Until the 1950s Auckland had one of the best public transport systems for a city of its size in the world. Our usage of public transport was also very high on a per-capita basis. The vast majority of public transport users during the early 20th century were those who caught the tram. And Auckland’s tram system was very very extensive once it had reached its full extent by the early 1930s – as shown in the map below:
However, in perhaps one of the worst decisions ever made by the “powers to be” in Auckland, the tram system was ripped up in the mid 1950s. This certainly was not a phenomenon unique to Auckland, as most cities around the world ripped out their tram systems at this time – and instead replaced them with buses that were, for one reason or another, just never quite so popular.
I have detailed in a previous post why I think it might be advantageous to reintroduce trams to Auckland – at last along some routes where it would be appropriate. I do understand that re-creating the infrastructure for a tram network would be expensive, but on-street light-rail systems (such as a tram) are proving to be incredibly popular in cities around the world where they have been built in recent years – such as Portland, San Francisco, and London. Trams generally are more popular than the buses they replace – due to a higher ride quality, they have more capacity and their permanence encourages intensification around the routes that they take.
So I reckon we should bring trams back to Auckland – at least along a couple of routes to start with. These two routes are shown in the map below:
Starting with the blue line, this would run from Blockhouse Bay shops (or potentially if we had to cut back on funds a bit, from the bus depot on Stoddard Road in Mt Roskill) through the Lynfield area and then primarily along Dominion Road into the city. It would then continue down Queen Street before linking across the viaduct harbour with the Tank Farm development area. The primary advantage of this route would be to provide a high-quality public transport service to the Dominion Road corridor – which is one of Auckland’s busiest and most popular bus corridors. Running trams along it would increase the public transport capacity of the corridor, and provide an incentive to further intensify the area. The route would also provide a good public transport connection between the CBD and the Tank Farm area.
The red line would provide a high-quality east-west link across Auckland, and would be particularly aimed at the tourist market. From the west, it would start at the current terminus of the MOTAT tram-line: at MOTAT 2 on Motions Road. It would then go past the zoo, Western Springs Park and MOTAT 1 along the existing tram track (might need to be double-tracked) before hopping onto Great North Road on the city side of the motorway interchange at Western Springs. It would continue into the CBD along Great North Road, Karangahape Road and then run down Queen Street. From Queen Street it would continue eastwards along Quay Street and Tamaki Drive out to St Heliers. It would therefore provide links between a number of top tourist attractions in Auckland: Mission Bay, Kelly Tarltons, the CBD, MOTAT, Western Springs Park and the Zoo. As well as that, the route would also provide a great commuting option for those living along the waterfront out east, or in the inner-western suburbs.
I really do think these two tram routes would work well as a first step in re-establishing Auckland’s tram network. Perhaps there would be further routes to consider if things really take off, and maybe one day we might be able to recreate the awesome system we once had.
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Hi James, I have a question about the tram versus bus debate in circumstances where both are mixed in with traffic. Busses on New North Road (at least close to the city) seem to travel in groups which means they can pass each other and each bus only has to stop at every second or third stop. This makes my travel time significantly faster and contrasts with Melbourne where the trams would pile up behind each other and go at the speed of the first one because it had to stop at every stop. Close to the city this would seem to make tram journeys slower. Have you looked at this yourself?
Regards
Tobias
Only issue I have with that is with the Dominion Rd route that you’ve got that short but quite steep grade going up the little link street between Dominion Road and Newton Rd.
What I’d perhaps suggest instead is realigning it along the current Dominion Road bus route, except for it to make a left turn at the Newton Rd/Symond St intersection and a right turn at Upper Queen.
Alternatively, you could do the following:
Turn at Symond St and K Rd and then right on to Queen
Or the best option of all, redesign the motorway style interchange that was constructed at New North/Dominion Rd.
The bunching of trams is an issue – yes – although each tram’s higher capacity would mean that you probably don’t need to operate quite as many vehicles in order to increase the capacity of the system. Faster boarding times (through smart-cards) would also significantly reduce the chances of trams becoming bunched. It is slow boarding times that makes the first bus slow down in comparison to the one behind it, causing bunching.
Trickster, yeah some thought would need to go into the Dominion Rad to Queen Street link. I’m not sure whether Ian McKinnon Drive is the best solution.
Oh, the climb up Gt North Rd from Western Springs to Grey Lynn is also quite a gradient.
Fantastic plan. I would love to add to it a line from Pakuranga, via Panmure highway to Great south rd to Newmarket connecting to the Central Connector.
Patrick, either that or one that goes through Panmure, Glen Innes and then into the city via Remuera Road. I’ve been thinking about possible extensions to the tram network if those two lines were to be built and become really successful. There are a few options.
For getting public transport out east to Howick, Botany & Pakuranga etc. there’s really only one option though: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2009/07/13/the-howickbotany-line-ii/
It would be quite good if the redline were able to branch out to the domain providing access to the museum, it could possibly pass over grafton bridge and past the hospital, although I have to say the link bus services this area quite well.
I think the Central Connector busway will provide an excellent enough link between Newmarket and Britomart for many years to come. I think it’s more important for that route to service Queen Street.
The Tram network- the official start of urban sprawl! Thankfully this has been overshadowed by the automobile. Light rail now days makes sense due to our urban form and future growth needs.
I take it these lines will have interchanges where the lines split off so people can easily transfer onto a different light rail service?
I think the race is on… Who will be the first city in New Zealand to develop a light rail. It seems to be talked about everywhere, but no1 has been creative enough to develop the system.
Early 20th century “sprawl” wasn’t really that bad – people actually had a reason to abandon the inner city, while development was built around tram lines and not the automobile.
The ARC supports in principle the idea that the Tank Farm/Wynyard Quarter area should be served by a tram, although I guess the question is how to make that link something more than just a shuttle between Britomart and Tank Farm. Extending it up Queen Street and then along Dominion Road seems like the obvious solution!
Auckland City Council has plans to widen Dominion Road anyway, to build better quality bus lanes. So extending that project to be a full tram-line instead might not be a huge additional cost. So there’s hope for the blue line, at the very least.
You haven’t mentioned whether you prefer tram lines to run in the middle of the road, or beside each footpath. There seem to be pros and cons each way for the trams, passengers, and other traffic, especially for a very busy road such as Dominion Rd. Any preference?
I am thinking on the sides of the road – for safety reasons. And because that’s where the bus lanes run at the moment.
I was a (young) driver in Auckland in the heyday of the trams. Then they ran in the middle of the road and there was, just, space for a pedestrian to stand between two trams passing in opposite directions. Very un-nerving! All vehicles had to stop behind a stationary tram to allow passengers to alight and board to and from the footpath, except where there were tram zones (raised platforms next to the rails).
It was often difficult, or impossible, to pass a tram in the space between parked cars and the moving tram, so until you cleared the line of parked cars you had to proceed at the pace of the tram.
And wet tram lines were a huge hazard for motor cyclists as was the oily surface between the rails.
To put tram rails near to the footpath would make kerbside parking up to a 20 hour per day impossibility. Talk about bus lanes in peak periods! Trams would push kerbside parking off the menu except where you had exceptionally wide thoroughfares. So I don’t think this is a feasible option.
In reference to an earlier comment about gradients, Auckland trams were perfectly competent at climbing and descending the current main road gradients — Wellesley St East & West as examples.
So before we get too carried away with trams as a better alternative to buses, the serious disadvantages must be considered, including the awful spiderweb of overhead cables to power the beasts.
John, you do raise some important issues about the feasibility of running trams along many of our roads. I do think that running trams along the current bus lanes seems to make most sense. Kerbside parking on Dominion Road is probably history anyway with the currently proposed widening project so no major loss there. Visually, yes the overhead wires can be messy – I think some cities have looked into hidden third rails underneath the asphalt. That’s in pretty early stages of development though.
The London (Croydon) Tramlink has been a flop, as patronage is well under predictions. As much as I love trams on an emotional level, the truth is they are by and large a grossly expensive form of dedicated busway. Trams either have to have a dedicated right of way, or they are no better than buses. The higher capacity of trams is entirely due to articulated vehicles vs rigid buses, when of course, double decker and articulated buses exist as well (or buses with trailers). A dedicated busway can have pretty much the same capacity as a dedicated tramway. The only advantage rail can ever have over road is by linking vehicles together (trains) at relatively high frequencies on dedicated rights of way.
I remember when WRC presented to me how it wanted government to fund light rail, I asked for the business case and the economic appraisal, it hadn’t been done. Probed a little more, and it was admitted it probably didn’t stack up. The conversion of the Johnsonville line in Wellington to light rail seriously didn’t stack up either.
This is a flight of fancy that bears little relationship to transport economics, and everything to enthusiasts of wishful thinking who like the legacy sunk cost systems that remain in other cities. Trams are nicer, but nobody who likes them is willing to pay the premium over a bus fare that would be needed to justify it.
Oh by the way, the Auckland tram system was pretty much replaced with trolley buses – you might want to research what happened to them. Trolley buses are far more sensible, but with ultra low emission and hybrid buses, probably not worth ever reintroducing.
Of course converting the Johnsonville line to light-rail wouldn’t stack up – it works perfectly well as heavy rail so why would you need to change it?
Regarding the general feasibility of trams v buses, I have thought about this and there is a reason why I don’t advocate for the reintroduction of tram lines on the scale of our old tram system. I have carefully looked at the routes along which I think trams would be worth it – and I have only come up with two (at this stage).
The advantages of trams over buses come in the form of a better quality of ride (better than trolley buses due to the guided tracks) which generally encourages more people to use a tram than would use a bus on the same route. Remember we’re not really talking about buses v trams – we’re talking about buses v cars or trams v cars. Trams are much more likely to attract someone from their car because of the higher ride-quality.
The other big advantage for trams is how their permanency encourages intensification along the tram corridor. This has been shown on many occasions overseas (Portland, Oregon being a classic example). This can have significant economic benefits bringing more people and businesses within an easy tram ride of each other.
In a way I agree that a tram isn’t going to ever be better than a fully dedicated busway. However, I can’t see us building a “Northern Busway” equivalent along Dominion Road or Tamaki Drive.
Trams are not 3x more likely to attract people from a car than a dedicated high quality bus corridor (that’s the price premium). London has higher density bus services than most cities, but trams do not stack up to replace bus routes here. Portland is a fallacy I’m afraid. The intensification is miniscule and you’ll find much of it is barren and empty. These “significant economic benefits” do not offset the massive sunk cost of wealth destroyed in building these single use pieces of infrastructure that bleed money to operate. You don’t see intensification in Melbourne on any meaningful scale related to trams, and Melbourne has had trams for a very long time. Wellington on the other hand maintains high PT usage with a trolley/diesel bus network. Until recently Wellington trolley buses carried more than Auckland rial.
You don’t need a Northern Busway along Dominion Road, you already have a bus lane. The Northern Busway parallels a grade separated motorway, Dominion Road doesn’t. However, if the Central Motorway was ever revived, it could certainly have a dedicated bus lane, but I doubt it is worth building ever. Besides, if you think only two routes make sense, then give up. The huge fixed costs of putting in a bespoke system for two routes makes it particularly uneconomic.
@Liberty scott – you have to start somewhere, 2 routes would be the start needed to justify more and certainly wouldn’t be the end point.
Also, as far as I am aware the trolley buses never operated in Auckland they were diverted before delivery to Wellington and the overhead cables removed. Correct me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure Auckland switched directly to diesel buses from the trams.