 11W and 12 bus routes