I’ve got hold of an interesting Ministry of Transport paper on the CBD rail tunnel and also the future Airport railway link. It provides a useful over view of what progress has been made on the CBD rail tunnel project in particular over the past few years – and also what has actually brought the project “onto the radar” in an official sense. While the project has been on the books since the 1920s (or perhaps even earlier), in its current form the idea seems to appear in the late 1990s:
I hadn’t quite appreciated the sheer number of studies into the CBD rail tunnel that have occurred within the last few years. It’s also interesting to see that a very preliminary business case analysis showed a benefit to cost ratio of greater than 1, even without wider economic benefits included. I look forward to seeing how the current business case study compares to this previous one.
The paper also looks at the question of who has prioritised the project, and where it fits within Auckland’s official long-term transport plans:
The importance of the RLTS prioritising the CBD rail tunnel is particularly interesting when you consider that it was a number of relatively last minute changes to that strategy which led to it becoming such a key part of Auckland’s transport future.
Funding options for the CBD tunnel were also considered:
The fact that NZTA are unable, due to policy decisions, to fund at least part of the capital cost of this project is a huge barrier to it ever being constructed. That is because NZTA is the only agency out there with anywhere near the amount of available funds to make this happen. The problem is that they’re too busy spending that money on loss-making highway projects.
There’s also quite a lot of further information on the Airport Line, but I’ll leave that to a future post.
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Sounds like this was put together very quickly. A bit embarrassing they couldn’t find the second part of the 2003 Boston Plan. The conspiracy theorist in me says Joyce doesnt care for this project at all, just needed a few facts to chuck in a press release or answer a question or two.
We really are a sad little country when we have a government banning the construction of railways lines.
I’m interested to see the part that was withheld 2008 route protection efforts, perhaps some kind of current or future payment was agreed to. It also appears that we can thank ARTA for keeping this project ticking over to the point that we now have a pretty unanimous agreement from local politicians across the political spectrum on the need for this. It is also interesting that both funding studies were under $1bil which means that the $1.5bil projected by ARTA may be to high with will improve the BCR, bring on September when the business case is released. If it is good the pressure for this is going to really build with the elections just around the corner.
Of course these reports only refer to the latest incarnation of the CBD tunnel scheme.
There was about ten years of reports and investigation leading up to the almost built 1976 ‘Rapid Rail’ concept (cancelled at the eleventh hour by an incoming National government after initial works had started), plus presumably the same for the 1960’s ‘Victoria St Stub’ version that it grew out of.And let’s not forget the the 1956 scheme for the second version of the Morningside deviation as part of the Master Transport Plan, which was basically a rehash of the 1929 proposal that got dropped at the start of WII after the first half of the scheme was built (i.e. the relocation of Auckland Station to Mechanics Bay).
Yeesh, can we please just build the thing already?!
“the Manakau harbour crossing design included STRENGTHENING and CLEARANCES to provide for a future rail link to the airport.”
About $10 million worth actually Andrew, which was rather nice of NZTA 🙂
Just one question. Why is the clearance of the SH 20 bridge so high when the channel is effectively blocked by the old Mangere Bridge?
Just a wild guess, but it might have had something to do with long abandoned plans to cut a canal through Otahuhu to link up the Manukau Harbour with the Tamaki River. I am guessing that nobody ever really expected that the old bridge would hang around this long.
Reading through the report I got the impression that the author was a little hostile towards what had been done so far, particularly where he states that value for money objectives don’t receive an appropriate level of emphasis.
Don’t post images of text. OCR it.
How weird, all the radio stations are talking about the Greens Fastrack the CBD Loop proposal and yet the NZ Herald remains blissfully unaware. Does anyone have any info on this?
I guess there will be an article on it in tmrw’s paper?
Robbie’s Rapid Rail was going to pay for the tunnel by CBD redevelopment. That was in 1974 (final report of the Rapid Transit Directorate). So “informal discussion” about “property related” funding is reinventing the wheel, ironically.
Hey this is a little tangental: I’m trying to follow a hunch about attitudes to PT among young people, I’m pretty sure that in the second half of last century teens + 20s were pretty car mad. Whereas now I’m finding something of a reversal of that trend for two main reasons. The costs of car ownership, along with student loans etc is really biting [esp. parking, insurance, taxes, etc], and now things electronic rather than mechanical are the focus. Rather be on PT texting than facing arrest sitting in a traffic jam, or worse, being offline for 1/2 hour. Is anyone aware of any data, or examples around these attitudes, doesn’t have to be NZ? Be real helpful, ta.
There have been recent surveys in USA and Japan showing youth are turning off cars:
USA:
http://www.deathbycar.info/2010/06/youth-exit-ramp/
JAPAN:
http://s.wsj.net/article/SB120422248421700325.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28433813/
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090104f3.html
http://bigthink.com/ideas/18990
It’s an interesting issue actually. I remember a few years back hearing someone say that the iPod had been one of the best things to happen to public transport forever. I also think that as iPhones, iPads and other mobile technology becomes more widespread the attraction of not having to concentrate on driving while you’re getting around the city will become greater and greater.
Recently I was in the central library and I noticed that there were a shipload of people there, certainly far more than the last time I was there back in the early 2000’s. After a closer inspection I noticed they all had a computer and were taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi. This got me thinking if you provide free Wi-Fi on the the transport network you could attract a lot of people. Yes I know mobile technology exists but it is slow, expensive and the datacaps are ridiculously low.
Thanks Spokey, good stuff. Thing that strikes me is that every time there is talk of bus lanes or any kind of transit corridor in Queen St the loudest complaint you hear is from the retailers. It’s like they imagine that no one will shop without a car, but this shopper is especially well catered for and encouraged by suburban shopping centres swimming in car parks. It seems to me that the CBD can’t compete if the only customer they can conceive of is a car driver, the sooner they see that they can only unlock the competitive advantage of their location by doing everything possible to get the transit shopper will the Heart of The City really work. These retailers should be behind every move to get people, not just cars to their precinct. Obviously the CBD loop, the Midtown Station will at last make the Elliot St area viable as a retail location. But what about that Eastern suburbs line; all of those potential shoppers and movie go-ers just a couple of stops from downtown. Kids straight out of Pakuranga College or bored with KFC at Botany, a quick transit ride into the city… This is the future for AK, the kids want it more than stress free rides to the neurotic isolation of Omaha.
“We really are a sad little country when we have a government banning the construction of railways lines.”
Hey, nobody is doing that! All they are doing is making it illegal to fund it from the only pot that has actual amounts of money in it.
“Just one question. Why is the clearance of the SH 20 bridge so high when the channel is effectively blocked by the old Mangere Bridge?”
As for the old one, that may be the reason. I think I heard that part of the height for the new one is that it is to match the old one in looks.