Benefits of Rail Transit
In my searching for interesting academic studies into transportation issues I came across an excellent analysis of the benefits of rail transportation by Todd Litman, an Australian transport academic. It’s a very detailed study, running to around 60 pages long, and I certainly haven’t read the whole thing yet.…
8 Comments Auckland’s secret bus route
Now hands up – who’s heard of Macarthur Busline Limited? Who here knows that there’s a bus route that runs from Point Chevalier to Newmarket all day weekends and during peak hour on weekdays? Not many, yeah didn’t think so. Which is a pity actually.…
Integrated Ticketing fiasco
Jon C at Auckland Trains has done an excellent post on the fiasco that Auckland’s integrated ticketing project is becoming, with Infratil using every dirty trick in the book trying to win the integrated ticketing contract, even though: ARTA announced in July that they had awarded the contract to Thales.…
Exploring the CBD Rail Tunnel
The lengthy thread of comments in response to my post about the CBD Rail Tunnel on Tuesday have raised a number of questions about the details of that project that I think are worth exploring a bit further. One interesting point discussed was the issue of the grade of the tunnel, how problematic that might be, and what could potentially be done about it.…
Squeezing more out of our motorways
I have posted a number of times in the past about why I think that widening roads is often a pretty pointless exercise – due to induced demand. This is the process by which expanding the supply of road capacity encourages more people to drive at peak times, thereby actually encouraging more use of the road and negating much of the supposed benefit that widening the road should have created.…
Lots of rail work over Labour weekend
An ARTA press release advises that over the upcoming Labour weekend there will be no trains on the Southern or Western Lines, so that some big upgrades to the rail network can be undertaken. There is some good detail in the media release about what works will actually be undertaken:
Buses replace trains as work to upgrade Auckland’s rail network continues this Labour Weekend
As Aucklanders enjoy the first long weekend of the spring season, extensive work to upgrade the rail network will continue around the region.…
2010-2040 RLTS – finally a good transport strategy?
It’s quite arguable that Auckland hasn’t had a good transport strategy in over 60 years – ever since the 1946 plan to invest in both expansions of the rail network and the road network was shelved in favour of around 50 years where public transport investment was almost non-existent and Auckland went down a rather nasty path towards becoming one of the most auto-dependent cities in the entire world.…
CBD Rail Tunnel – how many stations?
An article in the NZ Herald today explores the possibility of looking at possibly up to four stations being constructed on the CBD Rail Tunnel – rather than the current proposal for two (well, really three if you count the relocated Mt Eden station).…
Next Harbour Crossing – bridge or tunnel?
There was an interesting article in the Sunday Star Times yesterday, calling for the next crossing of the Waitemata Harbour to be a bridge rather than a tunnel. As I outlined a few months ago, the current plan for the next crossing of the Waitemata – whenever it should be required – is a pile of tunnels, potentially two for rail and two for road.…
Integrated Ticketing – what’s happening?
Back in July ARTA announced that Thales had won the contract to provide Auckland’s integrated ticketing system. This came after a rather nasty few months of uncertainty after the Regional Fuel Tax was cancelled in March. However, the announcement brought that uncertainty to a close (or so I thought), and it certainly made things sound like we weren’t going to end up with some sort of half-arse solution – even though the funding available for the project had been rather significantly reduced.…
Processing...