Dear NZTA…

I sent NZTA this email on August 27th, and have yet to receive a response beyond “your letter has been passed on to the appropriate person”…. hopefully this post might give them a bit of a hurry up!

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.

There is a bit of urgency if the Northwest Busway is to ever get off the ground, because as we speak the interchange between the Waterview Connection and SH16 is probably being given a final design, while preliminary designs for the widening of the Northwest motorway are probably being undertaken too. If we’re ever going to build the Northwest Busway then a bit of thought needs to go into it now. The project seems like such a no-brainer it’s amazing that not one of Auckland’s transport agencies has seriously thought about it before.

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