I learned quite a few interesting and useful things about the progress of various public transport projects throughout Auckland today, as well as various other aspects of how things are going. I will briefly outline what I can remember, but feel free to ask for further information on anything in particular in the comments thread:
- Resource consent for building the Onehunga Station was received last week, and construction has just begun on this station (the first step being to demolish existing buildings on the site). ARTA are confident that they can have the station built for a July opening, although that is dependent on KiwiRail also coming to the party and ensuring that the signalling system has been completed by that time.
- Enhanced signalling allowing the bi-directional running of trains (meaning that trains can go either either way on each track) in Britomart tunnel will be completed in the Christmas break at the end of this year. This will enable the capacity of Britomart to be extended from where it is now (roughly 16 trains in and another 16 out at peak hour) to sufficient capacity (around 20 in and 20 out) to make 10 minute frequencies on the three main lines, plus two trains per hour to Onehunga a reality by next year. Yes that is right, there will be 10 minute peak hour frequencies on the rail network well before electrification.
- Once there are regular 10 minute frequencies on the main lines it is likely that all express trains will disappear from the network, as it becomes too difficult to stop the express trains from catching the all-stopping trains in front of them. This may lead to 6-8 minute longer trips for some commuters, but that loss will be made up again generally once electrification is completed.
- If we ever want more rail capacity (other than making trains longer) into Britomart beyond ten minute frequencies plus Onehunga then we pretty much have to build the CBD rail tunnel.
- Patronage on the rail network throughout March this year was over 900,000 – a new record. Combined with patronage on the Northern Express of over 200,000 this was the first time the Rapid Transit Network has cracked a million passengers in a month. Given all the disruptions that occurred on the rail network during March, these are pretty impressive numbers. It shouldn’t be too long before the rail network breaks through 1 million trips a month on its own.
- It appears likely that the smart-card based integrated ticketing system will be up and running on trains, ferries and key bus routes (not all bus routes) in time for the Rugby World Cup. However, that will be using the existing fares system, although simplified down quite substantially (not surprising as there won’t be a million different offerings from each operator available).
- Western Line services on Sundays will be extended to Henderson from around June. It is likely to be a while before they are further extended to Swanson, and also a while before frequencies are improved on weekends. This is because of upcoming electrification infrastructure works that will need to be undertaken, and the general feeling that it’s pointless to improve rail frequencies but then hardly ever run them because you’ve got the system closed every weekend.
It would seem as though this year is definitely a “finishing things off” year for the rail network, and we should really see big benefits of the work being completed this year once we get into 2011. Of course we then have to go through the whole hassle of upgrading the rail system for electrification – but that’s definitely short-term pain for long-term gain. Overall, things are definitely looking up.
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Do you have any idea what the inter-peak train frequency will be? 15 minutes would be nice.
There are certainly plans to improve frequencies off-peak, though I do not know exactly when that will happen. Generally all the lines go down to half-hour frequencies off-peak I think. This seems to be to sometimes allow freight trains to go through.
One would imagine that once electrification happens and once we have a ticketing system that doesn’t rely on masses of onboard staff, the marginal cost of running additional inter-peak services will be pretty low (just the electricity + driver’s wage + train manager’s wage) so therefore we may see much improved inter-peak frequencies.
’10 min frequency on the three main lines’ – does that mean 5min frequencies for those lucky folk travelling from stations between Otahuhu and Puhinui to Britomart?
Also will the 10min frequencies make it very difficult to run a Hamilton train until we have a third track
Luke, yes that does mean 5 minute frequencies between Puhinui and Westfield. I think a Hamilton service is likely to utilise a timeslot for a Pukekohe train. It could be a challenge fitting so many trains along that stretch of track.
I am a bit scared that any signal faults will create huge pileups (figuratively, not literally) of trains in a 10 minute (or even 5 minute!) frequency system. But I guess that is one of those good to have problems (well, sorta).
I’m also surprised to hear that integrated ticketing is now supposed to move so fast. Again, I hope they can implement it that quickly without screwing it up. Seems like a lot of very physical work would be needed (installing of swipe card readers in tons of places, to start with), even if the theory of the system is all sorted out already.
What brought about all this new info at once, Jarbury? Fly on the wall in an Ontrack meeting?
Meeting with some people from ARTA.
I heard about that meeting last night, it sounds interesting..!
I think generally with the RLTS we have the strategy in place, we have the basic PT infrastructure (except East Auckland and the South West/Airport), we have the legislation currently that allows for integration and given enough time (and stopping building motorways after WRR) we could develop a good network if proper transport policy is implemented… AT is throwing a huge spanner in the works and I don’t think it will be good, I will wait and see but I’m not holding my breath and the PTMA changes will be an unmitigated disaster I’m sure…
You’re definitely right Jeremy in that we’re heading in the right direction. Obviously things have been a struggle in the past year or so, which makes one realise how much was achieved in the 2006-2008 period in setting up everything that is now happening (Project DART, electrification, PTMA etc.)
The direction taken by Auckland Transport CCO is clearly a huge unknown quantity. With a much bigger funding pool than ARTA, if they were to become quite public transport centric then we should potentially achieve a lot more than we can now. However, on the other hand if it ends up being very roads-centric then we’re in big trouble.
Great summary of progress and hopefully the electrification progress can keep the ball rolling through what I am guessing will be 4 more years of Auckland transport being planned by via not only NZTA but in a few months though AT as well. I really hope to be pleasently surprised by all this but with the Act party being involved with the board’s selection and Joyce track record to date can we really expect people who have an interest in anything but roads. Not forgetting that AT has been set up as basically a department for roads with a couple people watching after PT…..
I’m a bit confused about the capacity limits at britomart. You’ve got 2 tracks through the tunnel, so that’s about 120 train movements / hour, or 60 in and out.
60 in and out over 3 lines, means 20 / line. and 20 per hour = one every 3 mins.
I presume train turn around time at the station is a problem though, how many platforms do they have?
I wish we could get good news like this every week
All pretty positive especially integrated ticketing, does this mean we can expect to see gates in some train stations by RWC?
With regard to AT, it could come down to the major of Auckland as publicly the major has been permission to fire the CCO from day one and a-point who he wants. Thats my understanding so as Jarbury say’s it could be quite good, however it’s to early to tell either way, still a little worried.
I think that remains to be seen Joshua, that is what Hide says but I’ve seen a lawyers editorial/letter saying that the employment legislation overules what Hide thinks is the case and randomly firing a CEO and board is a good way to get sued by a rich and powerful people…
AT will need to be reformed as either a department of council or a CCO along the lines of TfL if we are even going to get a balanced transport system and effective PT (the PTMA will also govern the latter)…
I saw an interview with Hide wchich said as they will be directors not employees, they can be dismissed under the companies act. I wouldn’t have a clue, can anyone confirm?
His argument is that they are company directors and therefore serve at the pleasure of the shareholders, and the Council is the sole shareholder…
This lawyers letter I read said differently and personally I think canning all the road nuts Joyce and Hide are going to appoint on day 1 is a great idea but Banks won’t do it and Brown will be pretty brave to take on half a dozen guys who have been earning $500,000 a year for the last two decades in court…
Dan C: “I presume train turn around time at the station is a problem though, how many platforms do they have?”
Five platforms. I believe that the theoretical capacity is limited by the need for incoming and outgoing trains to cross each other’s paths in order to reach the correct directional line. You need plenty of time and distance for a safety margin to ensure that there are no collisions.
One of the benefits of the postulated CBD loop tunnel is that trains would carry on through Britomart, rather than reversing out of it. That eliminates any potential for collisions.
With two tracks the capacity is generally one train every 2 minutes. That means theoretically 30 tph each way. However, as there are some conflicts between trains it seems that 20-24 tph is more realistic.
Gates at some train stations for the RWC seems possible.
With regards to Auckland Transport, I think we will have to see the details of any changes made in parliament before the bill passes. Seemingly small changes could make a big difference.
“One of the benefits of the postulated CBD loop tunnel is that trains would carry on through Britomart, rather than reversing out of it. That eliminates any potential for collisions.”
Except that there would still be plenty of trains reversing in and out at the same time i.e. anything diesel powered or locomotive hauled. ARTAs business case for electrification assumes that the DMUs will be running for a while yet, plus carriages hauled by the new electric locomotives for even longer. Furthermore, any Waikato train or suchlike is always going to be diesel too.
One of the problems of the CBD tunnel proposal is that while it does add capacity at one end, it doesn’t do anything to fix the conflicts in the existing tunnel. All the trains coming from or going to the CBD stations still have to slug it out in the Britomart throat tunnel just like they do today. The sum effect is not even a doubling of current train capacity.
Hence the idea that it should bypass Britomart, then the CBD tunnel could run to it’s full potential capacity of 30 trains per hour each way, while the existing Britomart terminal could continue to handle around twenty more terminating diesels each hour.
Nick, surely the electric locos can go through the loop though? And I don’t think that there will be DMUs running post 2013 under the latest plans.
My understanding is basically that from next year we will have 10 minute frequencies on the three main lines plus 2 tph from Onehunga. That means a total of 20 tph arriving at Britomart during the peak hour. That is about the maximum Britomart can take prior to building at CBD rail tunnel, and even that requires bi-directional running.
That’s all prior to electrification. What electrification does is mean that the new EMUs can replace the old DMUs, electric locos can replace diesel locos, the trains will go faster, the trains might be longer and so forth. But electrification won’t actually add any additional trains to the network because Britomart won’t be able to handle any more trains beyond what it will be doing early next year until such a time as we build the CBD tunnel.
The upshot being that post-electrification I don’t imagine we would see too many diesel trains on the network. Perhaps just 2 tph from Pukekohe and another 2 tph from Huapai. Plus hopefully something from Hamilton.
I don’t think so, primarily because of the grade and the fact that locos only have traction wheels on the loco so there would be traction issues. EMUs on the other hand have two or more driven axles per carriage, so not a problem. So I should clarify, electric locos might be able to go down the tunnel, but I don’t think they could make the climb up!
I wouldn’t be so optimistic about the diesels myself, I think they will be floating around for a while yet. The whole EMU order will be swallowed up in patronage growth, let alone replacing the existing fleet.
Anyway, even 2 trains from Puke, 2 from Huapai and one from Hamilton means five trains in and five train out again. That’s ten slots and hour gone from the suburban network right there, or in other terms almost enough slots to run the main western-southern line every ten minutes both ways.
I think the mixing of tunnel and terminal trains in the Britomart through is a seriously major design issue that will drastically limit real world capacity… but I think I’m also starting to turn into the crazy guy yelling things out on the street corner over it! 🙂
A trip to London and speaker’s corner perhaps Nick..?
I do see your point Nick about that conflict between terminating and through-trains.
In terms of how long the DMUs hang around, I think the point that I am making is that once we get the EMUs, that will pretty much be the maximum number of trains that we can run on the network. Even if patronage is growing we will actually not be able to keep runnign the DMUs because Britomart wouldn’t be able to cope with them.
Basically we can’t go above 20ish tph entering Britomart at peak hour until we build the CBD rail tunnel. That’s 10 minute frequencies on the main lines plus Onehunga plus perhaps one other. The electrics should be able to cover most, if not all of that, so there would literally be no need (or more specifically, no possibility) to run the DMUs.
NickR is right – and if a new tunnel is built, keep it for one line, and let other lines change trains onto it. Jarbury, I’m against the fetish of single seat journeys.
This way, the new tunnel can be built state of the art with 30tph from the start. Keep Britomart for the diesels, especially for any longer distance routes that might run.
You can seem my full post on the concept here Riccardo:
http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2010/03/12/guest-post-cbd-rail-tunnel-concept/
It basically involves extending the CBD tunnel proposal an extra 900m to Quay Park Junction and building a pair of new ‘metro’ platforms alongside Britomart rather than connecting to the existing terminal station. This relatively modest extension would allow up to 30tphpd in the tunnel and 20tph at the terminal, instead of only 12tphpd in the tunnel and 8tph at the terminal (or at maximum 20tphpd in the tunnel with no terminating trains).
How about Speakers Corner in Browns Bay, that used to be my local pub 😉
Jarbs bear in mind that it takes a lot more than 20 trains to run the system at a rate of 20 trains per hour.
I.e. to run the three main lines at six trains an hour each means eighteen trains per hour in total, but each of the main lines a two hour round trip. So to keep those ten minute frequencies happening we need 36 trains, plus maybe two or three sets in reserve.
So it will be possible to use the EMUs plus the electric locos to achieve this, but only if the EMUs only run as three-car sets. If you want to run many six car sets then it will involve using most of the existing diesel fleet also.
Nick – one of the things already stated is that the electric locos will need to match the performance on the EMUs while pulling/pushing 6 SA carriages. I still think it is a good idea covert the SD cars to electric locos and stick one on each end.
Also with the tunnel we would actually reduce the number of trains needed as the 6 trains an hour that came in from the western would become the 6 heading out South. Also I firmly believe that waitakere and pukekohe trains should be shuttles only, that way only electrics and intercity trains would come into town.
admin – “With two tracks the capacity is generally one train every 2 minutes. That means theoretically 30 tph each way”
Do you mean 30 tph each way = 30 spread over each direction, or 30 one way plus 30 the other way?
In moscow for instance it’s one train every 1.5 mins during the peak hour, and every 2-3 mins off peak in each direction. And i’m pretty sure their signalling and tracks are pretty ancient.
That means if britomart or ‘britomart metro’ became a through station, each direction could have 40 trains per hour.