NZ Herald loses the plot
In response to the Auckland Regional Council finally coming up with a transport wishlist that is not dominated by roading projects, today’s Herald editorial has completely lost the plot. I had actually been quite happy with the Herald’s coverage of transport issues lately, with the general feeling coming across in the paper that the path we’ve headed down over the past year quite possibly isn’t the cleverest way to go, but I guess when it’s the “bigwigs” of the Herald who write the editorials we see that old habits die hard:
The council, though soon to be superseded by a single city, is letting its transport committee proceed to publish an updated strategy notable for its divergence from the Government’s plans.…
22 Comments Rail Projects ARC’s top priority…. I think
An interesting article in today’s NZ Herald about what the ARC thinks are the top priorities for transport projects in Auckland. It’s a very interesting read actually:
Top of the list is the $1 billion rail electrification project, for which the Government has yet to allocate money for new trains, followed by a central Auckland rail tunnel and integrated public transport ticketing.…
More Bus Lanes
I must admit that sometimes I can get a little overly focused on expanding Auckland’s rail system, and perhaps I ignore our bus system a bit. Around 80% of public transport trips in Auckland are taken on the bus, so clearly no matter what happens to our rail system, it is very likely that for the foreseeable future buses are still going to make up the majority of public transport in Auckland.…
World Car-Free Day Tomorrow
Well apparently it’s World Car-Free Day tomorrow, and ARTA have a bit of a competition running to win an $800 mountain bike:
In celebration of World Carfree Day tomorrow, Tuesday 22 September, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) is encouraging Aucklanders to leave the car keys behind, help ease congestion and pledge to go car free.…
Where’s the vision?
Here’s a snippet from the draft Regional Land Transport Strategy that the Regional Transport Committee sent back to officials to work on for another month because it was ‘not visionary enough‘.
Rail electrification with 10minute services and connection of the rail system to Manukau City Centre and Onehunga are projects which have been agreed for some time and are in the process of being delivered.…
Peter Newman on Perth’s rail system
I have been meaning to write a post on how Perth – a somewhat similar city to Auckland in terms of its size and structure – has revolutionised its public transport system over the past few years, but these two videos do the trick quite nicely.…
Auckland’s Rail System in 2030-2050
A few weeks ago I put together a quick map of what I thought Auckland’s rail system in 2030 should look like. Now unless something crazy happens like all our transport dollars going to rail instead of roads, it’s probably a bit unrealistic to hope that such a system would be complete by 2030.…
July 2009 Patronage – another pleasant surprise
Around a month ago when ARTA released their June 2009 monthly business report, I commented how I thought the seemingly modest increase in patronage was actually a pretty significant achievement. This was for one simple reason – petrol prices. In June and July last year petrol prices were well above $2 a litre, everyone was freaking out about the cost of every car trip, and taking to public transport in record numbers.…
RLTS ‘not visionary enough’
Interesting article in today’s Herald about the Regional Land Transport Strategy: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10597980
Public consultation on Auckland’s 30-year transport planning blueprint has been delayed for a month after regional politicians denounced a draft document as lacking vision.
The Auckland Regional Transport Committee sent its draft strategy back for a partial rewrite, directing officers to beef up public transport aspirations and give urgency to a central Auckland rail tunnel and airport links.…
Waterview Connection gets OK
Disappointingly, but unsurprisingly, the NZTA board has given their OK to the Waterview Connection to be constructed as a partial surface/tunnel, rather than as either a full tunnel option or choosing not to proceed with it at all. The NZ Herald reports:
The controversial Waterview Connection will go ahead in Auckland as planned, it was announced today.…
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