Skipping To Auckland , and saving $150 million !

Graeme from Frankton

In the morning , I'm on the 6.30am Skip bus to Auckland . A lot of people are still on holiday , so it will be interesting to see how many people are on it . It gets to Sky City Auckland by 8.30 . Cost $11 incl booking fee and credit card fee .
At 5.30pm , I'm coming back , also on Skip -- get back 7.30pm . Another $11 .
I don't actually have much to do in Auckland , but I have a cunning plan . So I want to see what the bus service is like , and arguably I should have waited a couple of weeks , until most commuters are back at work .
See -- I have a plan . It appears a crowd funded commuter bus service could be operational , with all the NZTA legal requirements , within 3 months .
On-line ticketing would take a bit of effort from the boffins . Registration with NZTA seems logical if you follow their guidelines , don't cut corners . It appears you don't even need to file any planned routes or anything -- you do if you are wanting to operate Urban ( subsidised ) services . You would want to ask permission to use bus stops , but if King Andrew says No , as they are public places and publicly funded , it appears they can't stop you . The Transport Centre is slightly different -- even though it is publicly funded and a public place , it does have different rules .
Even the buses themselves aren't a huge problem -- you want nice , and a bit of room . I don't think you want 55 seater coaches initially -- in my head , I reckon 2 x 25 seaters ( 15 year old ones seem to be around $50K ) and 2 long wheelbase , high roof vans , like Transits or Hi Aces -- around $25-30 k each .
Anyway , anyone interested , I'll do some updates , and I reckon that collectively a few people can put together something that will cover costs and maybe make a return , probably work in with Skip timetables to get 2 or 3 buses a day each way .
By the way , I don't work in Auckland , I don't want to be a huge spoiler , but by a few people using a few brains , we can completely show up the 'backers' ( local and Govt politicians , and NZTA ) of the $120-150 million dollar train drain .