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By Patrick Reynolds, on May 11th, 2013 We just keep getting bigger. The debates around Auckland’s growth, planning, and transport are clearly very important to many, and, it seems, more and more people are turning to this site to keep track of them and have their say. Here are the site stats to the end of the most recent full month, April 2013, already since since then we have had two more record breaking days:
 Site Stats to April 2013 Sitemeter rankings put us firmly as the fourth most viewed blog in the country, which frankly astounds me for such a serious and grown-up site. Well done New Zealand.
With this growth comes even more responsibility to keep our standards up and to think of ways to improve the site. So you will see above in the bar below the masthead a new page called User Guidelines, also reproduced below. In particular I would like to draw your attention to:
10. We are ambitious about improving Auckland [and all of NZ ] as well as the blog itself so all suggestions to improve it and the submission of relevant guest posts are welcome, please do this via email. Guest Posts cannot be anonymous and will be selected on a case by case basis.
So we would like the comment stream for this post to be open to you all to offer your ideas for ways to improve our work here. And we would also like to say thanks to you all for your interest and contributions.
-Sincerely, the ATB editorial team.
Ten Commandments for Commenters
The comment stream is an important feature of Transportblog and we are proud of the high standard of the information and intelligence usually displayed there by our readers. It is also a largely civil space and so far we have been able to allow it to operate with light moderation and very open access. In order to keep it this way we ask that commenters observe the following guidelines:
1. Commenters are guests and are asked to behave accordingly. Treat other members of the community with civility and respect. If you see disrespectful behavior, please report it to us ather than inflaming the situation. The editors decisions on these matters are final.
2. Members are encouraged to use their real names, especially for those wishing to comment frequently. We currently allow anonymity but if we feel it is being abused we reserve the right to withdraw this feature.
3. Ad hominem attacks are frowned upon. If you disagree with someone, refute their statements rather before insulting them. If you must insult someone, be cheeky.
4. General moaning about the blog and its editorial direction is extremely boring. If you there are things you like and/or don’t like about the blog then put it in an email to us, rather than a comment. Or find another space more to your liking.
5. When you are presenting an argument and/or stating an opinion, try to use clear and logical reasoning, e.g. Observation 1 + Observation 2 = Conclusion.
6. Opinions, while welcome, are not facts, so do not assert them as such. When citing facts, commenters should always aim to provide supporting references and links, especially when asked for them.
7. Do not copy and paste complete copyrighted articles without permission from the copyright holder. Acknowledge all sources.
8. The editors decide what is acceptable. We reserve the right to delete comments and suspend accounts as we see fit. Grounds for suspension include:
i. Obsessive arguing in a thread or threads
ii. Repeated statements without supporting evidence
iii. Blatant promotion of products and/or services
iv. Use of multiple anonymous identities
9. We have high standards but are run by volunteers in our spare time so we do make mistakes. If you disagree with something we have done get in touch via email.
10. We are ambitious about improving Auckland [and all of NZ ] as well as the blog itself so all suggestions to improve it and the submission of relevant guest posts are welcome, please do this via email. Guest Posts cannot be anonymous and will be selected on a case by case basis.
By Matt L, on April 18th, 2013 AT have released their 6 monthly report to 31 December 2012 and it highlights just how biased our transport spending is, even in a city where the majority of our elected officials are supposedly PT friendly. Here is their press release about the report:
Auckland Transport has today released its half year report for the six months to 31 December 2012.
The report shows Auckland Transport has invested a further $278 million in Auckland’s infrastructure, the vast majority $188 million was spent on roads while $39 million went towards public transport.
Auckland Transport chairman Lester Levy says it’s been a busy period. “Upgrade work continues on the rail network ahead of electrification, the new electric trains are on the production line in Spain and our biggest-ever transport project is being built in Auckland’s east.”
The $1.5 billion AMETI project is Auckland Transport’s largest construction initiative. It unlocks the potential for 40,000 new jobs once key transport links are improved. AMETI also includes improvements to public transport, walking and cycling facilities and will give residents greater transport choices.
At this stage much of the work is centred around Panmure where a new traffic bridge has been built and work is well underway on an integrated transport centre.
In another big project, Kiwirail has completed much of the work around electrification. Dr Levy says “Improvements are well underway on the rail network. We are counting down to the arrival of the first electric trains.”
Electric wires can now be seen around much of the Auckland rail network. The depot to house and maintain the new electric trains is under construction at Wiri and is due to open in July. The first electric train will arrive in Auckland in September for testing.
Work continues on planning for the City Rail Link (CRL). The “City Centre Future Access Study” released in late 2012 concluded that the CRL is necessary to meet future demand for travel in the city centre. Work is progressing on the CRL with Auckland Council publicly notifying the Notices of Requirement for the project.
And the AT HOP card was launched in October. Auckland Transport is in the process of working its way through the implementation – AT HOP is now available on trains and ferries and will be introduced on buses later this year.
Other highlights for the December 2012 half-year include:
Work continuing on upgrading Auckland’s rail stations
Significant progress on revitalisation of New Lynn with new shared spaces and a transit-orientated development
35 new schools join the School Travel Plan initiative
4,235 people receive cycle safety training
1,488 new registrations for “Let’s Carpool”
And here is the report itself.
After quickly having a look through the report, in some AT is actually not fully reporting things in their press release. On top of the $39 million in PT capital expenditure is an additional $45 million that was spent on our new electric trains. However no matter which way you look at it, AT still spent more than 2/3rds of all capital expenditure went to roads as shown in this table from the report.
Its also woth noting that this spending also ignores money was spent by the NZTA on motorways as well as Kiwirail on electrification. The big problem I have is that without fixing up the massive imbalance in our transport spending, we are going to continue to struggle to see transformational change in how we get around this city.
By Matt L, on April 4th, 2013 People have been asking us to set up a Facebook page for a long time and I have finally gotten around to doing it. It is a little bit sparse right now so bear with us as we build it out.
https://www.facebook.com/AkTransportblog
Don’t forget that we also have a twitter account where we are fairly active. https://twitter.com/AkTransportBlog
By Matt L, on January 22nd, 2013 I have added two more graphs to our transport stats collection showing the change in petrol prices over time. The data for both comes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment from their weekly, quarterly numbers. The quarterly numbers include the inflation adjusted figures which is very handy for comparing them over a long period of time and shows that in real terms, we still haven’t reached the peaks of the 80′s yet.
Edit: updated the first graph to add in a break down of the fuel prices.
By Matt L, on January 18th, 2013 Many of the people who read this blog, including some of the authors have sometimes an unhealthy obsession with numbers. We are often referring to various stats and it can can sometimes be hard to find things again. With that in mind (and thanks to a suggestion from John P I think) we have now created a series of pages that are linked to directly from the homepage with a number of key transport related graphs. These are the ones that I/we check on pretty much every month. There are probably a couple more that I will add over time but if you have anything that you would like to see on a regular basis or anything that you think needs to be changed, let me know.
Here are a couple of my favourites.
Our rolling 12m patronage totals by mode
Our rolling 12m patronage total compared to the target set in the Auckland plan of 140 million PT trips by 2022. It shows that if we were to maintain the growth we have seen over the last few years then it should be fairly doable however we have started to fall behind a little, but thankfully not enough that we can’t get back on the wagon.
Auckland Rail Patronage vs Wellington Patronage – We got so close to catching them only to fall away due to disappointing results this year.
Harbour Bridge Traffic Volumes – They are starting to rise again but are still no where near the highs of the mid 2000′s
By Matt L, on January 17th, 2013 Last night I received a wonderful letter from a reader that I thought I would share. Warren I can tell you that myself and my fellow bloggers really appreciated it, especially the bit about Patrick, so thank you very much
An Appreciation and more……
From the time I discovered the Auckland Transport Blog, a little before Josh Arbury discovered his dream job of Transport Strategist at Auckland Council and relinquished his editorship of the Blog, it has become a mandatory daily viewing for me.
I am particularly impressed by the quality of the analytical work of the blogging team and their amazingly sustained commitment to the noble and economically justifiable cause of a better transport system for Auckland. I have also been impressed with the very rapid comment responses to issues which have arisen and the quick posting of pertinent radio interviews and answers to questions in Parliament (TV) which I would otherwise have
missed. My wife and I appreciated the film evening initiative at the Capitol Theatre in Dominion Road.
Above all, I have appreciated the tenor of the Blog – it is always well mannered.
It seems to me that with the possible exception of Patrick Reynolds the blogging team is very young which makes widely scoping analytical work even more creditable. And I enjoy Patrick’s pithy comments. He has the ability to get straight to the nub of an issue and on occasions get the discussion back on track.
Personally I am in the older age group and thought you may appreciate some comment from a senior citizen.
I well remember the trams all passing through Queen Street before dispersing to their respective suburbs. We frequently took the Meadowbank tram through Newmarket and Parnell to Queen Street. It then went up Queen Street, turned right into Karangahape Road and finished up at Avondale. The City Rail Link will allow the same efficient utilisation of Britomart with an up to date Metro system.
Over the years we have de-humanised parts of Auckland’s CBD. For a long time I have felt dismayed at one way raceways, such as Hobson and Nelson Streets, extra wide motorways with more than two lanes in each direction, continual motorway extensions into the countryside which only encourage distant living and make close–in motorway entry points more difficult and so on.
Even though I am a natural conservative I am disappointed at the present Government’s wasteful Roads of National Significance programme and appalled at their failure to revise it, in view of changing circumstances and trends, and the now increasingly evident business case deficiencies. This intransigence is not smart government. And being fairly widely travelled also confirms the belief that the CRL is vital for all the reasons set out in the Auckland Transport Blog.
At the time of the last general election the local Campbells Bay Community Association arranged for all North Shore Electorate candidates to address a meeting and answer questions. When I asked Maggie Barry what she would do if elected to persuade her party colleagues to abandon the “holiday highway” in favour of the CRL she made this out to be a stupid question and blathered on about supposed benefits to the Northland economy.
I have been greatly impressed with the quality of Julie Anne Genter’s questions in Parliament to Steven Joyce and more recently Gerry Brownlie and singularly unimpressed with quality of their answers. In order to extend awareness and to de-mystify the benefits of the CRL to my Rotary colleagues I invited Julie Anne to address our Rotary Club last October which she did, performing with credit.
A better Auckland ?
I am not an architect but architecture has been my hobby all my life and I have travelled the world to follow this passion. I have built two houses using the services of an architect for both. The architect for the first house was the Czech, Vlad Cacala, at the time not recognised by the New Zealand Institute of Architects, but now considered an icon of New Zealand Modernism and the subject of an exhibition in the Auckland Art Gallery a few years ago. We lived in this house for 28 years and brought up our family of four in it. But by 1990 I had worked my way through Modernism. Much of it had become bland, boring and repetitive. Many early examples had not worn well. Furthermore, other unsuitable designs (aping Mediterranean dreams) for our wet and windy climate led me to choose an updated arts and crafts design from Dunedin architects, Mason & Wales for
our new home. It elicits favourable comment from strangers, is comfortable and a joy to live in.
Intensification for the growing Auckland is inevitable and I support it but generally favourtownhouses/apartments of no more 4 to 7 storeys in most instances, as with the possible
exception of New York such cities are the most satisfying to visit – for me at least. They could possibly be higher in the CBD – maybe.
Once upon a time city buildings were built for their intended occupiers and reflected that ownership and status. Now developers develop buildings for letting and the most personality an incoming tenant can aspire to is usually limited to naming rights. It would be nice to think that in the CBD we could attract one or two say Louis Sullivan or even Quinlan Terry type buildings. Overseas I detect a return to some classically designed buildings but regretfully I don’t think New Zealand owners or clients have the inclination or ability to produce other than more bland mediocre modernist structures.
My Transport Conversion
Being self- employed (and nearly retired) I am not a commuter. When I need to visit the city I drive over the hill and catch a northern busway bus from Sunnynook. It is fast enough and enjoyable. If I want to go to a location beyond the city I go by car over the bridge.
When I first received my Super Gold Card I didn’t use it because I was of the view that senior citizens should pay their own way, as they were often more able to do so than other citizens. More recently I have realised that there is an element of promotion of public transport with the Gold Card – anything that gets people out of their cars to be publicly transported or walk must have some merit.
In recent months I have travelled on Wellington’s Matangi trains to the Hutt admittedly in off peak times. For the user they are quick, clean and efficient. I hope that we do not wait too long for the CRL to be completed and that it together with the new EMUs revolutionise travel in Auckland. We deserve it.
So thank you for the fantastic Auckland Transport Blog
By Matt L, on December 31st, 2012 Well as another year draws to a end it can be interesting to review what went on and to start with
Blog:
Well we started the year with the news that this sites founder was having to give up blogging due to the fact he got a job at the council. This prompted myself and my fellow bloggers to have to step up to help fill the void. Even shared between us, its amazing how much effort it takes at times to keep things going which highlights just how hard he worked to keep this going. The effort though seems to have been rewarded though with huge increases in the number of visitors and page views. I remember earlier this year I/we would get excited if we had over 3,000 page views a day yet now we regularly get over 5,000 and have recently started getting over 6,000. The graph below shows our monthly page views.
When it comes to transport, to me 2012 has been a year where not a lot new has happened but that has mainly be a continuation of the same projects that we have had going on for a few years now. We are effectively in a bit of a transition year waiting for a whole host of projects to be completed. Here is what went on with some of the big things:
Electrification:
Infrastructure
Wires are starting to become a familiar sight along increasingly large parts of the network and by the end of this years Christmas shutdown around 60% of the network is expected to have been completed. A few months ago the wires along the Onehunga branch line became the first section to be fully powered up. Here is where wires the were installed up to the 19th of December.
Out at Wiri a new state of the art depot is being built to maintain the trains and in recent months those out south will have seen the framework for it going up.
Electric Trains
Those wires are of course being installed for our new electric trains (EMUs). This year saw a lot more details come out about them and in the middle of the year we had a mock up arrive in the country that was used to help refine the design and give us a good idea of what we can expect these trains to really look like. Construction has now started in Spain and the first of the 57 new trains is expected to be in the country at the end of August 2013.
Recently we have also heard that the case is quite strong to carry on electrification to Pukekohe.
City Rail Link:
Despite recent setbacks with the CCFAS, the CRL project has taken some major steps forward this year as Auckland Transport have confirmed the exact route the tunnel will take along with the footprint needed. They have contacted affected property owners to start the consent process and while this will continue over the next year or so, it is a good step forward. We here at the blog still think AT has a long way to go to improve their marketing of the project though as there seems to be a huge amount of misinformation out there amongst the general public.
Integrated Ticketing:
If there is one topic more than any other that driven a huge amount of views and comments on the blog this year it has been integrated ticketing. In fact 6 of the 10 most read posts this year have been about the topic. It seems to have been one of those projects that went rogue with constantly missed deadlines and broken promises. A lot of the discussion centred around the role Snapper have played in the whole fiasco and things came to a head in August when AT dumped them from the system and decided to take over the roll out of the system to buses. Snapper has responded by claiming they will take AT to court to recover their costs but as of yet we haven’t heard anything else. In October the first part of the system finally went live with the introduction of the AT HOP card on the rail network.
Redesigned bus network:
This is one of the few new things that have happened this year and something that has been needed for a long time. As part of their draft Regional Public Transport Plan, AT have completely redesigned the bus network to make it into a complete network rather than a bunch of spaghetti thrown onto a map. Assuming it passes through the consultation phase we will start seeing the system rolled out next year. The proposal is to have a large number of core routes that run at high frequencies all day and it should help to revolutionise PT in the city.
Roads of National Significance:
This is one group of projects where we would like to see a lot less haste on but sadly the opposite has been happening. Over the course of they year it seems more and more has come out about just how bad many of these projects are including discovering that at least one part of the Wellington project, the Kapiti Expressway has a BCR of just 0.2. Other projects like Transmission Gully and Puhoi to Wellsford also continue to be pushed hard despite also performing poorly economically and in the case of the former, it has recently been announced it will be built as a PPP. This massive motorway building programme has also caused the budgets to blow out a bit which has resulted in the Government needing to put up fuel taxes.
AMETI:
AMETI was born out of the failed Eastern Highway proposal of John Banks as a way to fix some of the transport problems in the South East. Initially it started life as a very road centric idea but over time it seems to have morphed into being at least a little more PT balanced and will now include a busway from Pamure to Botany. It had seemed to be a bit of a vapourware type project for a while but this year things have finally started construction and one of the first things we will see as a result of it is the start of the busway and a brand new Panmure station.
Patronage:
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the year has been the continually stubborn patronage figures, especially on the rail network. All year results have been disappointing and it seems that AT has been pulled out every excuse in the book to try and explain it and they now say they are now investigating a series of measures to improve things and we should learn more about them in the Feb board meeting.
Auckland Plan:
The last thing but certainly not the least is this year saw the council adopt the Auckland Plan which is the high level 30 year plan is intended to guide the city. This is generally a pretty great document and will really help to make the city more liveable.
Lastly, here are the 10 most viewed posts that were written in 2012
- Fried Snapper
- Auckland Density Illustrated I: The Inner City
- Does Auckland Transport now have a Logo?
- Would You Like Some Integrated Fares To Go With That New Bus Network
- Topping up your AT HOP card online
- In come the Lawyers
- Why I love the Netherlands
- EMU Update – with new pictures
- And the transport prizes go to … Queensland Rail and Symonds Street
- The Snapper/HOP debacle finally resolved?
Have I missed anything major?
By Matt L, on August 31st, 2012 After a month away travelling around and experiencing some of the sights and sounds if Europe I’m back in the country. There was so much that I saw and experienced that it can’t fit it in one post so I will try to present some of it in the coming weeks. During the course of my trip I think I used pretty much every type of modern transport. I rode on buses and bikes, caught planes and trains, hopped on trams and in cars, sailed on boats and above them (parasailing  ) and of course walked and walked and walked and walked.
For a brief description of my trip, we started with a days stop over in Singapore before heading on to Paris. The metro system there might not be the cleanest but boy is it everywhere as there aren’t many places in the city that aren’t more than a few hundred metres from a station. This made it just so easy to get around almost anywhere pretty quickly. From Paris it was a trip up to one of Stu’s favourite places, Amsterdam where I experienced some of the things Stu wrote about in this post. Interestingly I had just finished visiting the city a few days before Stu posted it and had in my head ideas some similar ideas to write about.
 Some long distance trains were better than others (this was one of the better ones). It was then down to Koblenz on the Rhine Gorge to look at some of the old castles that line the river. Our trip then took us to Munich and Vienna, both cities which I think we could learn a lot from. They are also both cities that compete strongly in the the various surveys that rank the worlds most liveable cities and it was easy to see why. It is also important as being at the top something that Len Brown wants Auckland to achieve. We then headed further south to Venice for a bit of watery action before a mid holiday holiday in a little town called Bellagio on the shores of Lake Como. After that it was off to Nice in the South of France along with Monoco (which is just up the road/track) where we had a very Auckland type of rail experience with trains cancelled and frequently running late etc.
 Lots of transport modes in this picture, I was surprised by just how many trains used both these lines and the two on the other side of the river. The next two legs of our trip were the only ones where we didn’t get between cities using trains which meant short hop on a plane over to Barcelona. It actually ended up being our favourite city on the trip as there was quite an interesting blend of old and new buildings, especially along the waterfront. In may ways it reminded me a bit of home and why it is so important that we develop this great asset of ours correctly. We then flew back to Italy for a trip down to Siena, a small town in Tuscany where we stayed at the top of a 13th century castle outside of town which was pretty neat.
The last place we visited in Europe was Rome, luckily the worst of the heat wave they were having had passed so temperatures were only in the low to mid 30°s instead of being up over 40° like it had been a few days before we got there. We then flew back to Singapore for another night before heading back to Auckland.
I would also like to say thanks and congratulations to all of the other bloggers who helped out while I was gone. I know just how hard it can be hard to put lots of posts together on such a regular basis. Their efforts paid off and in August we set all kinds of new page view records including our highest ever day, week and month (with a little bit more yet to go tonight). Of course also thanks to all of our readers for coming and reading the site along with contributing through comments and guest posts. There are of course some topics that get much more attention than others *cough* integrated ticketing *cough* and August certainly had its fair share of them.
By Stu Donovan, on August 13th, 2012 There’s only 2 days left until the inaugural Auckland Transport Blog film night and as of today there’s only 6 tickets still available. So if you want to come along to what is sure to be a transport fiesta of epic proportions then you had better make like Usain Bolt and get buying (NB: You can buy tickets online here).
Remember that all proceeds from the film night will go towards covering the (not inconsiderable) costs of hosting the blog; intoxicated donations on the night will also be gratefully accepted. Thanks again to all our major sponsors: Isthmus Group, MRCagney, Auckland Transport, and Odyssey Wines. We also want to thank CityHop for donating some prizes that we will be giving away on the night, as well as the Campaign for Better Transport for kindly acting as bankers and internet hosts, thereby facilitating our petulant out-pourings.
Note that the film itself starts at 8.30pm – feel free to join us beforehand for dinner at the “Go Go Music Cafe” (just up the road from the cinema) from 630pm onwards. I’ll personally buy a drink for the person wearing the coolest transport themed outfit. David Bowie’s nipple antenna signing out!
By Patrick Reynolds, on August 3rd, 2012 There are still around 20 tickets available for this event, with more than 100 sold so far. So get in quick! We’re still looking for suggestions for a place to meet up before the film. August 15 is the week after next!
With kind sponsorship from Isthmus Group, MRCagney, Auckland Transport, Odyssey Wines, CityHop and Tim Gummer Design we have a really fantastic evening with a really fantastic film in store. We thought it was a good time to offer the opportunity for a little actual mingling with the growing number of readers and commenters on the blog. For those who wish to, of course. Here’s the poster: The Urbanized documentary looks really fascinating too – you can see a trailer for it here and book your tickets here.
As a bit of fine print, money made from the event including the sponsorship will be donated to the Campaign for Better Transport as a ring-fenced donation to be used to support the hosting of this blog. We have shifted to a New Zealand based server and that means the cost of hosting skyrockets – but page loading should be much much faster. The booking is done through the volunteer efforts of Kent Lundberg at Isthmus.
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