Well I’ve done a bit more fisking of the figures in terms of focusing on what the National Land Transport Programme – announced today – has done to the amount of funding available from NZTA for public transport infrastructure projects in Auckland over the next three years. I’m focusing on public transport infrastructure because that’s all the new stuff that we can hope for: like new ferry terminals, railway stations, bus lanes and so on. It excludes rail electrification – which is now funded completely separate of the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).

Back in July, ARTA released their “Regional Land Transport Programme” detailing the projects they wished to undertake over the next three years – which would generally require funding from NZTA. In terms of public transport infrastructure, they came up with the following summary:

rltp-pt-infrastructure
** Note: While projects such as electrifi cation of the rail network and the purchase of electric trains will be funded from sources other than the Regional Land Transport Programme, they are key components of the Auckland transport system.

Basically, ARTA’s three years public transport plan required $235.9 million from NZTA funding. So how much did they get – well as I detailed in my previous post: $172.1 million. That’s a cut of $63 million.

Meanwhile, $1.508 billion will be spent on state highways alone in the next three years in Auckland – up from the $1.462 billion that ARTA’s plan had anticipated. So yeah, the government’s still stealing money from public transport to build more motorways.

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20 comments

  1. Is one of the cuts the Parnell Rail Station..?

    The NLTP includes all the projects ARTA listed a couple of months ago but a cut of $63 miilion..? Not gonna happen but saying they will..?

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  2. Check out pages 56-59 of this document for the list of PT infrastructure projects that were expecting funding in the RLTP: http://www.arta.co.nz/assets/arta%20publications/2009/RLTP%2009%2010.pdf

    And pages 15 onwards in this document for PT infrastructure projects (they’re sorted by TLA) that have been given funding in the NLTP: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/publications/nltp/docs/auckland.pdf

    From my reading, the Parnell station is in both – although only at design stage.

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  3. Thanks for that, wasn’t the ARTA plans already reduced in PT scope due to the Government’s Transport Plan..? I have a glorious replublican meeting now but shall digest this more later this evening… Then I shall cry myself to sleep dreaming of railways to Steven Joyce’s house…

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  5. “Basically, ARTA’s three years public transport plan required $235.9 million from NZTA funding. So how much did they get – well as I detailed in my previous post: $172.1 million. That’s a cut of $63 million.”

    What projects exactly do these cuts affect? Are there any projects listed in the ARTA plan excluded from this one?

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  7. Okay, constellation to albany priority bus lanes, investigation, then design, then construction $35 odd million dollars over three lines… Then the very next line, CONSTELLATION to orewa busway extension (designation only), $80 odd million dollars… Seems like two projects to me… *confused*

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  9. I’m guessing bus lanes along the Albany Highway, maybe..?

    $80 million is a lot for a designation, I guess they’ll be buying up all the required land… Thinking ahead it could essentially be a future rail corridor being bought..?

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  10. It’ll be bus lanes along the edge of the motorway, and perhaps some new ramps to link with Constellation station better. They might as well go ahead and just extend the busway to Albany in my opinion.

    That would be a very useful for the operation of the Northern Busway. Any extension beyond Albany is pretty pointless in my opinion though.

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  12. Just emailed them this:

    Hi there,

    Reading through the National Land Transport Programme released today I noticed that one project mentioned for development in the longer-term is a busway between Albany and Orewa. While I am glad to see at least a few public transport projects in the NLTP to balance against the huge number of roading projects, I can’t help but think this is a poor project to promote, especially when compared to other necessary public transport projects in Auckland.

    I understand that rail projects are for KiwiRail to sort out, and local public transport projects are for local councils to promote, but busways along state highways are primarily the responsibility of NZTA, and therefore I have contacted your organisation in the first place on this matter.

    In my opinion, there are a number of reasons why extending the Northern Busway beyond Albany seems a little pointless:

    1) Very few bus services currently travel beyond Albany. (Please note I fully support extending the busway proper from Constellation Station to Albany station ASAP).

    2) The motorway between Albany and Orewa is currently very very rarely congested. So there would be little advantage for a bus travelling along a busway compared to travelling along the existing motorway.

    I do understand that in the future population growth in Rodney District means that these two factors are likely to change in the longer-term. However, I can’t see that happening for a few decades yet and – as I said earlier – there are other priorities.

    I think that a far better priority would be to focus on developing a Northwest Busway, along the northern side of SH16 between the CBD and Westgate. This busway could be developed in a very similar manner to how the Northern Busway has been developed. Stations could be located at Western Springs, Pt Chevalier, Te Atatu, Lincoln Road, Massey and Westgate.

    Over the next few years it is my understanding that most of SH16 will be widened – either from 6 to 8 lanes, or from 4 to 6 lanes. There will also be considerable works around where SH16 will meet the future Waterview Connection. Therefore, there is the opportunity to construct a full busway at this time – potentially for not a huge additional cost.

    Waitakere City is one of the most commuter-dependent parts of Auckland City, with the majority of people travelling outside the area to their work. While there is the Western Railway Line in Waitakere City, it serves quite a different part of the city to what would be served by a Northwest Busway.

    I have looked into this idea further in a blog post I wrote recently: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2009/08/11/northwest-busway/

    Most of the stations could be constructed on already vacant land, while there would be relatively few “pinch points” in the design of the busway from what I can see. Furthermore, many of the difficulties in establishing the busway will need to be overcome when widening SH16 anyway.

    I truly believe that this busway could become another huge success story – like the Northern Busway has been. It would certainly be a far more popular route than an unnecessary extension of the Northern Busway through farmland to Orewa.

    I hope that you can pass this on to the appropriate person, and they have a good think about the idea.

    Thanks,
    Joshua

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  13. Excellente..! I like the little dig about roading projects at the start… Lol… You reckon wait a couple of weeks before I send mine or just send something similar now..?

    What e-mail addrss did you use..?

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  16. I might send such an email too. I sugest you also contact groups like Campaign for Better Transport, and perhaps next year some supercity candidates, and talk to them about this project. The Northwset busway could be an even bigger sucess than the Northern one, as considerable more Waitakere City residents comute to Auckland City to work than North Shore City residents.

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  17. Well I think I’m reasonably influential in the Campaign for Better Transport, so yeah we might look at championing this project a bit more. I’m not sure if it would be MORE successful than the Northern Busway, but it certainly could be as successful. Heck, you could link the two busways up in town, and then along SH18 and run the whole thing as a big circuit.

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  19. Orewa busway seems pointless. Northwest busway? I thought the rail line was there to service those suburbs, or how much duplication of infrastructure do you want? Surely just using the hard shoulders for bus lanes delivers most of what you need for the Northwest corridor? Bear in mind the Northern Busway lies rather empty comparative to the parallel motorway, it is greatly underutilised and ought to allow HGVs to use it, since they have no reasonable alternative and the benefits of smooth flowing trucks for the environment are considerable (hopefully no fool will suggest rail).

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  20. Liberty, the rail line in west Auckland doesn’t really run anywhere near SH16 – take a look at a map of the place. In terms of running on the shoulders – if we look at the Northern Busway patronage didn’t really start to take off until the busway proper was complete. Even though the busway has been open for over 18 months now, it’s still getting 25% growth rates compared to the same month last year.

    Take a look at the route: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2009/08/11/northwest-busway/

    As you can see, most of the location for stations are already there. You could have a “Western Express” bus that operating similarly to the extremely successful Northern Express – acting as a spine service between Westgate and Britomart.

    I think turning the Northern Busway into rail eventually will be needed, once the busway hits capacity. But that might be 20-30 years away.

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