After quite some time when nobody was really sure what the Auckland Airport company thought about the idea of a rail link from there to the CBD, it does indeed appear as though the airport has finally realised that this might indeed be a good idea. Importantly, they have made their voice loud and clear that it is not acceptable for the Regional Land Transport Strategy to predict that an Airport Line will not be constructed until 2031-40. Here’s the full press release:
Auckland Airport calls for accelerated public transport solutions
Auckland International Airport Limited (“Auckland Airport”) is calling on regional transport planners to accelerate improvements to Airport-related public transport services, including the eventual provision of an Airport rail link.
In its submission to the Auckland Regional Council on the draft Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy (“RLTS”), Auckland Airport says plans for a Rapid Transit Network (“RTN”) link to the Airport, whether rail or some intermediate step, should be accelerated and ideally put in place prior to 2020. The draft RLTS proposes an Airport rail connection in the 2031-40 timeframe.
In the shorter term, public transport services should be upgraded to Quality Transit Network (“QTN”) standards (such as dedicated bus lanes) to provide an appropriate connection to the Airport from both the CBD and the North Shore.
The submission also points out there is no commitment in the RLTS to creating a direct connection to the CBD and other centres for both QTN and private transport. For the foreseeable future, the main CBD route will still be via the suburbs of Royal Oak and Epsom “this is fundamentally incompatible with the character of those suburbs which are predominantly residential and have a very high concentration of schools.”
Auckland Airport says public transport connections to the Airport are currently weak by international comparisons and as a consequence patronage is low. Although improvements are being made to Airport Express bus services, service quality is hampered by wide variances in travel times due to traffic congestion.
The submission notes the overall intention of the RLTS is to invest in public transport services ahead of demand. But there is no significant short-to-medium-term investment planned to ensure that the Airport has reliable public transport connections to the region that will be attractive enough to incentivise greater use. “Public transport connections to the Airport are already insufficient to meet existing demand and therefore require significant investment by transport authorities to bridge the existing gap before capacity for future growth can be provided.”
Auckland Airport General Manager Property Peter Alexander said: “We’ve made this submission as an advocate for the millions of travellers who fly into and out of Auckland Airport each year, the thousands of airport workers who commute on a daily basis, and the hundreds of companies that reside within or rely on the airport business district. Further improvements to ground transport links are essential if Auckland Airport is to maximise its already significant contribution to the Auckland regional and national economies.”
Although pleasing progress was being made on better roading infrastructure (such as the State Highway 20 upgrade and the second Manukau Harbour crossing), more needed to be done in the area of public transport, Mr Alexander commented.
A full copy of the Airport’s submission on the RLTS can be viewed here.
In previous years the Airport had been very lukewarm about the idea of a railway line. There are perhaps a number of reasons for this. Firstly, I think they realised that until recently the railway idea was very much a “pie in the sky” concept, and rather understandably they instead focused on more short-term gains like improving State Highway 20 and improving the AirBus service. Secondly, I think that the Airport has found themselves in a rather strange situation where the poor public transport links actually work in their favour – at least until now. They make a truckload of cash from charging people for parking, and they make money from licensing taxi operators as well. So really, I think that the Airport could never really manage to genuinely put some effort into improving public transport as there was a general perception that it would hurt their bottom line.
However, in more recent times I think the Airport has realised that all the land they have set aside for parking is in fact not necessarily the most economically productive use for land that is so well located in its proximity to the Airport. An airport hotel is under construction at the moment on land that used to be carparking, while the Airport also has longer term plans to turn the area into something of an “Airport Business District”. However, they have also realised that increasing numbers of people will need to get to and from the Airport over the next few decades, and in order for this to be possible there is simply no alternative to improving public transport.
There have of course been plans for an Airport Railway Line for a while now, most probably along the alignment shown in the map below:
Of course it’s anyone’s guess when the money might be available for such a project (one suspects it would have to happen instead of a whopping big state highway project, which seems unlikely in the current political climate). However, it is critical that the route for this line is protected as soon as possible – and the Airport want its final alignment to be sorted out so that they can redevelop their land with some certainty, which I think is a big part of their current “push” for this project. As even in a “best case scenario” it’s unlikely the line will be built for 10-15 years, there is also the need to work out ways to improve public transport in the here and now, and I also support the Airport’s push for better bus lanes – probably along Dominion Road – as an intermediate solution.
Hopefully a designation to protect the Airport Rail route is lodged some time in the near future, so we can move ahead on this project with some certainty.
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Great progress, Banks, Brown and now big business are calling for more PT… Joyce is starting to look like Robert Moses more and more everyday and very out of touch…
That BECA report is 5 years old now isn’t it, the rail line doesn’t even cross the harbour in the right place, time for a new one as part of funded designation methinks…
Yeah the BECA report is getting on in age a bit. The RLTS calls for the designation of the Airport Line to be progressed with utmost urgency, so perhaps next year we’ll see the kind of study into it that is currently being undertaken into the CBD Rail Tunnel.
They are currently looking at extending the light rail system in Manchester to the airport. Apparently the airport owners are chipping in a substantial amount as they realise it will be good for business (this is despite the fact a heavy rail link already exists).
I wonder if Auckland Airport is “that” keen??
I don’t understand why the rail line in that image has to be a dead end where the driver has to change ends, surely having the thng loop around through the land would be a better option. Also I could see the link back to the nimt not being built at the same time to save money.
The Puhunui option is by far the easiest as most of it goes through greenfields and the NZTA have done part of the earthworks already apparently as part of some SH20 works…
I always thought if you wanted airport rail quickly then start with the Puhinui side. I guess the downside of that option is you put even more trains on the Wiri-Westfield section of the NIMT that is already near or at capacity.
In terms of the “switchback”, I think the future second runway makes that very difficult to avoid.
You could combine the airport spur with triple tracking I guess, sould still be cheaper than the Mangere option…
But at least the Mangere option would give more 3-4 other new stations which would mean it also benefits other parts of the city. Also I am of the opinion that a PT charge should apply to all tickets coming to or going from the airport rather than chage extra for the train stopping at one station.
I guess it comes down to how badly we want an airport rail connection. If we want it in the next 10 years then Puhinui is probably the most viable option. If we are prepared to wait longer, then hopefully money will be available for the Mangere option.
unfortunately there has been a fair bit of development recently along George Bolt memorial drive south of Kirkbride road. Any rail line coming from Onehunga/Mangere will require the demolition of at least 5 large freight warehouses, all of which have been built in the last 10 years. Such a shame, would have been so easy to provide space for a rail corridor. Apart from that looks like they’ll need to demolish about 100 houses, mostly on Crawford Ave, Mangere Bridge.
Looking at google maps there are only a few places where it would be tight getting a line through so I looked at street view and I reckon you could just squeeze some lines in if you moved the road slightly (some of the factorys might need to have the road and rail lines built pretty much up to their walls.
The other option would be heading east after Kirkbride rd and going through house park and the back of the SCPA etc. and then looping back to cross George Bolt Memorial dr at around about Ihumatao Rd.
Both routes would then swing past the northern part of Percival Gull pl and then turn south to the terminal on a raised line. From there head east along Cyril Kay Rd and Laurence Stevens Dr out to Puhinui Rd back to the NIMT
Luke during the CBT’s meeting with Len Brown he stated he’s has his transport guys look into it and there is plenty of space down the road corridor, the SH would just have to be moved over against the Eastern fence… This is what they did when building one of the lines in Perth…