Auckland Transport wants to add new bus lanes and transit lanes to three of the city’s busiest arterial roads, and it is asking the public to weigh in before the City Rail Link starts carrying passengers next month.
The proposals cover Remuera Road, Mount Eden Road and Sandringham Road. All three funnel buses and cars straight into train stations, including the three new underground stations that open on 13 September. Feedback on the changes closes on 23 August 2026.
The pitch from Auckland Transport is that the tunnels are only half the job. Getting people to the station gates quickly matters as much as what happens once they are underground.
“Not since the Auckland Harbour Bridge opened in 1959 will we have seen an opportunity to change the way Aucklanders can travel,” said Chris Martin, Auckland Transport’s road network optimisation manager, in a statement released on Friday morning.
“And it’s not just the new underground CRL and the rail network, we want to improve the way Aucklanders get into those train stations, and that’s by joining up our existing transit and bus lanes for continuous travel and better traffic flow at busy times.”
The largest single piece is on Remuera Road, which runs down to Newmarket station. Auckland Transport wants to install five new sections of T3 lane in both directions, filling the gaps between stretches of transit lane that already exist. A T3 lane can be used by buses, by cars carrying three or more people, and by bicycles and motorcycles.
About 26,000 people travel along Remuera Road every day, and during the weekday rush up to 2,400 commuters and 40 buses move in the peak direction every hour, many of them on the busy 75 route. The new sections would sit between Nuffield Street and Belmont Terrace heading away from the city, between Dilworth Avenue and Pere Street, between Market Road and Armadale Road, between Saint Vincent Avenue and Entrican Avenue, and on a city-bound stretch starting at Tahora Avenue.
Mount Eden Road leads to the new Maungawhau station in Eden Terrace and carries close to 30,000 journeys a day. Bus lanes that currently stop and start would be joined up along three stretches, running from Valley Road to Esplanade Road heading into the city, from Esplanade Road to Percy Street heading out, and from Poronui Street to Disraeli Street. Auckland Transport also wants the afternoon bus lane heading away from the city to switch on an hour earlier, running from 3pm to 7pm rather than starting at 4pm.
“Mount Eden Road carries thousands of passengers and supports nearly 30,000 journeys every day. To create faster journeys, we also want to extend the bus lane operating hours one hour earlier from 3pm to 7pm to better align with the afternoon rush, including school pickups,” Mr Martin said.
Sandringham Road, which carries bus passengers to Kingsland station and on towards Maungawhau and Te Waihorotiu, would get two new bus lane sections. One extends the northbound lane between Gifford Avenue and Aurora Avenue on weekday mornings from 7am to 10am, a change Auckland Transport estimates would save roughly two minutes a trip. The other connects an existing lane between Shorwell Street and Edendale School.
None of this is free of trade-offs, and the detail sitting under the headline numbers is where residents are likely to push back. On Mount Eden Road, both bus stops at Tahaki Reserve, both at Rahiri Road and one near Grange Road in Mount Eden Village would go, while stops at Bridgman Reserve and Peary Road would shift to line up with new crossings. On Remuera Road, both stops at Saint Marks Road and one at Lochiel Road would be removed.
Parking takes a hit too. The clearway between 41 and 51 Remuera Road would shrink by about half, and broken yellow lines would go in near the Middleton Road, Saint Marks Road, Ascot Avenue and Omahu Road intersections. Auckland Transport is also investigating a ban on right turns into Omahu Road on weekday afternoons between 4pm and 7pm, and says community feedback will play a key role in whether that one goes ahead. On Mount Eden Road the agency has deliberately steered clear of adding bus lanes around the village shops so that parking for local businesses is not affected.
Bundled in with the lane work are several safety changes. Mount Eden Road would get signalised pedestrian crossings at Esplanade Road, Hillside Crescent North and Lovelock Avenue, plus a shared path for people walking and cycling at the Normanby Road and Puka Street intersection. Remuera Road would get a central island near Tahora Avenue and high friction road surfacing near Portland Road. Full plans for each road are on the Auckland Transport project page.
Councillor Andy Baker, who chairs the council’s transport and infrastructure delivery committee, framed the work as a low cost way of shifting travel habits.
“To speed up commuting in Auckland we need to get more people out of their cars and onto buses and trains, it really is that simple,” he said. “Installing continuous bus and transit lanes that are only used in peak hour traffic is a cheap and commonsense approach we should be making.”
Mr Martin made the same argument about cost. “It’s a relatively cheap and quick solution to remove existing broken yellow lines in peak hours and to extend our bus and transit lanes, giving us more room to move,” he said. “Linking up the existing transit lanes creates a more seamless route and travel experience for commuters. There would certainly be less time stuck in traffic during peak hour travel.”
The timing is not accidental. The City Rail Link, a 3.45 kilometre twin tunnel line running under the central city with new stations at Te Waihorotiu, Karanga-a-Hape and Maungawhau, was confirmed on 6 August to open to passengers on 13 September. Free ticketed open days have been running on consecutive Saturdays through August, with Karanga-a-Hape on 15 August and Te Waihorotiu on 22 August.
That leaves a narrow window. The lane changes are proposals rather than decisions, and consultation shuts on 23 August, three weeks before the first trains run through the tunnels. Anyone wanting to have a say can do so through the Auckland Transport feedback site. Two community drop-in sessions remain, at the Mount Eden Village Centre on Saturday 15 August from 10am to midday, and at the Wesley Community Centre on Wednesday 19 August from 5pm to 7pm.
What do you make of the proposals? Would faster buses and continuous transit lanes get you out of the car, or do the lost parking spaces and bus stops cost more than the minutes saved? Let us know in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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