History Repeats?
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?…
23 Comments e2 transport – cities leading from the front
For those slightly tired of endless analyses of the CBD Rail Tunnel’s business case, here’s a great video from the “e2 transport” series – which can often be seen on TVNZ7 at 7.30pm on Monday nights. It is interesting to note that on a lot of big picture issues – whether it be addressing climate change or changing transport patterns, it often seems to be city level governments that lead the way.…
What is the alternative to building the CBD Rail Tunnel?
As I’m sure most readers would have recognised from my most recent posts on the CBD Rail Tunnel review, the thing that frustrates me most about the work done by the Ministry of Transport is their blatant ignorance of the big question: “what is the alternative to the project?”…
CBD Tunnel Review: my thoughts on the Council document
As I noted in yesterday’s blog post, which focused on the Ministry of Transport review of the CBD Rail Tunnel business case, Auckland Council – in conjunction with Auckland Transport and a wide variety of international consultants, also reviewed the business case.…
CBD Tunnel Review: my thoughts on the MOT document
Well, what an interesting day. The review of the CBD rail tunnel project – a process that has been ongoing since December last year – finally spat out its results. And I stress the plurality of those results, because effectively we have ended up with two reviews: one from Ministry of Transport and Treasury officials, and one from Auckland Council, Auckland Transport and their various consultants.…
Auckland Council’s CBD Tunnel Review
In addition to the government’s review, here is Auckland Council’s full review of the CBD Tunnel – http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/City-Rail-Link-Summary-Report-13-May-2011.pdf
The executive summary:
Historically, a range of proposals have been developed for a rail tunnel through the Auckland city centre. In 2010, a preferred route for a tunnel, the City Rail Link, was identified and work commenced on a concept design and Business Case to support designation of the route.…
CBD Tunnel Review
My understanding is that the review of the CBD rail tunnel project is to be released today by the Ministry of Transport. The key question is whether the Minister will allow KiwiRail to proceed with the designation protecting the tunnel’s route, with Auckland Council paying for that work at this point.…
What happened to “B-Line”?
Back in the middle of last year two “B-Line” routes were launched in Auckland, along Dominion Road and Mt Eden Road. I was a bit ambivalent about them at the time, mainly because they “undersold” the actual quality of those two bus routes.…
Darby Street Video
Auckland Council have put together a really great video on the Darby Street shared space: I was just wandering around Darby and Elliott streets at lunch time today. It was heartening to see so many pedestrians, and also to see what good progress there is on Elliott Street.…
Falling into your own trap: the problem with fixating over technology
It’s impossible to be in transport circles for too long before the good old arguments of ‘buses versus trains’ or ‘BRT versus LRT’ and so forth come along. I suppose that it’s inevitable to end up in such technological debates – as while each technology tends to be best suited for a particular type of job, there’s an enormous level of crossover.…
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