Congratulations to Channel Magazine for this, its 100th issue. Building and growing a community magazine is no small feat so I’d like to recognise the efforts of the whole Channel team past and present, Benefitz, and sponsors in creating this space to highlight our unique community; and all the businesses, groups, people, schools, clubs, and issues that make us who we are.
Another enormous highlight for our community is the announcement that Shore Junction has the funding to proceed! The Takapuna-based youth innovation hub will offer various spaces, programming, and services to support our young people toward a successful future. Thanks go to Foundation North ($1.5m), Lotteries ($600k) and local donors who contributed over $300k to measurably improve youth wellbeing.
This is a much-needed project and huge investment in our local youth. I’d like to congratulate and recognise the time, energy, money, and determination of those who worked so hard to get the project this far: Sonia Thursby, YES Disability, Joseph Bergin, Melanie Barr, Ian Lim, Henry Pivac, Sue Stanaway, Jenn McKenzie, Gary Monk, Aidan Bennett, Younite, the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, and countless others I apologise for missing anyone in this list.
The third milestone for June was Aucklanders hitting 100 million trips on public transport within a year, much earlier than projected. This great news is a huge increase from the 57 million trips we took nine years ago, which was before Auckland Council and Auckland Transport existed.
The Northern busway hit more than seven million trips in the same period – that’s a 30% increase on last year and a massive increase from five years ago where we averaged 2.5 million trips per year on the busway. This all helps reduce congestion on the Shore and is better for our environment and climate.
The New Network North has led to a 17% increase in use on the bus network this year. I pushed several years ago to secure double deckers on the busway and across North Shore suburbs. The New Network although it still has some issues, has added many more peak and off peak services across our community and I am encouraged to see its success.
Ferry patronage is growing too, but could be much better. The Downtown Ferry Terminal upgrade will serve mostly North Shore residents and, although it will cause some disruption short term, will provide for the ability to increase services, with more berth spaces and less congestion in the downtown space. Councillor Chris Darby and I have secured ferry fare integration from early next year – this means bus and ferry trips will count as one trip, effectively making the ferry fare cover short bus trips on either side.
The next piece of work is to roll out free travel for under 16s on weekends, beginning 7th September. This is part of a massive piece of work led by Councillor Chris Darby and me, which aims to make public transport more affordable across the network over time.
We celebrated 100 million trips with a free day of public transport travel on 23rd June. I was so excited to see pictures of our tamariki out exploring all that Auckland has to offer and can’t wait to see this next generation of public transport users grow through these initiatives.
There’s so much more work to go for our community to hit the next milestones. Thank you to you all for your contribution so far.
