Beware the God of time savings
Here is a look at part of the Wellington Urban Motorway: So why am I showing a relatively boring part of the Wellington Urban Motorway? Well where this section of motorway is used to be 3,700 graves. They were dug up in the 1960s to make way because the time savings were too great to pass up.…
10 Comments Newmarket timetable mismatches
The Newmarket train station is an important hub for the rail network – being the point where the Southern Line connects to the Western Line. In recent times, the split of Newmarket into two stations (Newmarket West and Newmarket South) which was necessary while the new station was being constructed, rather killed off any chance for people wanting to transfer between the services, but now that we have one single station again it should be fairly easy to transfer from one train to the next (especially if the ticketing system is improved to ensure you don’t have to buy a second train ticket).…
Waterview Connection consenting bypasses local hearing
It’s no surprise, yet still fairly disappointing, to see NZTA announce today that the consenting of the Waterview Connection will bypass a local hearing and go straight to either a ‘Board of Inquiry’ or to the Environment Court. This ‘fast-tracking’ was made possible by last year’s changes to the RMA – which allowed for many more projects to be “called in” and have a “one stop shop” for consenting.…
Making transfers easier
Last week I wrote quite a long post about “cross-town routes” and how important they are in connecting up the suburb-to-CBD routes so that you can create a network allowing people to travel from any part of the city to any other part of the city without having to travel into the CBD and then out again.…
A look at NZ electrification
Late last year Kiwirail released some sneak peaks at what electrification might look like in Auckland. Here are some images of NZ’s existing electrification infrastructure from National Park on the North Island Main Trunk; Kiwirail has stated most of the electrification will be on a mast type system rather than a bar type system as in the norm in Wellington, it may look similar to this: This image shows the difference between a mast system and a bar system: Finally for those wonder how the train draws power from the wires, it is via a pantograph as seen here, this class of locomotives was recommended to be used in Auckland as part of the working group’s report last year:…
A Parking Levy?
Raising the question of “how are we going to fund the CBD Rail Tunnel?” got me thinking about whether there could be some other ways of raising more money for transport projects. In particular, ways in which the future Super City council could raise money to pay its share of the project (which I am guessing would be construction of the stations).…
Good ideas from around NZ
Here are a couple of good ideas that add to urban livability and sustainability that I saw during my recent travels that I haven’t seen in Auckland and cannot see why we don’t have them.
Firstly Bicycle Cops: Come on, even the yanks have these.…
Breaking News: rail stuff-up
Just when we were looking forward to the rail system being fully operational tomorrow for the first time this year, it seems like something’s thrown a spanner in the works. This is the latest update from ARTA:
As at 10:15pm Sunday 17 January 2010: As a result of unexpected technical difficulties at Newmarket, train services across the region will be operating to a revised timetable on Monday 18 January 2010.…
Auckland: NZ’s least walkable city
The title I’m sure is not a suprise to regular readers but after my New Year travels I think we can make it official. Here are some images from around NZ showing how far behind Auckland is, we really should be ashamed.…
Funding the CBD Rail Tunnel
There is widespread support for the Auckland CBD Rail Tunnel project – including both candidates for mayor of Auckland’s super city: John Banks and Len Brown. ARC Chairman Mike Lee is obviously a significant advocate for the project, as are many local MPs, perhaps most notably Auckland Central National MP Nikki Kaye.…
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