I read this press release from Colin Craig, distant third-place runner in the race for super city mayor, with some amusement – but also a bit of fear that someone might take his public transport ideas seriously. It is tempting to not give such silly ideas any life by giving them coverage – but I just can’t help myself pointing out how silly this is.
Significant savings could be made under the new Super City council when it comes to finishing the inner city rail loop according to Mayoral candidate Colin Craig.
Mr Craig, who has endorsed the idea of a Point to Point shuttle system says that although he believes Personal Rapid Transit would be the best option for Auckland in terms of public transport, savings around our existing rail system are still possible for important projects like the inner-city rail loop.
“If recent surveys are anything to go by, completion of the inner-city rail loop is what Aucklanders see as the most important rail project to get Auckland moving. If we are to get on to this in a time where budgets are tight, we should be looking at ways to minimise the expenses where we can without compromising on quality,” says Mr Craig.
Transport solutions designer at Auckland Transport Consultancy, Stephen Greenfield, has identified a route for the Inner City loop that he suggests will not only save money, but can also be built in one third of the time.
“The route would follow ARTA’s identified route from Britomart under Albert Street but would stop at stations on Victoria Street, Queen Street, Kitchener Street-Albert Park and Stanley Street, before joining the current track at Parnell Rise,” explains Mr Greenfield.
Mr Craig says that the above proposed route for the inner city loop would be especially beneficial for students and those who use public transport services in and around the Symonds Street ridge, taking the pressure off the heavily loaded buses around peak times.
“There is no point in pursuing options that we cannot afford. Sensible, problem solving options, like the Albert park rail route make far more sense when it comes to spending ratepayer money.”
An integrated public transport system that could potentially be more cost efficient to run as well as easier on the pockets of public transport users is also something Mr Craig is looking in to.
“I’ve spoken with Mr Greenfield from Auckland Transport consultancy to explore ways in which we can improve the current public transport situation. This would include more train services, improving the frequency of all public transport services, one easy fare system and ensuring that these transport services are available throughout the Auckland Super city region.”
To make sure that all possible solutions to Auckland’s public transport woes are explored, Mr Craig would like to see that options are considered without bias before being dismissed.
“It’s not about favourites but affordable solutions with the best outcomes,” says Mr Craig.
“I recently proposed a point to point shuttle system for exactly that reason – we need the best solutions for the city; ones that work and ones that we can afford.”
I’ve come across Stephen Greenfield’s website before, and I’m not sure whether he’s really anything more than a “self proclaimed” transport consultant. Certainly some of his ideas are so crazy I can’t imagine any serious transport organisation actually paying money for his consultancy services.
So what’s actually being proposed here for this alternative to the CBD rail tunnel? Something like the following I think:
I’m not sure if this is the exact alignment envisaged, but it’s the only logical way I can see of getting a station from Albert Street to Parnell Rise and have stations at Victoria Street, Queen Street and Kitchener Street/Albert Park.
So shall we count the reasons why this is silly?
- What on earth are there four stations for? In particular, why on earth are there three stations almost right next to each other around Queen Street?
- This would do little to ease capacity problems on the Britomart to Newmarket line.
- The train line will have to be really really deep under Albert Park (unless we put a rail viaduct over Queen Street – that’d be nice!), but then get above ground over Grafton gully to link in with the existing line. I can’t quite see the grades working.
- Trips from the Western Line to the city (one the big benefits of the current proposal is that these would be cut by around 10 minutes) would remain just as slow as they are now.
- You would miss all the improved access to around K Road and Newton – thereby missing all the potential redevelopment that the CBD tunnel would encourage in these areas.
Have I missed anything? Is it possible that Colin Craig could come up with a wackier policy for public transport (considering the other thing he’s been talking about are personal rapid transport pods)?
Thank goodness he doesn’t have a chance of winning.
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wow… you would be pretty hard pressed to even find bus stops as close together as those 3 stations! In fact, you would probably be able to have people boarding the front carriage at Kitchener street while people are boarding the back carriage at Aotea- perhaps these are meant to be 2 entrances to the same station?
Another issue, Western line trains would still have to change ends at Newmarket.
It wouldn’t really allow for any development of new lines in Auckland as the network will still be quite constrained due to the junctions (there is no way they would spend money on grade separating any of them)
Personally I think that part of the problem is that it has been called a loop so when people like Colin or Stephen see it they just think “if we make the loop smaller we can save money”. They obviously also think that all lines should come in, travel all around the loop and then head out again which wouldn’t be as beneficial as through routing services like you have proposed.
Also this is the type of thinking that has held Auckland back for decades, if they want another classic example of short sightedness for the sake of a few dollars then just look at the coat hanger in the middle of the harbour.
I agree Matt. That’s why I insist on calling the project the “CBD rail tunnel“.
Half cooked idea.
Four stations within five minutes walk of Britomart and a track that loops back to where it came from, that sounds efficient! They might as well just build one big long bendy station an the train can stop every 100m or so!
“Gee, I’ll just draw this line here and well make it heaps better and cost way less and it’ll be real choice!”
Oh and “Transport solutions designer” at “Auckland Transport Consultancy”… I snorted into my coffee reading that! 🙂 From now on I want everyone to call me the ” Senior Transport Outcome Facilitator” at “Australasian Global Consulting Services” please.
Seriously though, perhaps we should draft a letter dismissing these crackpots and their thoughtless schemes. Sometimes I wonder if it actually is a conspiracy by the RTF or the ACT party to discredit legitimate public transport.
If you took that line and stretched it out it would get you to K Road anyway. Then it’s just a short hop under the CMJ to Newton anyway. That plus building 4 stops would make it cost almost as much as the proposed tunnel.
@Sam. Well one advantage of that would be that if you missed the train at the Civic you could simply wait until it stops at Kitchener Street 🙂
Your last sentence really sums it up. He is a no hoper with no idea. Thankfully he won’t be the next mayor. Given his polling he could safely propose that once elected as mayor he will personally fund jet backpacks for every citizen as a way to cut roading congestion.
He is on to one thing, if somewhat obliquely…there does need to be an undercover (though not underground) connection between the yet to be built Parnell station and the uni…
you might find some people don’t like the word tunnel because they see it as completely unrealistic for Auckland to ever have an underground rail system. That’s certainly been my experience.
The only person I know who doesn’t like tunnels is Owen McShane. And that seems to be simply because he has an irrational fear of them being flooded.
I would have thought most people would say “tunnel….. cool!”
Ha, that’s awesome! I truly thought the ‘Pod’ flier from CC in my local rag was the pinnacle of transport comedy, but this trumps it! Maybe his conversation with Mr Greenfield (ironic name in a transport/land use geek kind of way, no?) went something like this “My pod approach isn’t working, Aucklander’s are still stuck on the rail band wagon. Stephen, design me a rail loop scheme that might be marginally cheaper than the current plan but has none of the real benefits, make it snappy mate, now’s your time to shine!”
I wonder if Stephen Greenfield has a personal beef with ARTA, perhaps they turned him down for a job or something. Looking at his website, in most of his complaints about Aucklands PT he blames ARTA for it, even if ARTA weren’t responsible for it i.e. He goes on about the new Newmarket station and how he thinks platforms should have been left at Kingdon St, the then goes on to say the station should have been built on the junction and that ARTA should sell off the air rights for a mall type of building above it. There is then an update on how the air rights were already sold and blames ARTA for being short sight on this when in reality they were sold before ARTA even existed.
He also blames ARTA for the Manukau station not being in the right location but from memory that was the fault of the Manukau city council.
@ Matt L – yep, the blame for the location of Manukau Station is squarely on the Manukau City Councilors – nothing to do with ARTA at all. However, I think that decision’s worked out for the best, the concept design for the combined MIT/station/interchange is pretty awesome! MIT really wanted a site that was park edge but on top of a transport interchange, so the current location is perfect.
This particular tunnel alignment was considered and rejected in the debates over Robbie’s Rapid Rail in the late 1960s and early 1970s, presumably for the reasons set out by Joshua, i.e. Western line access etc. Deja vu all over again. There’s nothing new under the sun in Auckland transport, everything’s been debated to death.
“Have I missed anything? Is it possible that Colin Craig could come up with a wackier policy for public transport (considering the other thing he’s been talking about are personal rapid transport pods)?
Thank goodness he doesn’t have a chance of winning.”
I think spending $1.4bn on a four lane motorway to Wellsford when simply building it to Warkworth and upgrading the existing road (or cheaper stil just doing a Warkworth bypass with a few upgrades) when public transport is still short of money might be a bit wackier.
I think it’s kind of funny Colin Craig is spending MILLIONS (literally) on advertising but he doesn’t seem to have spent almost any money on focus groups or polling or marketing. So his materials are kind of weird and old-school and his ideas are crazy and seem to bear little relation to what people actually care about.
Not that I’m saying I respect politicans who are poll-driven and just do what the public wants – but if I was immensely rich and wanted to become Mayor then I might consider taking that approach 🙂
Yeah he doesn’t seem too smart with the way he spends his funds.
Seems a OK idea to me.
But hey heres some other better ideas I think.
– I think we could just go bridge for second harbor crossing. Basically a nicer looking Anzac bridge.
Then keep existing bridge but convert it to a walk only bridge.
Charge Tolls on Motorways.
Cancle the Northern Motorway.
“Yeah he doesn’t seem too smart with the way he spends his funds.”
Thankfully! I mean – just think if he had (instead or as a backup) gone for Councillor in a promising ward. He might be one of the decision-makers now. It was always almost certain that he’d have no chance at mayor, but the polling showed that lots of money CAN buy you votes, even if your two only advantages are a clean look / handsome appearance and not being one of the “old gang”.
That’s very true. The problem is not with Colin Craig himself, as he seems like the kind of guy who supports the last interesting idea he heard, but the weird bunch of people that for some reason have ended up as his advisors.