Sundays on the Western Line
One of the things Aucklanders don’t like to talk about – because it’s far too embarrassing – is that up until a few years ago our trains didn’t run on Sundays. That’s right, we had the typical weekday services and then we had a greatly reduced timetable that ran on Saturdays, and nothing at all on Sundays.…
5 Comments Staging the CBD Rail Tunnel
As I have outlined in the past, Britomart station is a major bottleneck in Auckland’s rail network. There are only two tracks in and out of the station, which means that – at the moment – only 18 trains can get in and out of the station in an hour.…
Super City oral submission
I presented my submission to the Auckland Governance Legislation Select Committee last night, which was quite fun. Everyone on the committee seemed to think that my submission was very thorough and well though out – and hopefully it might have some effect on what comes out of the whole process.…
Buses vs Trams
There’s a fantastically interesting post over at Human Transit on comparing the benefits of buses and streetcars (trams), and how it is easy to get blinded by the romance of streetcars rather than looking at the transit problem we are trying to solve and then going about the best way to fix it.…
An odd NZ Herald article
There is a rather strange article in the New Zealand Herald today, entitled “Aucklanders stick with cars as best way to travel”. I’m not quite sure how most popular equates to “best”, but that’s not really the issue here. The article is based around a media release by Statistics NZ on the ways in which people get to and from work:
A new analysis of commuting patterns, published yesterday by Statistics NZ, shows that the proportion taking the car to work in the Auckland region rose from 78.4 per cent in 1996 to 78.6 per cent in 2001 and 78.8 per cent in the last Census, in 2006.…
Costly auto-dependency
It appears to be generally accepted that auto-dependent sprawl is bad from an environmental perspective, and also from a social perspective. However, one of the biggest arguments that public transport advocates seem to come up against is that roading projects come across as having better cost-benefit ratios.…
Daily Bus User
Well I have found myself a new job, which is pretty exciting. I still need to work out the details of how to ensure what I say on here isn’t in conflict with anything to do with my new job, but as it is not related to transport I don’t think that would be much of a problem.…
The Rail Development Plan
It’s easy for one to plan dream rail networks for Auckland – heck I tend to do it all the time. And indeed, in the longer run I think it will be necessary for Auckland to embark upon a significant expansion of the rail network, starting with the CBD rail loop.…
Next Harbour Crossing
I suppose that it’s always been the big question for Auckland’s transport system – what happens if/when (although it has usually been considered ‘when’) the current Harbour Bridge no longer has the ability to provide the necessary capacity for Auckland? Over the years this issue has been managed, firstly by tolling, secondly by adding on the clip-ons and thirdly by installing the moveable barrier.…
Falling traffic volumes over the past 18 months
A few weeks ago I did a post on how traffic volumes were continuing to fall across the state highway network.
As a bit of a follow up, I have compiled the following monthly comparisons since the start of 2008:
Jan 2008 v Jan 2007: -0.6%
Feb 2008 v Feb 2007: -2.0%
Mar 2008 v Mar 2007: +0.4%
Apr 2008 v Apr 2007: -4.0%
May 2008 v May 2007: -0.3%
Jun 2008 v Jun 2007: -7.9%
Jul 2008 v Jul 2007: -8.0%
Aug 2008 v Aug 2007: -7.5%
Sep 2008 v Sep 2007: -5.5%
Oct 2008 v Oct 2007: -1.6%
Nov 2008 v Nov 2007: -5.6%
Dec 2008 v Dec 2007: -0.6%
Jan 2009 v Jan 2008: -0.8%
Feb 2009 v Feb 2008: -2.4%
Mar 2009 v Mar 2008: -3.7%
Apr 2009 v Apr 2008: +2.4%
May 2009 v May 2008: -1.6%
Remember, the government is taking money away from all other parts of the transport budget so that it can significantly boost funding for new state highways.…
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