Benchmarking the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Transport in New Zealand Cities

This article describes a benchmarking exercise designed to identify directions for improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of public transport in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. International comparators were chosen for their similarities in urban form and demographics, and their differences in public transport performance. The aim was to focus attention on the impact of different practices in planning and delivering public transport services. The research shows that public transport in the comparator cities achieve higher trip-making rates than the New Zealand cities, but without making a proportionately large investment in the overall supply of public transport services. The difference appears to lie in the degree to which this supply of public transport services is organised and presented to users as a unified network. The benchmarking exercise has been successfully used to inform public transport planning processes in the New Zealand cities.