There’s an item in the agenda of the upcoming (on Wednesday) ARC Transport and Urban Development Committee meeting about the Onehunga Branch Line and the progress that is being made towards ensuring that the line can be opened in the not too distant future.
So it’s good news that the minor modifications to the designation have been approved, but it seems as though before construction of the station can actually begin there are another series of resource consents that need to be acquired. Considering this project was meant to be completed and trains operating on it last year, it is quite bizarre that the consents for it are only being sorted out now.
It is also rather bizarre that the final detailed design of Onehunga station is only being sorted out now too. Once again, this project was meant to be constructed by the end of last year, so what on earth has been going on to delay the actual design of the station? Surely that should have been completed years ago? Nevertheless, putting aside my enormous exasperation at ARTA’s seemingly half-hearted approach to this project, it does seem as though the ball is finally rolling to ensure the line can be operational within the next few months.
Another interesting aspect of the agenda item is that the economic evaluation of reopening the Onehunga Line has been included for the first time. I had heard rumours that the project wasn’t really justifiable in a pure cost-benefit sense and was effectively happening due to political pressure, but it would seem that’s definitely not the case. Let’s have a look at its cost-benefit analysis:
I must say I feel somewhat vindicated in my belief that this line will be more successful than anticipated. It is also useful to note that 85% of the benefits are to road users – which once again shows how illogical it is that NZTA funds can’t be used for rail capital projects (although I think they were given a specific exception in this case). One could somewhat justifiably argue that if 85% of the project’s benefits are to road users, then NZTA (and council through its ownership of local roads) should be meeting 85% of the project’s cost.
I look forward to this project (eventually) being completed, as I think it will be a great catalyst for Onehunga.
Processing...
I assume the benefits (calculated as they are in our roads-centric BCR system) come mainly from congestion reductions as SH1 users towards the CBD switch to rail. I guess it only takes a few hundred less users of a congested motorway during the peak hours to create some sizable benefits – the (in this case) positive flip side of the BCR system.
Yeah I think you’re right that most of the benefits are congestion relief on SH1 and perhaps Manukau Road/ Great South Road.
I guess sometimes the stupidity of the system can work in your favour.
Are the frequencies greater than hourly off peak..?
Has there been any integration with Dressmart..?
A Mangere feeder bus with combined ticket..?
Are they going to move the bus terminal adjacent..?
As much as I’m going to miss ARTA the answer to all the above questions in no, no, no and no…
Jeremy I have had discussions with ARTA about Onehunga which clears up a bit of the confusion. In terms of timeframes, ARTA’s work will be done by the end of July – if we want services to start then we should start kicking KiwiRail into action.
In terms of your questions, yes unfortunately it seems that we are starting off with hourly off-peak frequencies. I sincerely hope that ARTA realise this is very silly and running half-hourly frequencies off-peak will lead to significantly higher patronage. The general feeling I have got from ARTA recently is that they’re quite excited about this project and share my feeling that it’s going to be more popular than originally thought.
In terms of integration with Dressmart, there are ongoing discussions and it seems as though there will be signage etc. I would hope for some sort of “way finding system” between Dressmart and the station. It would also be great to have real-time info train signs within the mall.
Bus routes are going to be re-routed to pass by the station. This will be done by day one. I’m not sure what happens to the bus terminal but ARTA appear to realise that enabling easy transfer between bus & train at Onehunga is essential for its success.
So things are perhaps a little more hopeful than we thought. I’m still annoyed that it won’t be opening till September though.
Buses rerouted past the station, Huzzah!
I can’t wait to see the patronage once this line is open, it will be interesting to see if it is more than the 320 passengers a day predicted by the ‘scientific’ traffic model in the first report released about five years ago.
I’m annoyed it won’t be open until later in the year, I was hoping to take a ride in mid June when I’m home.
I don’t think there’s another round of resource consents coming up – just the one and only round.
The rail zoning requirement just done, was separate from the resource consent process.
That’s wicked about high BCR. The Onehunga Branch line is severely late but I see in the paper that the Manukau motorway is going to be finished 7 months early or some ridiculous date. Govt priorities SO wrong!
Normally I would be very sceptical of a *road* project with a high BCR due to travel time savings for motorists on cogested routes, due to the the fact that the outcome is usually that more people can simply travel at the same time so the time savings never really materialise.
However according to the “Downs-Thompson hypothesis” and the related “Lewis–Mogridge Position”, by building a fast *rail* based alternative to driving the road travel time savings should actually occur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs%E2%80%93Thomson_paradox, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis-Mogridge_Position).
The ironic thing is that the travel time savings method of calculating the shadow price of road congestion only works when you use it on non-road projects.
(I’m going to do a post on this topic shortly, in regard to the NW busway)
I believe that the true value of the Onehunga branch line will not be realised till it is extended to the Mangere side of the harbour.This wouild open up the railway to hundreds of potential patrons.
Hi there, is the economic evaluation published? Or could you advice where i can find it? thank you very much.
I don’t have anything more of it than this. Maybe ask ARTA or NZTA for it?