North Auckland Line to be mothballed?
There was a worrying article in yesterday’s NZ Herald about the future of the North Auckland Railway Line:
The Whangarei/Auckland railway line could be mothballed for an indefinite period from next year, after talks KiwiRail plans to have with the region’s businesses and local authorities.…
23 Comments Outlining the CBD Rail Tunnel’s benefits
Things have been reasonably quiet in the past few weeks about the CBD Tunnel project – since the announcement that there will be a review of the project’s business case. But it seems that behind the scenes there is plenty going on, a big battle between central government (represented by the Ministry of Transport and probably NZTA) and local government (represented by Auckland Transport, Auckland Council and the various consultants involved in the project).…
Vehicle emissions kill 400 a year
I was reading through the agenda of today’s meeting of the Regional Development and Operations Committee of Auckland Council (which seems to be a very important committee) when I came across the Council’s proposed submission on some changes to the chemical make-up of fuel sold in New Zealand.…
Making public transport the logical travel choice
Every time I hear the saying “but Aucklanders love their cars” I generally roll my eyes. My reply is generally along the lines of: “yes, it is true that Aucklanders are very auto-dependent and that we have one of the highest rates of car ownership in the world.…
AT Boarding Meeting: Wed 9.00am
The February board meeting of Auckland Transport is happening on Wednesday at 9.00am out at their Henderson headquarters. Here’s the agenda for the meeting: The special topics would seem the most interesting, and I hope that Auckland Transport get around to publishing the board papers for these items on their website (we still haven’t seen the December business report!)…
Why Rudman’s wrong about Queen St
I generally agree with what Herald columnist Brian Rudman says about transport and urban matters as they relate to Auckland. He’s a thoughtful columnist who’s not afraid to share his opinions, but at the same time generally makes sure what he says is backed up well.…
The importance of strategic co-ordination
As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, I’m reading the excellent book “Car Sick: solutions for our car addicted culture“. One thing that the book points out quite clearly is that we don’t need to spend more money to improve our transport situation, rather we need to spend the money we have in smarter ways.…
Baldwin Ave station – just about done
Baldwin Avenue station on the Western Line has been closed for the last six weeks or so while the station has been completely rebuilt. I took some photos of the “work in progress” back during the holidays. The official station opening is on Tuesday, so I went out there today to see how things look: There’s nothing particularly special about the design of the station – it’s pretty stock standard.…
Where’s the money going Auckland Council?
An early draft of the 2011/2012 Annual Plan was discussed at last week’s meeting of the Strategy and Finance Committee of Auckland Council. A lot of media focus has gone into the $3.4 million allocated (or maybe not) to the Maori Statutory Board – an interesting debate but not one that’s particularly relevant to this blog.…
Guest Post: a modest proposal
Transport expert Chris Harris is back with another Guest Post:
Has anyone suggested running North Shore trains through a widened eastern clip on?
Everyone says that the existing bridge is too steep to run trains over and that’s usually the end of the argument.…
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