On Friday Night Prime TV’s Prime Time with Shaun Plunket hosted a debate on transport with Gerry Brownlee, Julie Anne Genter, Cameron Pitches and Ken Shirley (CEO of the Road Transport Forum). You can watch the discussion here.
There wasn’t anything new that came up from the discussion however perhaps my favourite part of the whole thing was before the cameras started rolling. The picture below emerged on twitter from before the debate showing Julie Anne and Gerry in a discussion. I find this picture fantastic in so many ways and it has one of my favourites of the election (so far). So lets have some fun with a caption competition.
Comments to be funny and not abusive
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“All this rational talk about rail travel is going to make my head explode! No more no more”
I don’t want to see or hear the truth. And the thought of getting on that bike . . . get me out of here!
Ah frak, its just not my day today. First that bloody bike behind me, now this chick talking stuff about buses and trains and that I won’t have a car after 20 September….its doing my head in! Christ I need a pie right now…
“Final question Gerry. It’s just simple maths. A SUV is travelling this direction on the congested motorway at 12km/h with 1 occupant; and a new electric train is travelling along this bit of railway at 67km/h with 513 occupants. At what point do the calculations say will you stop building more and more motorways?”
“This woman is the most rational economic conservative in parliament… I joined the wrong party!”
In all seriousness and off topic, who loads flash vids any more?? Couldn’t watch the video 🙁
Caption: if we don’t drive, how am I supposed to get my Mc Donald’s?
I just get a SKY TV error page when I try to click through to the video from my iPad.
Can the moderators embed the video here?
“Oh my God, Julie Anne, you’re right! How come no-one told me this six years ago? Just think of all the public transport, cycling and walking I could have spent money on instead of those motorways…” (OK, maybe wishful thinking…)
The bully-boy condescending tactics used in New Zealand are shameful Gerry and friend.
Gerry, yes remove your head please and place it here on the table.
“A significant majority of Aucklanders want more investments in public transport than motorways?! I just can’t wrap my head around it!”
“My god Julie, my head is going to explode. Are you a subversive sent from Canada to destroy the economic future of the country?”
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/65065/david-chaston-crunches-numbers-auckland-transport-system-and-finds-fixed-rail-will-be-
Yep flag all of the economic analysis, this back of the envelope rubbish is better…..
Sailor boy, but these numbers ARE IN LINE with the economic analysis.
While there may be a positive bc for the economy, the massive rail subsidies required in perpetuity limits future generations transport options.
Even though the subsidy will vastly reduce as patronage gets much larger with lower operating costs. Also, providing another transport option that is useful always improves transport choice.
Unlike the massive subsidies to roading which only get greater as more users come on line.
We already have the rail network. It would be ridiculous not to exploit it to its full potential.
Buses are great and we need a lot more bus lanes and BRT. But rail also has an important part to play. It is not one size fits all.
To both Pete and Tracy. The numbers in that article are the direct result of underinvesting in the network and making it near useless. Running expensive old kit with few riders will always make for horrible maths. This is at last changing on both sides of the ledger. The new electric trains are much cheaper to run and the improved services are attracting more and more riders every year. So the cost per journey is on a secular decline.
However, we can improve that much more by radically increasing the efficiency and attractiveness of the whole network. Building the CRL is key to this. Our calculations estimate that farebox recovery should approach 80% once the system is optimised.
Furthermore running costs DO include train purchase and maintenance, and track access. The former is paid for by a loan to AT, with interest, from the gov, and the later is an annual multimillion dollar charge to Kiwi Rail paid by AT (Contrast with grants and interest free loans for recent m’way bloatings).
Further-furthermore, the train system is indivisible from the bus network. Trains, buses, and ferries all play important roles in Auckland’s growing and improving Transit system. The writer of that article takes buses, good on him. So should all the ferries be stopped cos he doesn’t? There is a very common but completely erroneous idea among the train hating community that it is a case of trains or buses. This just simply insist the case. We need both, and the great opportunity now is to unlock the hidden capacity in the existing rail network. Because it’s there, and because it’s not on the roads competing with all other road users.
Finally. The NZTA calculates every peak hour journey on the AK rail network to be valued at 17.42 FOR ROAD USERS, this is quite apart from the value to the train user themselves. So there are many external benefits, including road decongestion ones, that the rail network in Auckland deliver that are not captured by your friend’s math.
“See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil….”
“Nyaaah nyaah nyaah nyaah, can’t hear yoooou, not liiiistening, nyaah nyaah nyaaah….”
http://www.frontpage.co.nz has a transcript. One of these captions is pretty close to what Gerry actually said!
What do you mean I have to catch the train back to Wellington?
“Alright, alright, alright, I’ll build the damn City Rail Link. Just for the love of god please, please, please stop talking about BCRs!”
Jeez, Julie-Anne…I rode my bike in today – can’t you just give me a break with the logical arguments?
“I can’t believe it! The Roads of National Significance programme was actually a white elephant all along!”
Gerry’s brain is unable to compute not building more motorways.
Gerry struggles to comprehend the concept of public transport.
” … and then … you too, Jerry, would be riding a bike …”
I don’t have a problem with the National Party or John Key. It’s Gerry Brownlee and Steven Joyce that need to go.
But John Key is supposedly in charge of his ministers yet has done nothing to modify the transport-diktats of Joyce and Brownlee. Therefore Key is complicit.
And unless they all experience some sort of mind-shifting epiphany in the very near future, this is what we are guaranteed to get if National remains in government.
So think hard before you vote for them!
“Then we put motorways on a diet- Gerry, are you okay? What did I say?”
the pies are all gone gerry
Not funny.
So Gerry, the motorway will be *this big*.
More seriously, could we please keep the comments reasonably respectful.
Why George?
Several of us here gave him the benefit of the doubt when he took over.
It was foolish of us, as he was just the same as the last one.
He deserves 0 respect
No, Gerry, this is the AVERAGE length.
Gerry “My head is hurting. You use economic analysis to attack our roads of national significance yet ignore it completely in your support for Wellington rail”
Gerry: “Make it stop, make it stop!”
Julie Anne: “And so that’s how 2 + 2 = 5”
*deleted as completely inappropriate*
This hair of the dog isn’t working…
“You only have to move the platter this much to the left..”
“Darn it, where’s Ken got to, he’d come up with a good answer, like he always does”
What! You mean my champagne isn’t actually my favourite Dom 63? I’ve been robbed!
@ Gerry Brownlee
I took the train Auck-Well for business when it ran overnight. Always got a good and refreshing sleep. Sure beats getting up at 4am for the red-eye flight! And the train always seemed to be well-used, but now the choice has gone.
The day-train eats up a whole day, so it is harder to justify unless you really want to use it for its own sake. Having said that, it is useful for accessing small intermediate places (such as skiing at Ohakune), but this advantage has also been eroded by the deletion of various intermediate stops and the train only now running 3 times per week.
Make it less-and-less useful and hey presto, people will use it less and less.
Gerry: “You go on about all that crap but DAMN YOU, YOU GOT A CLOSER PARK THAN I DID!”
(bike in background)