Community engagement

We’re listening to you and responding

Feedback from the community and stakeholders—along with other key factors—helps with decision making and contributes to the development of the Investment Case.

Thank you to everyone who came along to one of our recent pop-up information sessions and shared their feedback with us.
We expect to share more about the preferred alignment and station locations in early-2025.

If you have any further questions please contact the team on:  nwrapidteam@nzta.govt.nz or call us on 0800 4 NWRAPID (0800 469 727)

Engagement overview – September 2024

During August–September, the Northwest Rapid Transit project team hosted 13 pop-up information sessions over 7 locations in the northwest area.

The purpose of the engagement was to share recent project developments, including the preferred mode and proposed station locations, and hear customers' experiences with the recently established WX1 service.

During these sessions, we asked people to let us know what’s important to them and we took note of feedback, questions and concerns people had in relation to the project and their experiences with public transport across Auckland. The feedback is being considered and integrated into the development of the design. 

What we heard

We had conversations with over 650 people who attended our sessions. Your feedback, which we have summarised into a feedback summary, will be used to continue to inform our investigations and help make decisions on the Northwest Rapid Transit project. 

Overall, the sentiment from these sessions was very positive with high levels of support for the project. 

For reporting purposes, the feedback has been summarised into key themes below.  

• Local connections (31%) - Efficient (fast / frequent) local bus services and walking and cycling pathways to get to the busway stations. 
• Station amenities (18%) - Stations need to be functional and have good services for customers. 
• Get on and build it (13%) - The Northwest community desperately need good public transport options. 
• Service frequency (13%) - Local services need to be frequent.
• Park & Rides (13%) - Park and ride facilities need to be considered. 
• Station accessibility (12%) - Stations need to be accessible for everyone and all abilities.

If you would like more information about the feedback we received – check out the feedback summary here:

Te Ara Hauāuru - Northwest Rapid Transit community feedback summary – September 2024 [PDF, 639 KB]

It was also fantastic to see such high levels of interaction on our social media posts, which reached over 420,000 people across Auckland.

Engagement overview – 2023

During 2023, we asked questions about people’s travel experiences and the types of things they think we should be considering as part of our investigations.

What we heard

Nearly 4000 people completed our engagement survey and the feedback is summarised here:

Te Ara Hauāuru - Northwest Rapid Transit community feedback summary – December 2023 [PDF, 1.9 MB]

Your views – a snapshot

• You want better, faster, and more reliable public transport choices
• Rapid transit along SH16 would improve your journeys
• And it would make those of you who drive, more likely to take public transport and leave the car at home
• You want better connections to the wider rapid transit network – including connections further north towards Kumeū and Huapai
• You want a solution that will last long into the future and meet future growth demands
• Making it easy to get to public transit stations is important and you want us to consider:
  • Bus lanes on feeder roads
  • Frequent and reliable connections
  • Walking and cycling connections
  • Park and rides
• And we heard how urgently many of you feel this project is needed.

Local Board feedback October-November 2023 [PDF, 190 KB]

Information brochure and feedback form August-September 2023 [PDF, 816 KB]

Helping us plan for the future 

The second phase of community engagement is scheduled for later in 2024 and will involve sharing a preferred option, based on our investigations.

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A connected up system

Many people shared with us the need for a future Northwest Rapid Transit solution to be well connected and work alongside existing and planned public transport services. 

Northwest Rapid Transit is one of many public transport projects underway or planned across the region. It will fill the missing link connecting with the rapid transit corridor planned from Kumeū to Brigham Creek on SH16 and work alongside initiatives in the city centre, including the extended City Rail Link and proposed Waitemata Harbour Connections to create a connected public transport system that enables better transport choices and reduces congestion.

Kumeū to Brigham Creek on SH16(external link)