Regional Public Transport Plan

There’s an interesting bit of information in the September 2009 ARTA monthly business report that hints at yet another transport strategy/plan that will be released shortly. It reads:

The draft Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP) is being finalised and will be released for public consultation in November.

Now seriously, I have just about lost count of the transport plans and strategies that have been released this year. We’ve had the Government Policy Statement, the Auckland Transport Plan, the Regional Land Transport Programme, the National Land Transport Programme, the Regional Land Transport Strategy and now this. I am sure I’ve probably missed something there too – which is actually quite amazing, I mean how many plans, strategies and programmes do we really need?

But anyway, as this is another plan/strategy/programme that will be coming out soon I guess I should at least have a look at what might be expected in it. This is the Plan that the most excellent Public Transport Management Act 2008 requires to be prepared so that the planning of public transport systems can be better planned and co-0rdinated. In other words, it seems like these plans really will get down to the “nitty gritty” of planning where routes should go, the structure and hierarchy of routes, and other stuff like that. The NZTA guidelines for the preparation of Regional Public Transport Plans outlines the purpose of those plans quite clearly: It will be interesting to see if this plan focuses on giving effect to the 2005 Regional Land Transport Strategy, or the upcoming 2010 Regional Land Transport Strategy. As I pointed out in my submission to the 10 year Auckland Transport Plan, there is a huge problem with current plans giving effect to a strategy that is currently being replaced. This is particularly because the new RLTS is quite different to the old one, so in a way the RPTP might be out of date before it even comes into effect, if it gives effect to the old strategy rather than the new one.

There are quite a few things that must be in a RPTP, and here we can see that this plan is required to really delve into the details of how the public transport system will actually operate – which I think is most excellent as often the plans and strategies are a bit “airy fairy” – and the reality ends up being quite different. Here are the matters the RPTP must take into account: It must include mention of the following matters:

Description of services
Assisting the transport disadvantaged
Giving effect to the RLTS
Public transport service policies
Policy on significance
Contracting requirements or controls

Now I guess because we’ve never seen a Regional Public Transport Plan before, I really don’t have any idea what it might end up looking like. But I hope that it provides in some detail the vision for the actual public transport system we’ll be developing over the next few years. It should end up talking about things like the Rapid Transit Network, the Quality Transit Network and local/feeder bus services to support those two networks. Hopefully it will also discuss works needed to improve the RTN and the QTN, the timing of those works, the anticipated level of services along those routes, and so forth.

Hopefully it will also look at other elements of improving our public transport system for relatively low cost, such as running “Metrobuses“, or ‘through-routing bus routes‘ so they don’t end in the CBD but instead travel through it. I hope it focuses on simplifying our bus network, but running the main routes at better frequencies, and I hope that it also looks at eliminating unnecessary duplication and competition between services – so we have fewer long-haul bus routes and more routes feeding into train stations.

We shall see.

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