What’s with Auckland’s Rail?
There are two urban rail systems in New Zealand: Auckland’s and Wellington’s. The two systems are quite different in many senses, but they provide some useful comparisons.
Auckland:
1) Diesel trains
2) Three lines
3) No inter-city services (beyond Pukekohe and apart form the Overlander)
4) Patronage of around 8 million passengers a year
5) Public subsidies of around $7 per rail trip
Wellington:
1) Electric trains (except for Wairarapa, Capital Connection & Overlander)
2) Three main lines, plus the small Melling Line
3) Regular inter-city services to Masterton
4) Patronage of around 11 million passengers a year
5) Public subsidies of around $2 per rail trip
Another significant difference is the way in which the two systems are run.…
12 Comments High Speed Rail: the Spanish success story
Steve Ingrouille, from the Australian group “Going Solar”, puts out a weekly newsletter on transport and urban development matters. This week’s newsletter has some interesting information on high-speed rail in Spain:There was an interesting article in the NZ Herald on the weekend about the enormous investment China is making in High-Speed Rail (unfortunately not online).…
NZ Herald on CBD Rail Tunnel
It is good to see NZ Herald transport issues writer Matthew Dearnaley back on deck, as I had severely missed the Herald reporting on transport matters recently. Today’s article looks at the CBD Rail Tunnel, repeating a reasonable amount of what I posted on a couple of weeks back:
Upper Symonds St joins rail station plan
Underground station sites being considered for a $1 billion-$1.5 billion central Auckland rail tunnel have been extended to upper Symonds St.…
Zoning: the planner’s disease?
I had an interesting meeting at work last week, where we laughed about the fact that urban planning has for so long been about “colouring in” maps – into one zone or another. Somewhat ironically, later on in the meeting we were back in the situation of colouring in maps, but I’ll leave that aside for now.…
How electrification will roll out
There’s some interesting information in the answers to parliamentary written questions submitted by Mt Albert MP David Shearer on the roll-out of the Auckland electrification project over the next four years. They provide a year by year insight into what we can expect to see as this project proceeds between now and 2013.…
Should council own CBD parking buildings?
Auckland City Council owns five parking buildings within the Auckland CBD – Fanshawe Street, Downtown, Victoria Street, Civic and Karangahape Road. All up, these parking buildings provide quite a few thousand spaces in the CBD. I must say I have always found it rather strange that Council does own car parking buildings – as after all does it not contradict with others plans and strategies they have to minimise the number of people driving themselves into the CBD?…
Why we need the PTMA
The Public Transport Management Act (PTMA) was passed in September 2008, just before the previous government lost power. As I have explained previously, the PTMA allowed for greater regulation of public transport services – in particular bus services. The most controversial part of the Act allowed public agencies to contract all public transport services in their area, should they so desire.…
Grafton Bridge proving lucractive
It’s interesting to see that people are still ignoring the signs that say Grafton Bridge is for buses only. A NZ Herald article explores the issue further:
Lucrative bus lane
New bus-only lanes on Grafton Bridge have helped swell Auckland City Council coffers by $1.7 million since they were introduced in December.…
How to become a transit planner
Humantransit has a very interesting post on how to become a transit planner. It’s worth quoting in full i think:
Every week or two, I get an email asking me how to get into the transit planning business. I’m aware of four fairly common paths, none of which I took myself: Become a bus or train driver, and rise up through the ranks of operations management.…
Land Use & Transport – which drives which?
As well as Paul Mees’s excellent transport books, another book that should be “required reading” for those interested in public transport issues is The Transit Metropolis by Robert Cervero. Here’s the product description of this book from Amazon:
Around the world, mass transit is struggling to compete with the private automobile, and in many places, its market share is rapidly eroding.…
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