The annual battle for a spot on the bus has kicked off with commuters left standing in the rain waiting for a bus with room and journeys taking up to 1.5 hours.
Known as "March madness", the phenomenon kicks in every year as students head back to university and workers are back in full force while the region's traffic hits its peak for the year.
On Monday, 10 buses drove past Ravi Kaniyawala at his stop near Bellevue Rd, Mt Eden, before he could get on a bus where he had to stand.
He said other commuters started to grow increasingly frustrated and one older woman resorted to banging on a bus's closed doors, begging in vain to be let on.
Yesterday, he tried another option and caught the bus from earlier up its route in Three Kings. But even this backfired.
"It took me one and a half hours from Three Kings to Britomart."
