Another interesting part of the information I got from NZTA via my OIA request relates to the public transport upgrades being planned for Manukau City – in particular the steps being taken to implement a “Quality Transport Network” (QTN) between Manukau City and Botany Town Centre. This is the first stage in implementing what is going to eventually be a Rapid Transit Network between Panmure and Manukau City via Botany and Flat Bush (which I think should be constructed as a railway line, but anyway).
The map of the proposed upgrade is included below:
The figures in the boxes are the number of buses per hour at peak/off-peak times – meaning that along the core QTN there is to be a bus every 10 minutes during peak times and every 15 minutes off-peak. Hardly fantastic frequencies, but certainly getting close to respectable.
One of the things that I sometimes worry about when it comes to QTNs is that we will end up identifying all our current reasonable frequency bus routes as QTNs, when to me a quality transport network means something better than what we’re used to. To me it means bus lanes for extensive periods of the day, real-time information along the whole route, potentially distinctive buses, high frequencies and so forth – basically a fast and frequent service. Fortunately, it seems as though in this case we will be seeing a decent amount of physical infrastructure works to support this upgrade, as shown in the information below:
So the plan is to spend over $20 million on upgrading the street network between Manukau and Flat Bush so that the QTN can be a “proper” quality transport network – I’m impressed.
However, in the longer term I must say I’m a little surprised that the NZTA board paper on this project doesn’t seem to make much mention of the fact that this route is meant to be part of the Rapid Transit Network in the longer term. That means the long term plan is to either have a full busway between Manukau and Panmure via Flat Bush and Botany, or to have a railway line. Obviously that project will be really expensive and will take many years to implement, whereas that part of Auckland desperately needs a QTN now, so I understand the smaller steps being taken. But surely you would want to be really careful to ensure that any QTN works being done now will assist in the construction of a future rapid transit network? Surely this $23 million would be the first little contribution towards a much bigger project in the future? I don’t hear much about that.
Nevertheless, it is very promising to see that a part of Auckland that desperately needs better public transport will be receiving it in the not too distant future. With the Manukau Railway Station becoming a giant transport interchange perhaps it won’t be quite so much the big flop I was worried it might be.
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It’s pretty unclear what they plant to do however, and 20 million doesn’t buy you alot of roading changes. The Central Connector cost in the order of 30 million and that was a comparatively short route that didn’t require much road widening per se.
It’d be good for East Tamaki to get a frequent, well advertised, quality route – it is such a huge employment area…
The central connector did have streetscapes upgrades right along the length, and it has a few big ticket items like moving one building at the medical school an strengthening Grafton Bridge.
Hopefully without things like that the $20 million will spread a bit futher.
I had an interesting conversation with Len Brown about that. I mean, I took it with a grain of salt but he said that aside from their obvious reason (lack of money) the council had 3 reasons for finishing the Manukau spur where they did.
1) the university campus will be right on top of it
2) there is space there to create a really big bus interchange with buses going east, west etc which they couldn’t have done as well in Manukau CBD (which has really bad connectivity)
3) they believe that the Manukau CBD will actually grow out in that direction (taking up land that is currently carparking in front of the Manukau City Council) so eventually the station will virtually be in the CBD anyway
So, who knows, it may not be as bad as it seemed at first.
There’s a carpark around the McDonald’s that would have been a really good place for a transport interchange, although I do agree that it’s useful to focus on shifting the CBD out towards the west. Apparently the council has leased most of the land within Manukau City to Westfield for the next 40 years or something. So it’s likely to be a carpark festival for some time yet.
How recently has Westfield Manuakau expanded? hopefully the next time they expand they can be pushed into making the mall much more friendly to the surrounding city. They at very least need better lighting and upgraded paths to link the mall with the transport interchange.
There was a quite recent expansion, with the inclusion of movie theatres I think. Some of the parking was double-levelled – which is good as it’s a more efficient use of space, and also some of the mall was opened up to the surrounding areas, once again a good sign.
However Manukau City as a whole still feels like not much more than a giant carpark with a mall in the middle and a few office blocks sprinkled around, drowning in a sea of asphalt.