Why bus lanes are so important
A couple of my posts in recent days have illustrated my frustration, and to an extent outright anger, at possible changes to the Northern Busway and the Dominion Road bus lanes. Changes that would erode the “bus priority” that currently exists on both those routes.…
17 Comments 50% farebox recovery policy a joke (and NZTA know it)
As I noted in a post recently, NZTA have released a “National Farebox Recovery Policy“, which in some respects makes sense: to create some sort of mechanism that can help ensure we get value for money from our public transport investment.…
Bring on the Auckland Transport CCO!
Yes, I know. That’s a pretty painful blog title for me to post – considering I have opposed the Transport CCO for quite some time now, and in a number of different blog posts. But there have been a number of factors over the past few weeks that have led to me changing my opinion of Auckland’s future transport CCO quite significantly, which I will go through shortly.…
Auckland City Council ruins Dominion Road bus lanes
Wow this is a really really bad week for buses, and public transport in general, in Auckland. As I noted yesterday, the crazy idea of HOVs being introduced to the Northern Busway has reared its ugly head again – and the excellent busway may be ruined through the introduction of up to 360 vehicles per hour on the busway – around one every 10 seconds.…
HOVs on the Northern Busway?
An interesting, if rather worrying, little piece of information has emerged from the dark depths of the ARC’s Transport and Urban Development Committee agenda – the meeting on which happened today. And that relates to some discussion that is being undertaken by the Northern Corridor Steering Group (a meeting of various transport organisations that relate to the northern part of Auckland) about whether High Occupancy Vehicles (HOVs) should be allowed on the Northern Busway.…
ARC slams farebox recovery ratio – again!
When NZTA released its final farebox recovery policy a week or so back, I explained quite carefully why I thought it was an utterly stupid policy. It’s quite nice to see that the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) has made similar criticisms of the policy in their latest Transport committee meeting agenda, just as they made fairly similar points to me in their submission.…
Western Line duplication complete
While there hasn’t been too much of a song and dance about it, today is actually a pretty momentous day in the history of Auckland’s rail system – in that the double-tracking of the Western Line, a project that has been underway for many years now, has finally been completed – with the second half of the New Lynn trench opening today.…
New Council and Transport Agency taking shape
Some interesting announcements in the last few days about senior positions in both the Auckland Council and the Auckland Transport CCO. Looking at the council first, the Auckland Transition Agency announced the following positions late last week:
Manager Customer Services: Nigel King, currently Group Manager Customer Services, Auckland City Council.…
Congestion: a good thing?
I’ve spent much of the long weekend finally making some progress into getting through the big pile of books that currently sits on my bedside table. Getting out of Auckland for a couple of days and not taking your computer is a pretty good way to make that happen!…
Trams: where to next?
It has been interesting to see the reaction to last week’s announcement that the ARC will be bringing trams back to Auckland’s waterfront, through a 1.5 km loop around Wynyard Quarter.
Friday’s Herald Editorial was positive about the idea:
Statements supporting the tram circuit invariably mention its potential to be part of the region’s wider public transport network, with a route wending around the southern and eastern edges of the Viaduct Harbour to Britomart.…
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