Auckland Transport media release

27 March 2017

Record crowds use public transport

Adele weekend saw record numbers at the three concerts and on public transport in Auckland.

On Thursday, the day of the first Adele concert there were a fraction under 400,000 trips made on public transport, a one day record for Auckland. The numbers were 261,000 bus trips made, 113,000 on the rail network and 25,000 on ferries.

That night Auckland Transport carried 80% of the crowd to and from the concert on trains and buses. Brendon Main, Group Manager AT Metro Operations says that’s a record for any concert. “The numbers using public transport were massive, we’ve never seen crowds that big.”

There were close to 27,000 people on the trains and 7,600 on buses after the show.

“We managed to get those huge numbers to and from the concert while still maintaining full services for our regular commuters particularly during the busy afternoon peak on Thursday.”

Mr Main says the numbers using public transport for the concerts stayed strong across the weekend. On Saturday night 21,000 people travelled on the trains back to the city after the show and around 8,000 took the buses. Last night there were 9,500 on the buses and 16,000 took the trains.

“It was a big weekend for Auckland Transport and our operators, it took a lot of planning to move that many people successfully. We’d like to thank everyone for their patience and for planning ahead and travelling early.

“It’s great that Aucklanders and visitors are taking public transport to major concerts and sporting events in such large numbers.”

For the 12 months to February 2017 Auckland public transport patronage totalled 85.7 million passenger boardings, an increase of 5% on the previous year. Bus services totalled 61.2 million passenger trips, trains 18.4 million and ferry services 6.1 million for the year.

There are 1100 buses on the network, 8857 services per day and the buses travel the equivalent of 3.5 trips around the earth every weekday.

www.AT.govt.nz

ENDS

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