Inner city Auckland CityLink buses go electric

Twelve electric buses in Auckland’s CityLink fleet start operating from April 24.

The e-buses were launched at special ceremony at Auckland’s Silo Park on April 23 attended by more than 50 people, dignitaries including Auckland mayor Phil Goff, NZ Bus chief executive Barry Hinkley and representatives from Auckland Transport (AT), the Auckland Council, and the Ngati Whatua Orakei Trust.

The e-buses will help reduce carbon emissions and enable Auckland to meet its climate change goals and ditch diesel and petrol public transport, Goff says.

Not only are the e-buses quieter, but they will also improve Auckland’s inner city air quality – especially in the Queen Street valley area, he says.

“Black carbon damages health and is at higher levels in Queen Street than in any other New Zealand city and many other cities in Europe and North America.”

Goff says Auckland is working with central Government to bring forward the transition to a fully electric bus fleet and the council is looking to halt the purchase of new diesel buses from July this year.

When the switch to e-buses is completed it will stop around 93,000 tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere every year compared to 2019 emissions levels, he adds.

Others at the event such as Auckland Transport Metro Services group manager Stacey van der Putten say Auckland could become a leader in the transition to cleaner public transport and see the e-buses and other e-mobility playing a vital role in mitigating climate change.

In fact, several at the ceremony used e-bikes to attend or walked from their offices.

Auckland Council environment and climate change committee chair Richard Hills says speeding up the electrification of the city’s bus fleet is critical in meeting emissions reduction targets,

AT metro decarbonisation manager Darek Koper says a two-year trial with two e-buses on the CityLink route exceeded expectations.

The new e-buses can do a full day’s stop-start work and will recharge at the NZ Bus depot overnight.

“The CityLink buses carry more than 1.6 million customers each year and provide an essential link within the city centre, along Queen Street and to the growing business and entertainment hub in Wynyard Quarter,” Koper explains.

He says about a third of bus services along Queen Street will be zero-emissions, with around 300 electric bus trips.

From June 20, more diesel buses will be relocated from the city centre, making half of all bus trips on Queen Street electric, Koper adds.

He says the CityLink e-bus launch follows the earlier deployments of zero emission buses on Waiheke Island and on the AirportLink route, along with the unveiling of New Zealand’s first hydrogen bus at the Ports of Auckland.

Barry Hinkley says the 12 e-buses are “the first of many state-of-the-art electric buses that NZ Bus will bring to New Zealand in the next few years as our diesel replacement programme accelerates”.

He says the air-conditioned e-buses feature two plus one seat configuration in the front section of the bus, wide rear doors to improve boarding and alighting, and allow more passengers and faster trips on typically short journeys.

Meanwhile, the Lower Albert Street bus terminal is officially re-opening after redevelopment.

For many bus services, this will become the main departure point, providing access to the waterfront, Britomart, trains, ferries, other bus services and the new Commercial Bay shopping precinct.

On Sunday April 25, Lower Albert Street will re-open for North Shore buses. Some Central and West Auckland bus routes will also now use it to begin their journeys out of the city

Auckland Transport will now have 33 zero-emission buses deployed.