Veolia’s profit doubles even though patronage declines
This bit of news caught my eye a week or so back, although at the time we were a bit overrun with Unitary Plan matters. It seems that Veolia is doing quite well out of their Auckland rail contract:
Veolia Transport Auckland, which runs the city’s urban passenger trains, almost doubled its annual profit last year after it changed the way it does business.…
35 Comments Did the MOT get the Land Transport Management Bill Wrong?
Last night the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill passed on it’s third reading, which means that it is set to become law soon.
The Land Transport Management Act dates from 2003 and it set up the New Zealand Transport Agency and established the rules under which it operates in order to achieve “an affordable, integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable land transport system”.…
Sprawl and Housing Affordability
Whether or not having a ‘limit’ around the edge of Auckland (call it a MUL or a RUB of whatever) drives up the cost of housing is a fairly long-running debate. The argument in favour of this assumption is encapsulated by an opinion piece in the NZ Herald a week or so back by Don Brash:
At the moment, less than 1 per cent of New Zealand’s area is urbanised.…
Good news for Queens Birthday
Hopefully everyone had a good long weekend and while people may wish they were still on holiday rather than back at work/school/whatever, at least everyone has had the opportunity to do that.
For the first time since records began there has not been a single road death during the Queen’s Birthday weekend.…
NZTA Post Implementation Reviews
One of the most important parts of any project is to review it after completion to see what went right, what went wrong and to see if the project did what it was expected to. This is especially important with transport projects due to the often massive costs involved in new or upgraded infrastructure.…
Wiri Update
Early last month Matt and I visited the construction site of the new Electric train facility in Wiri under Gothic skies and were very impressed to see how much progress is being made compared to our last visit: Above the view from the north, the reverse, below: This shot taken from the new foot bridge seen here: and here: It won’t be long now before this stabling yard will be full of shiny new trains: Inside the main building with its seven maintenance berths, overhead gantries, and whole train jacking systems: Here’s a bunch of German made jacks waiting to be installed in pits so full three car sets can be elevated at once: All looking very impressive and on target for commissioning as the trains arrive.…
How does a giraffe get to work?
*** Have you ever wondered how a giraffe gets to work? Read on and you will find out – the following poem was inspired by Darren Fidler and penned by Christopher Llewelyn. For those of you who are parents of young children, I’d suggest reading them this poem to help them understand how a multi-modal transport system is able to meet the needs of a relatively diverse range of “customers” 😉 *** It’s a little known fact, but definitely true,
The animals only work at the zoo.…
Fran O’Sullivan on the Unitary Plan
Ok so while the Unitary Plan submission period is over and I intended on not writing about it for a while, I really couldn’t go past a piece in the Herald today from Fran O’Sullivan. She seems to have picked up many of the points that we, and others have made.…
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