Auckland Transport (AT) has increased the number of school buses servicing Macleans College and Bucklands Beach Intermediate (BBI) going into the new year. According to AT’s website, the new routes are scheduled to start running on the 4 February.

A new Macleans exclusive route, “428”, is planned to be run in both the morning and afternoon, while route “420” which previously serviced only two other schools would be extended to reach BBI and Macleans in the morning.

An AT spokesperson told The Collegian that the “intent with the 420 and 428 services is to solve the capacity issues [that AT has] been having with the 425, 426 and 427 routes. Both routes will begin service on the 4th of February and we hope this will increase patronage for the routes overall”

“The 420 route is not new but currently serves only Farm Cove Intermediate and St Mark’s Catholic School and will now service two additional schools including Macleans College. Route 428 is an entirely new route which will be operated by Go Bus and use the same bus stops as the existing route 426. The start and finish point for service 428 will be at Macleans College, as there is not enough room available at the Bucklands Beach Intermediate bus bay.”

These planned changes follow inquiries by The Collegian into suggestions of overcrowding and students being left behind, after changes were made to the East Auckland bus network at the beginning of 2018. The publication’s inquiries were picked up by The New Zealand Herald.

The earlier revamp cut the number of school buses servicing Macleans College from five to three.

While the service has yet to be tested, a small sample of students who take school buses queried by The Collegian expressed relief at the planned change.

Find out more about the new services on using the links below:

https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/timetables/school-timetables/macleans-college/
https://www.macleans.school.nz/news/bus-route-changes

Written by Justin Hu, published on 24/01/19. Header image courtesy Bike Auckland