“Rideline website rides high in the popularity stakes”

1 June 2001
Since its launch on 1 May, the new website for Auckland public transport information has proved to be a popular service for Aucklanders, attracting 17,050 visits in its first month.

The website has had an average of 550 visitors per day, with the average visit lasting almost 20 minutes. It had 6,977 different people reaching the site, which is 19% of the phone centre’s call volume.

The website, www.rideline.co.nz, complements the Rideline phone call centre, which fields an average of 3,000 calls per day from people throughout Auckland wanting information on bus, train and ferry journeys. Helped by the publicity surrounding the website launch, the numbers of people calling the phone service has also increased by 10 percent.

“Rideline is enabling more and more people to find out about public transport, and to access public transport across the region. Rideline gives people the confidence to go out and use public transport,” said ARC Chairman Philip Warren.

“The popularity of the website over the first month is evidence that Aucklanders with access to the internet are taking advantage of this new service. With the website offering 24-hour access to the same up to date database that the phone centre uses, public transport information is more accessible,” said Mr Warren.

The website has two components: a Journey Planner that gives people personalised options on how to get anywhere in the Auckland region, and a Feedback Forum where people have been entering into discussions about public transport and are giving detailed feedback about the website and public transport services.

“The feedback forum is proving to be a great way for people to tell us how they find the services, and we are feeding their comments directly back to the private operators of all the services, to steadily improve service levels,” said Mr Warren. “We’re also using their comments to help us design routes for the future.”

ENDS

Rideline website: www.rideline.co.nz. Phone: 09 3666 400, 7am to 8pm Monday to Saturday; 8am to 6.30pm Sunday.

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