Huge public support for City Rail Link
As I mentioned in this post recently, I feel that generally the public understands Auckland’s transport situation and wants better public transport. However, the big problem is that they generally only consider transport when voting in local elections (not national elections), whereas it’s central government that holds most of the transport purse strings.…
16 Comments Future Proofing the City Rail Link
Now that Auckland Council & Auckland Transport have made the decision to push ahead with protecting the route for the City Rail Link, a process that will probably take a year or two as the designation and all the necessary consents are acquired, it’s a good time to start thinking about some of the design details for the project and also some important ways in which we can be clever about its design while ensuring that it is well future-proofed for whatever further rail projects Auckland might need over the lifespan of the CRL, which will be around for a very very long time.…
Guest Post: Tale of two cities
This is a Guest Post by regular commenter Patrick Reynolds. It was published as an Opinion Piece in a recent Sunday Star Times (though not online).
William Bambridge, flautist ‘of some competence’, future photographer Royal to Queen Victoria, and sire of no fewer than three all-England international footballers, made this observation in 1844: ‘I suppose as a whole Auckland is a gradually thriving place, tho’ as a town it is miserably laid out and built.’…
Has our Per Capita usage increased?
At the CBT Annual General Meeting yesterday there was a discussion at one point about public transport patronage and in particular, if most of the excellent growth of patronage we have seen over the last few years is the result of more people switching to using PT of if it is mainly due to population growth in the city and that it is those new residents that are the ones that are driving the growth. …
Improving Karangahape Road
I caught a different bus from usual today, as I had to drop my car off for a bit of a fix up in Pt Chevalier (cost: more than $400 or around six months worth of bus fares). On the way into, and out of, town I noticed that the Karangahape Road bridge over the motorway is well advanced in terms of its rebuild.…
Can transport be an election issue?
Auckland’s poor transport outcomes over the years are probably the result of one over-riding factor: that while we vote on transport matters in local elections, local governments don’t have much money, central government holds the purse strings. Yet when it comes to national elections, we tend to have much bigger issues on our mind (taxes, health, crime, education, the economy etc.)…
CBT’s annual general meeting
The Campaign for Better Transport is having its annual general meeting this evening. Here are the details:
We are delighted to confirm that Auckland Councillor Mike Lee will be speaking on the transport challenges facing Auckland right now at our Annual General Meeting.…
Dominion Road: smarter approach or cop out?
Auckland Transport has today finally got around to giving us some insight into where things are at on the proposed Dominion Road upgrade. This project has had a pretty long and messy history – coming to a head late last year when the former Auckland City Council wanted to turn the street into a four-lane superhighway when they preferred a T2 lane option over the normal bus lane that staff had suggested.…
Careful how you measure congestion
The NZ Herald is running a story today based on a study of Auckland’s most congested areas. According to the study, the worst congestion in Auckland is for those trying to make the trip between the city centre and Takapuna:
Morning traffic queues back from the Northern Motorway’s Esmonde Rd interchange mean Takapuna commuters face a harder slog to work for the distance travelled than other Aucklanders.…
Making transport fun
Much like broken hearted souls pining over lost loves, too many transport conversations in Auckland lament “missed opportunities” rather than celebrate “what could be.” Self-centred navel gazing is never attractive and rarely worthwhile; we risk taking transport too seriously. I hope this post can slap us out of our overly serious mood.…
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