Rail performance stats getting better
It’s heartening to see that the performance statistics of Auckland’s rail system are slowly but surely improving. As shown in the diagram below, on the Western Line in particular we’ve got from three months of sub-50% punctuality statistics for January, February and March, to a much better result of 72.7%.…
13 Comments The electrification battle is not over
The battle to electrify Auckland’s rail system has been a very long and arduous one, and while good progress on the tendering of the electric trains and the upgrade of the tracks is happening, it seems as though there’s still a huge debate over where the cost of the electric trains will eventually fall.…
The Last Oil Shock: GFC and Resource Inequality
A major spike in the oil price is recessionary not only because of its direct effects on the global economy, but also because it is likely to cause stock markets around the world to crash, further reinforcing the recessionary pressures. This in turn will lead to second order effects, such as the deepening insolvency of many pension funds, which hold the bulk of their investments in stocks and shares… As the crisis deepens, pension payments may be slashed to derisory levels in both money purchase and the supposedly more secure final salary schemes.…
Onehunga Line: slow progress
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.…
Another shared space, but is it worth it?
There a very interesting agenda item in Auckland City Council’s May 2010 “City Development Committee” meeting, which relates to an idea that it seems the Council is working on in partnership with Sky City, that could result in Federal Street becoming a shared space, but at the ‘price’ of letting Sky City extend their convention centre in the airspace that sits above the road reserve.…
RoNS: just a giant subsidy for the trucking industry?
The recent debate in parliament over the economic justification behind the “Roads of National (party) Significance” (RoNS) prompted me to delve a little further into how these roads, which suck up a HUGE amount of the expenditure on transport over the next decade (over half the money NZTA will be spending on state highways across the entire country from memory will go into these seven roads), are being economically justified.…
Cycling in Long Beach, California
Here’s a great video about what the city of Long Beach, California (which forms part of greater Los Angeles) is doing to make cycling a more attractive means of transportation. What I find particularly interesting in the video is the support the measures have from local businesses, who realise that 12 customers with bikes can “park” in the same available space as one customer with a car.…
Utilising the Avondale-Southdown corridor
The Avondale-Southdown rail corridor is a rather strange aspect of Auckland’s transport system (or possible transport system) in that it has been designated for rail purposes for over 60 years, but has never really got anywhere close to being constructed. It first shows up in the 1946 transport plan for Auckland:
In more recent times the line has been proposed as part of the wider upgrade to Auckland’s rail system that is the preferred option for getting rail to the airport. …
Manukau-Botany QTN
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.…
Transport, urban form and health
The Public Health Advisory Committee (PHAC) has released a very interesting study into the linkages between urban environments and wellbeing, entitled Healthy Places, Healthy Lives: urban environments and wellbeing. During my university studies I did quite a lot of research into what we call “Health Geography” – looking at how different environments affect different health outcomes.…
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