A cartoon from the 1954 NZ Herald – talking about a previous occasion when central government cancelled the CBD rail tunnel. It happened again in the mid-1970s when Muldoon cancelled Mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson’s rapid rail plan.
Seems like history repeats itself? Mike Lee thinks so, and I tend to agree with him.
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Not quite, When Robbie’s plan was scuttled the rail system was left to rot and patronage continued to nose dive. Within the next two years we will have electric trains, integrated ticketing, upgraded stations across the network, realtime information at stations, audio information across trains, branch line to manukau and 10 minute frequencies. All of this will continue the patronage growth which will in turn keep this a burning issue and rachet up the pressure to get the loop built.
I believe with the momentum we have this time is very different to what Robbie had to work with. The CBD link will be built it’s just a question of when. This is not over by any means.
PT patronage is rising fast. Petrol prices are rising and congestion and pollution are worse than 30 years ago. Also we now have a community much more widely travelled and experienced in public transport systems throughout the world, they know the benefits of rapid transit. These issues and social media are generating a much greater awareness and spread of information than ever before – this needs to be heightened over the next 5-6 months. The people spoke in local body elections and there is an opportunity now in the forthcoming general election.
The people are revolting 🙂
Me too, and Joyce does too really, he’s just dragging the chain as best he can, then he’ll be gone and will claim, looking back, that he was all for it really, just a question of timing. From the boardrooms of trucking/development/construction companies.
Oh I certainly agree it will happen this time. The question is when, and that question seems to rather frustratingly hinge on the question of how long this government stays in power.
One does wonder how this would have played out had John Banks been mayor.
He’d have proposed the Eastern Highway and it would have received Steven Joyce’s Big Rubber Stamp of Approval.
No need to wonder…. Banks would be busy being Joyce’s mad little poodle….yap yap highways yap…… now let’s see what damage he can cause over in the party of rejects and walking corpses…..
I sometimes wonder that had Banks been elected mayor, this Govt may well have delivered funds for the CBDRL, probably next term, to deliver a political victory to Banks to buttress his mayoralty and to help with the urban Akl vote for the 2014 general election. It is easy to be cynical, but I really do think part of the reason the govt wishes to delay and obfusticate on this issue is that by funding the CBDRL in whole or in part, it would have helped the wrong man (Brown) to a degree such that he would probably get three mayoral terms.
Raffe pretty clear that’s a fantasy, so glad we didn’t get to find out.
Certainly, but I guess I am just speculating a ‘Nixon goes to China’ moment.
SJ was as slippery as a snake on Breakfast this morning! You’ve got to admire how he said with a straight face that on a like for like basis, the Holiday Highway had a BCR of 1.1, compared with the tunnel’s 0.4. Yeah right!
Also dodged the question on peak oil.
Love how he was stating that it only took 1,400 cars off the roads when his team didn’t even analyse whether the CBD could handle the bus/car traffic that they’re projecting.
I don’t think so, this ain’t 1950’s now, this is 2011. Our mind frame is different now compared to back then when petrol was cheaper and car ownership was rapidly on the rise. It is all according to our hard the Super City spends on the project and how they will convince the government to build it. Public transport useage in the 1950’s was declining in 1954 it sort of reached its peak, then after this period the rail network suffered from years of under investment which made it decline even further.
If NZ had built a decent rail system years ago like the UK has and Australia, in line with it’s urban planing we wouldn’t have any transport issues that we have now. The fact of the matter is the CBD loop need to be built and as Mike Lee is the chairman and really cares about improving public transport this hope that he does everything in his power to deliever Lens Brown promise. Mike Lee is only annoyed with the National Governments 1954 approach to transport spending, but that doesn’t mean the CBD link will grind to a halt as demand for public transport is there and growing not like the 1950’s where it was on the decline.
How this would have played out with Banks? It wouldn’t have, he stated in the election camapig that he saw the loop as not a priority and only a long term project.
Cam, he said that near the end, when he realised he was committing himself too deeply, to something he and his mates didn’t really believe in. So he backpedalled. Together with the Dominion Road “buslanes to T2” debacle, it convinced me that all he had said earlier was fake too.
Once you get your service frequency up, buses feeding trains and a good scope of hours plus integrated ticketing you will have a snowball effect that will be increasingly difficult to stop. That’s our experience with the BUZ, once service levels are improved, these force infrastructure improvements and a public transport culture takes root and grows.
Keep improving your services as best you can, the overcrowding on trains will more than make the case for the tunnel. Voters know when they catch the train and it is bursting at the seams.
Maybe I have missed something, but hasn’t the govt simply said that *they* won’t fund it (for now)? Presumably it can still be built, if Auckland City chooses to fully fund the construction itself. But that would require building a solid case and selling to the ratepayers, something that seems unlikely to happen (both that the case could be sold well, and that the ratepayers would agree to pay for it — much easier to ask “the whole country” to contribute, it appears much more indirect). To me, that’s a shame (that there isn’t the vision to make it happen) because being less dependent on central govt is a main reason for having a SuperCity (TM).
You are ignoring the vital fact that central government pays for Wellington’s rail upgrades without a murmur. There is a deliberate agenda to “sprawl” and “suburbanize” Auckland, which would be most efficient for the manufacturing and export/import sectors (big motorways smashing all over the place), and to hell with the people who live there. They don’t WANT Auckland to be a real international city – why would they? They can afford to go to Australia or Europe whenever they want.
We must remember that right-wing politicians have nothing but contempt for working people, and thus for Auckland, where the majority of working people live in this country. They only care about their beach suburbs, their ports and their factory – the rest of the conurbation is a “mess” that’s “in the way” and they WOULD bulldoze it if they could find some way to make the workers drive in from Hamilton.
Doloras, I don’t quite think they are all so cynical. Many of them simply believe in individualism. And the private car is the ultimate expression of individualism, while public transport is, by necessity, a “community” thing that they don’t like being forced into themselves, and see as a lesser outcome for everyone else too.
Which is probably one of the big reasons why “the left” is happier with PT than “the right”.
Maybe I’m the one who’s cynical, but I generally don’t think that leading politicians of either major party “believe” anything in anything at all apart from their own self-interest and the self-interest of their constituents. The people who’re paid to write their speeches and their tame academics most definitely believe in individualism, but their employers only believe in MOAR PROFIT AND POWER NOW. Which is why they’re not ashamed to demand taxpayer perks and handouts (a real individualist would reject anything of the kind).
Doloras, I wouldnt overlook the fact that Auckland has already had a lot more money spent on the rail network than Wellington. I believe Wellingtons total cost is about $600 million. With the Manukau branch, electrification, project DART, etc, Auckland will have had about $1.5 billion spent on it apparently. Thats without the CBD loop. That said, I think they should build the CBD loop too.
Greg, fine if Auckland Council could collect the taxation base from Auckland residents… no a project this size needs govt. money, what would be Federal funds in the US or Australia….. a third of the population, but not to be trusted with pocket money yet, we aren’t grown-up enough, Uncle Steve will spend it for us on his Highways for his mate’s businesses and his trips to the beach.
I like the way Mike Lee gets straight to the point and titles his blog as “National SCREWS Auckland for the third time”… (maybe next time don’t vote National?)
To be fair, there are upgrades being taken, and patronage is growing, finally.
Cam, Manukau trains and ten minute frequencies within two years? All the trains that are planned, are in use right now. There are no new trains until 2014, so while there may be Manukau trains and ten minute frequencies within two years, they will only be provided by breaking up existing trains into smaller trains. There won’t be any greater capacity. Nobody is talking about this right now, but they will be over the coming months.