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By admin, on September 23rd, 2009 In response to the Auckland Regional Council finally coming up with a transport wishlist that is not dominated by roading projects, today’s Herald editorial has completely lost the plot. I had actually been quite happy with the Herald’s coverage of transport issues lately, with the general feeling coming across in the paper that the path we’ve headed down over the past year quite possibly isn’t the cleverest way to go, but I guess when it’s the “bigwigs” of the Herald who write the editorials we see that old habits die hard:
The council, though soon to be superseded by a single city, is letting its transport committee proceed to publish an updated strategy notable for its divergence from the Government’s plans.
Roads, the Government’s priority, rank behind rail projects on the list compiled by staff at Regional House. Their first desire is rail electrification, followed by a central Auckland rail tunnel and integrated public transport ticketing, in that order.
Their highest-ranked road, the western ring road, is fourth. A widened highway to Wellsford, one of the Government’s “roads of national significance”, is at the bottom of the region’s list.
Now I still haven’t actually found the document that this “list” of projects comes from, but from yesterday’s article it did seems as though the ranking of transport projects was done on impartial grounds – looking at what projects are most needed and what will lead to the best outcomes. Furthermore, one of the reasons the Puhoi-Wellsford project is so far down the ranking is that its cost-benefit analysis has yet to be undertaken (I’m guessing once it has been undertaken that project will probably slide even further down the list, but anyway). The editorial is incredibly wrong in saying that the current transport strategy reflects what the ARC has always been saying - promoting public transport to the detriment of a balanced transport system. In fact, generally most previous land transport strategies have been criticised for being far too roads-centric. Hell, I was criticising the timeframes of important projects in the current plan in my previous post.
The editorial then goes on to be almost hysterically implausible by its end, somehow seeming to claim that Auckland’s transport planners have given public transport far too much emphasis in recent decades, and how it’s such a good thing that the future Super City will put an end to this nonsense.
If the green thinking in Regional House was to survive in the Auckland Council, it is hard to see how the envisaged joint transport management would work. The divergence of principles and priorities was evident to Transport Minister Steven Joyce when he read the region’s latest draft strategy.
Since the Cabinet will hold the crucial purse-strings it is clear whose priorities will prevail. Auckland’s roads are of national interest in a way that its public transport is not.
Governments and their officials have been hard to convince of the value of commuter railways in Auckland. Environmental reasoning alone has not persuaded them.
The regional council should not be publishing another forlorn transport plan. Auckland can look forward now to more balanced leadership.
I’m sorry to burst the bubble of whoever wrote this nonsense, but when compared internationally Auckland’s transport thinking, planning and funding is incredibly roads-centric still. It is not only “green thinking” that promotes public transport, but the realisation that we generally simply can’t build any more motorways or widen our existing ones any further without generating even more traffic, and completely destroying communities (a lesson being learned at the moment in Waterview). I’m not quite sure what the Herald would prefer our transport system to look like – 16 lane wide motorways everywhere and no rail system or buses perhaps?
Finally, saying that a shift to more of a focus on roading to make things more ‘balanced’ is quite laughable really. Like letting the All Blacks have 20 players on the field when taking on Japan in a rugby match to ‘even things up’.
By admin, on September 23rd, 2009 An interesting article in today’s NZ Herald about what the ARC thinks are the top priorities for transport projects in Auckland. It’s a very interesting read actually:
Top of the list is the $1 billion rail electrification project, for which the Government has yet to allocate money for new trains, followed by a central Auckland rail tunnel and integrated public transport ticketing.
The list – which measures projects against eight factors including economic development, urgency, safety and integrated transport and land use – gives the Puhoi-Wellsford road a score of 11 out of 40, against 27 for rail electrification.
The article also has an interesting debate about the Puhoi-Wellsford road, although I’m not going to go there for now. What I find most interesting is comparing the list of project priorities that the ARC has come up with, with the timeframes for actually completing those projects – which was detailed recently in the draft (and rejected for now) Regional Land Transport Strategy. Firstly, the priority list:
1. Rail electrification
2. Central Auckland rail tunnel
3. Public transport integrated ticketing
4= Western ring route
4= Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative
6= Airport rail loop
6= Panmure-Botany-Manukau City centre rapid or quality transit network (dedicated busway or light rail, or priority lanes on roads)
Now let’s look at the timeframes, detailed in this post I made a couple of days ago:
Electrification – by 2013 (hopefully)
CBD Rail Tunnel – 2021-2031
Integrated Ticketing – within the next 10 years
Western Ring Route – by 2016 (except for widening the Northwest motorway)
AMETI – Not fully detailed but probably within the 2011-2021 decade
Airport rail loop – 2031-2041
Panmure-Botany-Manukau City – 2031-2041
Crikey, I’d hate to think what the timeframes of a low priority public transport project would be. The CBD Rail Tunnel, number two most important project in the region, but that’s OK we can live without it for another 22 years. WTF?
By admin, on September 22nd, 2009 I must admit that sometimes I can get a little overly focused on expanding Auckland’s rail system, and perhaps I ignore our bus system a bit. Around 80% of public transport trips in Auckland are taken on the bus, so clearly no matter what happens to our rail system, it is very likely that for the foreseeable future buses are still going to make up the majority of public transport in Auckland. So therefore it is critical to look at how we could make the bus system better. It’s actually pretty simply in my opinion:
- Smart-card integrated ticketing.
- More bus lanes.
The first of these two is pretty obvious in terms of ‘how it should happen’. And, fortunately, integrated smart-card ticketing is happening. So let’s look at part two – more bus lanes. In the map below, blue lines indicate the existing stretches of bus lanes throughout Auckland City and part of Manukau City. The red lines indicate routes that I think could or should be ‘bus laned’ in the future – to create a far better bus system.
Bus lanes help create some sense of ‘certainty’ in terms of having regular buses along this part of the network, while also actually making it possible for bus travel to be faster than car travel. Along some of Auckland’s most successful stretches of bus lanes around half the people travelling along that corridor use public transport.
To start with, I think Pakuranga Road, as much of the Link bus route as possible, Queen Street, the parts of Mt Eden Road & Sandringham Road where the existing bus lanes end, and Manukau Road are obvious candidates.
By admin, on September 21st, 2009 Well apparently it’s World Car-Free Day tomorrow, and ARTA have a bit of a competition running to win an $800 mountain bike:
In celebration of World Carfree Day tomorrow, Tuesday 22 September, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) is encouraging Aucklanders to leave the car keys behind, help ease congestion and pledge to go car free.
ARTA’s General Manager, Strategy and Planning, Peter Clark says “As most Aucklanders know, car congestion is one of Auckland’s biggest issues. In 2001 there were approximately 700 people using trains to get into the city every morning peak. In 2009, there are now over 5,000 people using trains to get into town every morning peak. This increase is due to massive investment by central government and the region in track and station improvements, investment in upgraded rolling stock and increases in services.
“In respect of the contribution made to decongesting the city, using New Zealand Transport Agency methodology and our own survey results, around 75% of these new passengers previously used their cars to get into the city. Using analysis of $25,000 annual decongestion benefit for each additional public transport user who previously used a car, that equates to around $80 million decongestion benefits for rail alone. If we look at the northern busway, using similar methodology, annualised decongestion benefits are worth around $42 million.
“Looking at it another way, rail improvements over the past few years and the busway have resulted in 5,400 cars being removed off the most congested roads in the country every morning peak for Auckland’s CBD alone. This has freed up ease of use of these roads for commercial and other trips which cannot use public transport and hence has a significantly positive impact on economic productivity and performance.
“So on World Car Free Day, make your contribution to decongesting Auckland, leave the car at home and either sit back and enjoy a chauffeur driven ride on public transport, or get out in the fresh air and walk or cycle to your destination”, says Mr Clark.
Aucklanders can get involved by visiting maxx.co.nz and pledging to go car free any day this week. Those who make a pledge will also enter a draw to win $200 of free travel or a Giant mountain bike worth over $800.
Well, I didn’t use my car today; I don’t think I’m going to use it tomorrow and I probably won’t use it on Thursday. I could do with a mountain-bike actually – maybe I will go make a proper pledge.
I actually own a very interesting book called “Car Free Cities“, by J.H. Crawford. It proposes how an entire city (potentially of many millions of people) could be entirely car-free if built in a particular way. Some aspects would be tricky, like delivery of freight and emergency services, but overall it does work and could be possible. If we were building a city from scratch.
By admin, on September 21st, 2009 Here’s a snippet from the draft Regional Land Transport Strategy that the Regional Transport Committee sent back to officials to work on for another month because it was ‘not visionary enough‘.
Rail electrification with 10minute services and connection of the rail system to Manukau City Centre and Onehunga are projects which have been agreed for some time and are in the process of being delivered. The Onehunga Line and Manukau Link are expected to open in mid 2010, and the first electric trains are targeted to commence service in 2013. These improvements are critical to continuing the growth of rail patronage in Auckland and allowing passenger rail to fill its role (along with the Northern Busway) as the Rapid Transit Network which forms the backbone of the public transport system. These activities need to be implemented as soon as possible.
Integrated ticketing and fares are critical in making public transport easier to use and more convenient for users. As the Rapid Transit Network develops, integrated ticketing and fares will become increasing important to enable passengers to transfer with minimal inconvenience between feeder services and the RTN. It is expected that integrated ticketing and fares will be implemented as soon as possible, certainly within the first 10 years of this strategy.
The CBD rail link will play a critical role in providing capacity for the rail system to continue to grow beyond the 10 minute services currently planned, will produce faster journeys from the west of Auckland to the CBD, and will provide greater coverage of the CBD. The capacity of the rail system is currently limited by the constraints on the tunnel leading to the Britomart terminal. Construction of the CBD rail tunnel will allow Britomart to operate as a through station rather than as a terminal. The consequent increase in system capacity will enable trains to be operated at higher frequencies and will provide the ability to operate new services to the CBD, including rail services connecting with the airport and using the Avondale-Southdown Line. The CBD rail tunnel will also provide improved rail coverage to the CBD. Without the accessibility provided by the CBD rail tunnel the growth of the CBD will be constrained as roads become increasingly congested and the number of buses in the CBD becomes harder to manage. It is expected that the CBD rail tunnel will be constructed within the period 2021 – 2031.
The Northern Busway currently operates as a full RTN on its own right of way only as far as the Constellation Drive Station, although it operates with shoulder bus lanes to Albany Station. Extension of the Northern Busway in its own right of way to Albany Station, and continuing from there north to the Hibiscus Coast, will reduce bus travel times and increase reliability from locations north of Constellation Drive by providing more direct routing and by removing the bus operation from congestion on the Motorway. This will enable the full benefits of the Busway to be realized and make bus travel more attractive to people from Browns bay, Albany, Orewa, Silverdale and the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Further investigations are required to confirm the nature and alignment of the northern extension of the Busway, its northern termination point and the nature of Park and Ride facilities required. Extension of the Busway is planned in two phases – the first phase connects the existing Busway at Constellation Station with Albany Station and continues to the Northern Motorway at Redvale, and is expected to be constructed in the period 2021 – 2031. The second phase extends the Busway from Redvale to the Hibiscus Coast and is expected to be constructed in the period 2031 -2041.
The Airport rail loop consists of connections to the Airport from the north via Onehunga and from the east via Puhinui Station. As well as serving air passengers, the line will provide accessibility to the fast growing employment area around the Airport and will increase services to the growing centre of Onehunga. Only limited investigations have been carried out to date on the detailed route of the rail connections, how the introduction of rail would be staged, and what bus services should be established in the interim. It is expected that the Airport rail loop will be constructed in the period 2031 – 2041.
The Avondale – Southdown rail connection enables the introduction of passenger rail services connecting West Auckland with South Auckland, including provision of services to the Airport. It would provide a more direct route for rail freight from West Auckland and from north of Auckland to the North Island Main Trunk and therefore to both the Port of Auckland and locations to the south. It is expected that the Avondale – Southdown rail connection will be constructed in the period 2031 – 2041.
It is expected that the Northern Busway will operate effectively during the period of this strategy. It will provide an attractive public transport connection between the North Shore, the CBD and the rest of the RTN and QTN system, and will provide a strong public transport core for movement around the North Shore. Towards the end of the period of this strategy however the Busway is likely to approach its operational capacity and this may constrain further growth of public transport patronage. It is therefore necessary to continue investigation of rail and to protect the ability for the future introduction of passenger rail to the North Shore. The route to be protected across the Harbour is the route identified in study undertaken in 2008, which involved tunneling from the CBD to a station under Gaunt Street in the Wynyard Quarter, then continuing in tunnel under the Harbour to emerge in the vicinity of the Esmonde Road interchange. This particular option is known as Option 2C (which also includes the road component described in Policy .6.2.2 below). On the North Shore there may be advantages in following a different route from the Northern Busway, in order to access centres not on the Busway and to maximize the benefits of rail in supporting the development of more concentrated mixed use centres in accordance with the Regional Growth Strategy.
Investigations into public transport connections between Panmure, Botany and Manukau City Centre show that bus operations in the corridor should be upgraded to operate as a QTN as soon as possible, and that planning should proceed to enable upgrading to an RTN, probably during the period 2021 – 2031. The route should be future proofed for conversion to light rail at a later date.
Investigations into the Henderson – Westgate – Albany public transport connections indicate these connections would operate as bus QTN over the period of this strategy. It would be wise however to future proof the route for conversion to bus RTN at a future time.
I can see where the RTC is coming from. If it takes until 2031 for the CBD Rail Tunnel to be constructed then we really do have no hope for our city. I thought this document was meant to promote public transport – not provide excuses for those more keen to spend zillions on motorways. Let’s hope all those timeframes are brought forwards by 10 years.
By admin, on September 20th, 2009
By admin, on September 19th, 2009 A few weeks ago I put together a quick map of what I thought Auckland’s rail system in 2030 should look like. Now unless something crazy happens like all our transport dollars going to rail instead of roads, it’s probably a bit unrealistic to hope that such a system would be complete by 2030. Nevertheless, apart from some parts (like the line that runs along SH16 which would replace the busway that I think should be built in the next few years) I actually do think it’s a system that we will largely need by 2030.
To ‘bring it to life’ a bit more, I have decided to turn the previous ‘map with lines on it‘ into a system diagram – the type that we see most overseas cities with half-decent rail systems have. All the stations are listed, and while I think it’s likely the service patterns wouldn’t exactly follow what I have suggested (for example some trains would probably run from Henderson to Manukau City via the airport) it gives us a pretty good idea about what could happen, what could be possible with a bit of vision: One change to the diagram above that would make sense is extending the southern end of the “red line” from Manukau City to Puhinui, so it can interchange with the “green line”. In terms of staging the development of such a system, I think the following steps would make most sense.
1) CBD Rail Tunnel
2) Airport Line (developed in two stages – first being from the airport to Onehunga and second being from the airport to Puhinui)
3) Howick/Botany Line (potentially in two stages, with the first being from Botany to Glen Innes and the second from Botany to Manukau City).
4) Avondale-Southdown Line – to complete the Isthmus Circle Line
5) North Shore Line (firstly to Albany, then potentially to Orewa in the longer term)
6) Westgate Line (although this should become a busway ASAP).
While it’s easy to ‘write off’ such a diagram as a “dream” or a “fantasy”, most of the routes shown above have been identified by ARTA as ‘future rapid transit corridors’. This is simply showing a way to actually give effect to the broad arrows that seem to show up on every public transport plan that ARTA comes up with.
There’s obviously also a good debate over whether busways or railway lines are the best option for these routes. I have gone with a complete rail solution, but I agree that for the western part of the red line a busway would suit things just fine for quite a few more decades (hence that’s the last to be developed), while for the North Shore Line I also think that the Northern Busway should be fine for a few more decades, hence that’s the second-to-last one that I would propose. The reason I don’t think that a busway would work for the Howick/Botany Line is the issue of “what the heck do you do once the bus is at Panmure or Glen Innes?” With a rail solution we have the Eastern Line for them to join, but with a bus solution are we looking at having to build a busway along the route of the old Eastern Highway? That seems a bit silly to me.
By admin, on September 18th, 2009 Around a month ago when ARTA released their June 2009 monthly business report, I commented how I thought the seemingly modest increase in patronage was actually a pretty significant achievement. This was for one simple reason – petrol prices. In June and July last year petrol prices were well above $2 a litre, everyone was freaking out about the cost of every car trip, and taking to public transport in record numbers. Yet if we look at the price of petrol now, it’s around the $1.65 mark – a whopping 50c a litre cheaper than this time last year. And yet, public transport patronage is still higher. That’s surely a good sign.
Anyway, let’s have a look at some of the highlights in ARTA’s July Report:
If we have a look at what’s happened over the last few years, you can really see from the ‘rolling average’ line how things have increased in the past year and a bit.  Perhaps what’s most interesting is to look at where the increase has come from for July. The jump in ferry patronage is possibly largely due to a promotion for free ferry rides, but it’s actually quite unusual to see bus patronage having a higher percentage increase than rail patronage. I’m not really sure what would have caused such a trend, but in a way it could be seen as a good sign, as there has been a lot of criticism in recent years that the only increases in patronage were coming on the train system and most of that increase was just bus passengers shifting to rail. So perhaps a rise in bus patronage means that those new people using the bus system are those who used to drive.
Of course the ARTA monthly business report tells us much more than just patronage statistics for the month. There are some interesting updates on rolling stock (we should have another train or two in operation by October) and progress on various capital works projects. These are summarised below: When I think about it, this year has been a pretty quiet one in terms of actual improvements to our public transport system, especially our rail system. A lot is under construction at the moment – particularly the Onehunga branch, the Newmarket station, the Manukau branch and the New Lynn project. But because it’s all ‘under construction’, nothing has really opened at all this year. Once these improvements have been completed and opened, it will be interesting to see what happens to public transport patronage. I think the Onehunga Line could give things a real boost.
By admin, on September 18th, 2009 Interesting article in today’s Herald about the Regional Land Transport Strategy: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10597980
Public consultation on Auckland’s 30-year transport planning blueprint has been delayed for a month after regional politicians denounced a draft document as lacking vision.
The Auckland Regional Transport Committee sent its draft strategy back for a partial rewrite, directing officers to beef up public transport aspirations and give urgency to a central Auckland rail tunnel and airport links.
I will comment more later!
By admin, on September 15th, 2009 A number of factors have combined to lead to my posting on this blog grinding to a bit of a halt lately – which I thoroughly apologise for. Things will hopefully be fully up and running again in a couple of days time.
In the meanwhile, ARTA’s July monthly business report is out – go have a look if you’re curious here.
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