Shifting the problem, not solving it
It’s generally accepted that the Victoria Park Tunnel represents probably the most cost-effective project out of the entire Roads of National Significance package. This was confirmed by the SAHA report, which puts the VPT miles ahead of any other project in terms of its cost-benefit ratio:
For southbound traffic, the project has worked wonders – at least making it easier for traffic to access State Highway 16 westbound (which will be important post Waterview Connection as the primary route from the North Shore to the Airport), the Port and the Cook Street offramp.…
11 Comments A Further Look at O’Connell St: High St Hinterland
Thinking about the best way forward with O’Connell St [see here for proposed changes] surely must take into account what we want to see happen in the surrounding area. At the northern end is Shortland St and that won’t be too affected by any of the options although it would probably benefit from simplified movements by closing O’Connell to traffic.…
No Bus Strikes
Some great news has just come out that NZ Bus and the Tramways Union have come to an agreement over their industrial dispute which means that there won’t be any strikes, something that would have severely dented the reputation of public transport right at a time when we are about to start talking the most positive change in for buses in decades.…
Your Chance to Look at the EMU Mockup
The EMU mockup has been in the country for a while now and has been used to refine the design for our new trains, now that AT have finished using it for that purpose it is now on display to the public so if you haven’t seen it, now is your chance as it has been moved to MOTAT.…
Noisy bus advertisements – like torture!
I’ve been catching Inner Link buses this week – rather unusually for me but that’s how things are at the moment. Generally I have found them to be pretty fantastic: incredibly frequent, pretty fast (especially now that there’s no longer the enormous detour down into the city between K Road and Grafton Bridge) and quite consistent with their timing.…
News Flash: Old Stuff Costs a Lot to Run
The owners of any heritage cars or buildings will tell you that it costs a lot to keep them operating in good condition. Well it’s not surprising that the same is true for our trains, some of which were actually museum pieces before Auckland bought them and put them back to work for another 20 years.…
Would You Like Some Integrated Fares To Go With That New Bus Network
At Transport Committee last week we finally got some more detail on both the new bus network but also finally hearing some information about integrated fares. There has been some talk about this already in the media but we deliberately held off discussing it so that we could provide you with some pictures from the presentations shown at the meeting. …
Buses sign up with Thales
This media release somehow passed us by last week, but is welcome confirmation that Thales will now provide the bus ticketing solution for all operators in Auckland – along with trains and ferries:
Auckland Transport said today, it was pleased to confirm Auckland’s bus consortium has advised its members will install Thales hardware on their bus fleets as part of the preparation towards Auckland’s integrated ticketing system.…
Turning down the driving tap
Over the last few years we have continued to see that vehicle volumes on our roads have stopped growing, in fact in most cases they have even dropped, especially when looked at on a per capita level. Of the traffic volumes that the NZTA release monthly, the only one close to the centre of Auckland is the Harbour bridge.…
O’Connell St upgrade, another cop out?
Auckland has started taking a few small steps to transform the CBD the the introduction of shared spaces around the city and unsurprisingly they have been a huge success. However since the Fort St one opened just over a year ago things have gone quiet on rolling upgrades out to more streets, presumably so that things like the City Centre Master Plan (CCMP) could be completed confirming that street scape upgrades were still the plan going forward.…
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