Passengers who normally catch their buses from the Britomart bus terminus will have a temporary change of bus stop from Sunday June 17.

The move is part of the demolition of the Britomart bus terminus and car park building to prepare for construction of the new railway station and Waitemata Waterfront transport interchange.

Buses which carry nearly 10,000 peak period passengers will move from the old Britomart bus terminus site to various inner-city streets. Timetables and fares remain the same. Only buses using the Britomart terminus will be affected. All other services are unchanged.

The bus stop relocation is expected to be for approximately two years until the new rail station and transport interchange is built and involves moving buses from the Britomart bus terminus site to five areas within the CBD.

The bus services involved are those from Waitakere City, the Hibiscus Coast, the Hospital buses, and buses from the eastern suburbs and southern suburbs.

The new bus stops will be at five inner-city street locations including Commerce, Wyndham, Wellesley St East and West, Shortland St and Victoria St East. In some cases the temporary bus stops will be up to a kilometre from the Downtown terminus.

The Mayor of Auckland, Chris Fletcher, said the carpark was in a bad state of repair, was well past its useful life and ready for demolition and the bus terminus is seen as an unsafe place.

“The demolition is the first phase of the new rail station and transport interchange and - while it may be a little disruptive - I’m sure commuters will be pleased to see some physical evidence of progress on the interchange,” she said.

“The public has been telling us for some time to get on with the job of sorting out Auckland’s transport problems and this is tangible evidence that work is in progress.”

Auckland City is going all out to communicate the changes to not only bus passengers, but also the public at large.

The city council will have posters on buses, leaflets, relocation notices at bus stops, newspaper and radio advertisements, pamphlets and posters for commuters, a call centre and the city ambassadors walking the streets and travelling on buses, will be providing information in addition to the Auckland City Council web site.

About half of existing CBD bus users will experience changes to their bus routes, stops and terminals in the central area, although the changes will mean good news for some users, the council says.

Some passengers will have temporary terminals near the epicentre of employment in the CBD in the Wellesley St/Victoria St areas; while for others the changes to services are relatively minor.

Many of the route changes are designed to help buses avoid the worst of the construction-related traffic problems and priority measures are proposed to ease the flow of buses and traffic.

Auckland City, in conjunction with the Auckland Regional Council, and the bus operators, have co-operated to find the most user-friendly solutions to the bus stop relocations.

In addition to the bus stop relocations, there are some minor traffic changes which will see Swanson St, between Hobson and Federal become one-way eastbound.

There will also be modifications at the intersection of Fort and Customs streets/Britomart Place and Beach Rd, to allow buses only to exit from Fort St.

In addition, there will be modifications to the phasing of the traffic signals at the intersections of Customs and Commerce streets and Customs and Gore streets.

This will involve a change for pedestrians, in particular, from an exclusive pedestrian phase to crossing parallel with traffic movements with traffic movements as a the majority of other intersections around the city.

ENDS

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