Tomorrow evening ARTA are holding an Open Evening on the Onehunga Line – which will reopen some time early next year. I have prepared some feedback on behalf of the Campaign for Better Transport, and thought that I’d share it before we head off tomorrow and tell ARTA what they need to do in order to make the line a success:
Onehunga Line – Campaign for Better Transport feedback
In 2006 the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) campaigned hard to reopen the dormant branch railway line between Onehunga and Penrose once again to passenger services. Our 8,000 strong petition and support from the Auckland Regional Council saw the Government finally give the green light for funding on the 13 March 2007.
The CBT considers that there are a number of important steps that need to be taken to ensure that the Onehunga Line is a success. These are outlined below, and detailed individually throughout this feedback:1. Services must terminate at Britomart, not Newmarket.
2. Half-hourly frequencies off-peak and at weekends are essential.
3. ARTA to work with Dress-Smart Onehunga to encourage shoppers to use the train.
4. One month free travel trial period.
5. Re-routing buses to feed into the train station for people travelling from Mangere area into the city.Services must terminate at Britomart:
When the reopening of the Onehunga Branch Line was being planned and investigated, it was always assumed that the service would operate between Onehunga and Britomart. However, earlier this year a New Zealand Herald article suggested that it was being considered to only run the service as far as Newmarket, and for Britomart-bound passengers to have to change trains at Newmarket.
The CBT considers that this would be a very unwise move. When Britomart station first opened some train continued to terminate at what became “The Strand” station. These services were not popular at all and soon ceased to exist. There is an expectation in Auckland that all services should operate to and from Britomart. Due to the lack of integrated ticketing and poor frequencies, there is a strong negative perception of having to transfer.
If the Onehunga Branch Line is to be a success, it is considered essential that it operates between Britomart and Onehunga, not between Newmarket and Onehunga. If there are issues relating to the capacity of Britomart station, then all the more reason to push for the completion of the CBD Rail Tunnel – not undermine the effectiveness of a rail service and consign it to being a failure before it has even started.
Half-hourly frequencies off-peak and at weekends
While one of the main benefits of the Onehunga Line will be for those commuting to the city at peak hour, the CBT also considers that off-peak travel during the week, and on weekends, could also drive a lot of patronage on the line. Off-peak patronage of public transport has increased considerably in recent months, with the introduction of the “Super-Gold Card” and higher petrol prices making people consider public transport for trips like shopping. The line links together a very popular shopping mall (Dress-Smart Onehunga) with the regionally significant shopping areas of Newmarket and the city centre.
To encourage people to use the service during off-peak hours, the CBT considers that a minimum service frequency of one train every 30 minutes is essential. The Eastern Line now operates at half-hour frequencies on the weekend, and is very popular with shoppers visiting Sylvia Park. This same success story could be repeated on the Onehunga Line – but only if sufficient frequencies are provided. Hourly frequencies are just too risky for people (if they miss a train it’s a huge wait for the next one) taking journeys other than commuting to and from work.
It should be possible to operate half-hourly frequencies with only two single ADL trains – as the time from Onehunga to Britomart is less than half an hour.
ARTA to work with Dress-Smart Onehunga:
The success of Sylvia Park station has shown that people are very willing to use the train when going shopping. The Onehunga train station will be conveniently located to Dress-Smart Onehunga, a very busy shopping centre. Dress-Smart suffers from a lack of parking, which discourages shoppers and also has meant Dress-Smart needed to lease some space from the nearby church for additional parking. The provision of extra parking for Dress-Smart is likely to be difficult, if not impossible, due to the constrained site it operates on. Dress-Smart currently operates a shuttle-bus between the CBD and the mall during weekdays, partly in response to this shortage of parking spaces.
The CBT encourages ARTA to work with Dress-Smart Onehunga to look at ways in which the proximity of the Onehunga train station to the shopping centre could benefit both ARTA (through increased patronage) and Dress-Smart (through increased shoppers). Possible ways to encourage shoppers to catch the train could include excellent signage between the shopping centre and the train station (they are about a block’s walk from each other), real-time information signs inside the shopping mall letting people know when the next train is coming (which would also advertise the frequency and simplicity of catching the train to those at the mall who had driven there), special offers like free train tickets for those who spend $50 or $100 at the shopping centre (or discounts on their shopping for those who caught the train there) and joint advertising of the train link by both Dress-Smart and ARTA.
One month free travel trial period:
Public transport patronage trends in Auckland over the past year have clearly shown that while high petrol prices in winter last year got people out of their cars and onto public transport, as petrol prices have lowered again those increases in patronage levels have not disappeared. In other words, once people tried out public transport they seemed to like it and have stuck with it.
This lesson could be applied to Onehunga by strongly encouraging people to catch the new train service when it first starts – to change the behaviour of those who currently drive to work in their cars. One effective way of doing this could be to offer one month’s free travel on Onehunga Line trains. This trial month would encourage people to give the line a go and change their current travel habits. It would also be a way of ensuring high patronage from day one, and a general feeling of success about the line. Even once fares were brought in after the first month, the trends of the last year show that people who have given public transport a trial are likely to stick with it – even if the cost advantages of public transport over driving are not as significant as they were.
The CBT accepts that such a move would attract a lot of people who currently catch a bus along Manukau Road. However, the train service is going to probably reduce the patronage of that bus route in any case and is based on offering a better public transport service. If patronage on Manukau Road buses permanently declines then there will be the opportunity to redirect those resources to where they are more needed.
Re-routing buses to feed into the train station
It is likely that many people who currently live in the Mangere area are likely to want to use the train service. Unless effective feeder buses are provided, it is likely that these people will drive across the Mangere Bridge and park around the Onehunga station for the day. While some level of park and ride is acceptable, and could actually be encouraged, ensuring that people have the choice of catching a feeder bus is considered very necessary. ARTA are strongly encouraged to work with NZ Bus to provide an integrated ticket that could serve the area – similar to the “Northern Pass” integrated ticket that operates on the North Shore.
Currently, all the buses that pass through Onehunga, do so on the western side of the town centre, while the train station is on the eastern side. To encourage connections between bus and train the CBT considers that it is essential for these buses to be re-routed so they pass next to the train station.
Other measures like the provision of bike-storage lockers should also be considered.
Conclusion:
The CBT is excited to see the reopening of the Onehunga Branch Line finally happening. However, there is a concern that unless the steps outlined above are taken, the line may not prove to be as popular as is hoped for – and could be pointed to as “another public transport failure”. At a time when the promotion of public transport is coming under intense political opposition, it is considered essential for there to be strong success stories. Onehunga could be one of those, or it could be a failure. That fate largely rests on the measures outlined above.
Is there anything else we should say?
Eloquently put, Jarbury. Looking forward to joining you all tomorrow night.
My worry is that there will be no co-operation between ARTA and Dress-Smart and that we’ll end up with hourly off-peak frequencies and potentially nothing at all on weekends.
That would be a real shame.
Hourly services on the Western line during weekends are extraordinarily frustrating, all the more since, even at hourly frequencies, they seem unable to keep to the timetable. Funnily enough though, they do seem reasonably popular. More often than not the 2 car ADLs leave Britomart packed to the gills. Can’t understand why they’re still running it as a skeleton service; it’s not as though they’ve been working on the DART project over the weekends either.
I agree it’s time for half-hourly frequencies on the Western Line at weekends. Services also need to be extended to Swanson on Sundays. I’ll bring it up tomorrow evening with someone at ARTA, if I get the chance!
Good work, when and where is the meeting again, its 6.30 right..?
6.30-8pm. At the Onehunga Community Centre – 83 Church Street.
Hi, Im currently looking at renting a house on Church Street in Onehunga. The railway passes behind the house, reasonably close, within 40 mtrs. I am concerned at how loud the trains will be espeially if they are passing every hour during the night. Does anybody have any input on this??? I am considering a 12 month lease on the property and like it very much but Im very, very concerned about the train noise and not being able to sleep.
Emma, asking a website largely populated by rail enthusiasts about whether the railway will be a problem may not give you a balanced answer. However, assuming the house is near the branch line (it wouldn’t be at the main line end) I understand services are planned to stop after late evening and restart after dawn. There is no realistic chance of 24 hour service.
Hey we’re a reasonable bunch.
In terms of night-time services, it’s very unlikely that passenger trains will run after 10pm at night. As far as I know the Onehunga port is not going to be using the line for freight trains in the near future, as the track has not been upgraded past where the Onehunga station will be.
It’s also unlikely that passenger trains will be up and running on the line before April or May next year.
Emma this is just Liberty being horrible to us again. Every train that passes will be music to your ears, a veritable symphony. As a boy living in Auckland I used to lie awake in bed at night and thrill to the sound of heavy double headed goods trains bound for Whangarei (ex Westfield) tackling the Remuera bank. The EMUs are a far cry from those trains but I’m sure you will get as much listening pleasure as I did all those years ago.
Ian: Hardly horrible, my parents used to live close to the Napier-Palmerston North railway and I liked hearing the trains at night. I like hearing the freight trains at night storming along the main trunk about 400m from my friends’ place in Kapiti when I stay there.
I liked hearing trolley buses at night in Wellington as well (the old BUT ones which were quieter than the Volvo/BBC ones that are now being rebuilt).
I grew up in Wellington’s eastern suburbs to be awakened by DC-8s on Sunday mornings at around 7.30am, and 737s (first generation) earlier than that on weekdays, or Bristol Freighters with their internal combustion engines. For my sins I now wear earplugs on warm days in London to block out the 5am start of the line of long haul flights queuing up to land at Heathrow. It’s just one of those things, but if you can avoid noise you don’t like, you do it.
See, whilst many of you may not know it, I am a rail enthusiast from way back with an almost tragically encyclopaedic knowledge of NZ railways. My biggest regret is that I never got to ride on the Silverstar
I knew it, I BLOODY KNEW IT! You ARE a rail enthusiast Liberty. There would be little hints from time to time. Technical knowledge and the like. No utterly dispassionate money man could have made some of the comments you have. Aircraft, yes. Some years ago early flights were scheduled out of Wellington and Air NZ fitted a number of hush kits to minimise noise. I didn’t believe the kits would be effective and so I rang Air NZ to say that every time I was woken by an early flight I would ring the CEO to complain. I was up early on the first day of the new schedule eager to be outraged at the racket. Imagine my horror as the aircraft flew out almost directly above me and nearly inaudible. I never rang the CEO. Silver Star, I traveled on it a few times. Very smooth. I saw it as it was towed from Auckland to Tauranga after it was sold. It was pulled by a Df with another Df in the rear. If only you had taken an arts degree.
Ian: Ah the current Dfs, I wished I’d seen the old English Electric Dfs when they were running, but I’m too young. Although I did see the one that was on display in Otahuhu years back (don’t know if it remains). I have a BA(Hons) in international relations and politics, so dare I say the plot thickens. I am more complex than people may assume.