Auckland’s population to hit 2 million by 2031
The NZ Herald reports that latest population estimates show Auckland’s population increasing from the current 1.5 million to almost 2 million by 2031 – out of a total NZ population that will be over 5 million by that point:
New subnational population projections show Auckland will continue to be New Zealand’s fastest growing region, and account for three-fifths of the country’s population growth between 2011 and 2031.…
65 Comments Guest Post: Improving housing affordability
This is a Guest Post by commenter Tim Robinson
Fixing Auckland’s housing problems is rightly high on the local and national agenda. Barely a day goes by without the Herald trumpeting the one side or the other of the real estate prices argument, and Auckland Council acknowledges that the issue is a key consideration in the Auckland Plan.…
Does Brian Rudman need some new glasses?
It might be time for Brian Rudman to get some new glasses as in his latest piece he seems to have been confused by various route maps in the draft Regional Public Transport Plan.
What is alarming is the fate of Queen St, which in 2007 got a $40 million makeover, complete with nikau palms and Chinese granite paving.…
What should we call our EMUs
This is something I have been thinking about for a little while and it seems I wasn’t the only one. A letter to Mike Lee that was included in the transport committee agenda suggests that a public competition be held to come up with a name for the our new electric trains (EMUs).…
Northwest Busway Plans
Last week there was a report and presentation to the Council’s transport committee about the Northwest Busway, asking that a ‘staged approach’ to implementing busway be supported. The minutes confirm that the Committee did support this approach. It seems the main driver of the recent support for this project is the realisation that the northwest is planned to grow significantly over the next 30 years – with this fact being well illustrated in the graph below: The numbers are pretty massive, but that’s not too surprising when you look at the area in question and the changes proposed for it by the Auckland Plan’s development strategy:
One agency that seems somewhat far from impressed with the relatively recent surge of support for this project is NZTA.…
Thinking about fares – Some perspectives on zones, products, and concessions
As many of you will know, Auckland Transport (AT) recently released the draft Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP). One of the more interesting parts of the plan relates to fare systems, which proposes to establish several geographic zones that more or less radiate out from the city centre, as well as some changes to ticket products.…
Kiwirail Electrification Update
Kiwirail gave an update to the transport committee last week on progress with electrification in Auckland. Some of it was fairly detailed and it used a lot of acronyms but I will try to pull out the bits that I think are interesting or important.…
An RPTP Storm in a Tea Cup
It seems that every plan has something that gets people up in arms but that in the end turns out to be a bit of a storm in a teacup and for the draft Regional Public Transport Plan it seems that issue has been found.…
Showing the benefits of the new PT network
I love the proposed new PT network that Auckland Transport has announced but if there is one Achilles heel to it, it is that the general public might not comprehend just how much of an improvement the network is. People get very attached to their specific routes so anything that suggest changes to that can cause people to become concerned and opposed.…
Thinking about fare zones
One of the most interesting piece of information in the Draft Regional Public Transport Plan – along with the fabulous new bus network – is a first look at the possible zone boundaries for Auckland’s new integrated fares system. This is shown in the map below:
Setting zone boundaries and coming up with the preferred number of zones must be one heck of a difficult task as there are so many things to balance: The fewer zones you have, the easier the system is to understand
The more zones you have, the less likely fares will change much from their current level and the lower chances there are of massive arbitrary jumps in fares
The lower the fare is for each zone, the less farebox recovery there will be
The higher the fare is, the more people who will be put off catching PT by the cost Auckland does have the advantage of a natural geography which splits the city relatively neatly into different parts.…
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