Next week Auckland Transport’s new train timetables launch which as well as improving services on the network also improve legibility which is great for us, the users. It will also see all trains on the Eastern line be run using electric trains and those combined with improved reliability of the network and the old diesel fleet means AT are starting to realise that they have a service they can sell.
As a result they’ve now launched a fairly simply campaign called Shopping Adventures by Train saying:
Some of Auckland’s most exciting shopping areas are easily reached by train. Make your next shopping outing extra special and extra easy – travel by train!
No parking or traffic hassles, just spend more time shopping.
(click for a larger version)
I think this is quite a good idea from Auckland Transport, especially in the lead up to Christmas. One downside though is the Christmas/New Year shutdown means it’s not able to be 100% effective as people won’t be able to use trains if they want to go to shops on Boxing Day. This really needs to be the last year we close the network down over the holiday period.
A couple of other thoughts:
- It would be great to do this on a wider scale once the new bus network is rolled out.
- While most items are fairly easy to carry one public transport, there will always be some things that are awkward to lug around. Tying in PT use with some kind of home delivery service could make for a winning combo.
- It’s interesting that they talk about access to the shops in some cases but not others. In particular Henderson station is close to Westcity however the pedestrian access is horrid. By comparison access to Lynnmall from the station is super easy
As the entire PT network becomes increasingly developed and is able to offer a more compelling service lets hope we see a lot more campaigns from AT to get people using PT for a wider variety of trips. Perhaps next over summer could be “Bus to the Beach” highlighting the buses that travel to beaches such as Takapuna.
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Would be good if you could travel directly from the South to Manukau for shopping
The downsides of branch lines. Blame the planners that built Manukau away from the rail line, instead opting for motorway access.
At least one day there’s potential to extend the rail line from Manukau to Botany then loop back to Panmure. Even Howick might benefit. If the current generation puts half the effort into rail that the previous one did into motorways Auckland will set the tone for development in the rest of the country.
Sitting here in Howick looking at this map, and feeling kinda left out.
As with Manukau, it comes down to original planning of Howick based around access purely by private motor car.
Howick is a very old and established suburb. Some of its original houses date back to the late 1800s. You cannot blame the planners for it being car-centric, because unlike Manukau it’s not a planned development.
The town centre yes. Pakuranga Hwy, Bucklands Beach and Botany, nope. All planned around cars. Badly.
The planning of Howick as an independent town wasn’t based around the car, but the planning of incorporating the existing town of Howick into Auckland as a suburb was. The planning in this case isn’t laying out Howick itself, it’s choosing to build the roads from there to Panmure, surrounding old Howick with new sprawl, and doing nothing else.
Howick in the nineteenth century wasn’t car dependent, when it was a farming town and a military fort. Howick by the mid-to-late twentieth century was a car dependent suburb of a much larger city.
Howick was founded in 1840, a long time before cars. Even in the 1950s it was just a village for retired folk.
Much of Europe is a lot older but somehow they’ve managed to get quality PT (and cycling for that matter) into their towns. Enough with the excuses already.
In the late 50’s Howick was a 2.5km x 2.5km stand alone town. There was ample opportunity to provide quality PT links to this town. It was never done. The area around this town was built as auto dependant sprawl. http://maps.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/aucklandcouncilviewer/
Neil the problem isn’t the village of Howick [where I grew up!] but the wilfully stupid drive-only development of the farmland between Howick and the rest of the city in the postwar era, the powers that be, despite much advice to the contrary, refused to leave a right of way for a future Transit line. No cost, just a small reduction of the immediate greedy gain from flogging off every square inch. Now of course vast tracts of land have to given over to that great land eater- the car. Soooo Stooopid.
Bus lanes on the 6 lane Pak highway would make a huge difference but the drongos that pass for local government out your way don’t even push for them, so that money will be spent in other parts of the city and the SE is condemned to slide further into car-choked mediocrity.
But yes, as Bryce says, like Manukau City it’s only off the Transit map by design…. the world glorious brought to you by Motordom.
To be fair, very few cities have good train links to every suburb (Tokyo maybe?). If you are the kind of person who wants good PT on your door step, then Howick might not be the best place to live 🙁
Between Pakuranga Road and Botany Rd, there is no reason a RTN corridor, that serves the East well, could not be developed. Just needs political will.
Sounds like an excellent reason to be enthusiastic about the Congestion Free Network, which would deliver several rapid transit lines out east! http://www.congestionfree.co.nz/
If only the aforementioned drongos would wake up to this. The nimby’s are strong out here.
The post-WW2 Labour Government planned to build a rapid electric rail linee all over Auckland, one being from Orakei through St Heliers across the Tamaki estuary from Glendowie to Bucklands Beach through Howick and what is now Botany and rejoin the NIMT at Papatoetoe. These plans and this line (among many others) must have been brought to the attention of Halcrow-Thomas, as it appeared on the map in their report of 1950 (I have a low-resolution photocopy of it somewhere). However, in the meantime, Labour lost the 1949 general election to National and “the rest is history” – so far.
Free advertising for Westfield, a company that in New Zealand has hitherto done its best to discourage access to its facilities by public transport. Maybe the recent acquisition of 49% of the company by the government of Singapore may change this antediluvian thinking, but I doubt it. I do wonder though why AT is apparently using public funds to support the corporate sector, but, I guess, AT management already think they’re in the corporate sector, so that’s alright then. Sensibly, AT should also have put the Northern Busway on the map noting connections to Albany, for example, but then you realise there aren’t any, which just goes to show exactly how deficient our PT network remains.
Northern Busway should absolutely be on the RTN map and be shown in conjunction with the rail network. Last Sunday (free trains, normal fares on NEX) was a prime example of how AT still view the busway and rail network as 2 separate things when they are actually the same – RTN lines.
Ever walked from Albany busway station to the mall? It’s like being on a farm.
Yes but someone on the ‘Shore might also get the idea to catch the bus-train to Sylvia Park.
A Nextbike stall at Albany Station would be pretty handy.
Incorrect, farms are interesting places teeming with signs of life 😉
LOL!
Wairau Park is fairly accesible too, but it’s brutal to walk around and no chance in hell of cycling there.
Wouldn’t be too difficult to fix. If AC/AT and the business owners wanted it.
It.s brutal even by car
Only two of the six shopping areas are Westfield malls (who goes to Newmarket for Two Double Seven?). This is one of those areas where AT have to be proactive and take the lead in promoting PT for shopping, and when the mall owners see the benefits, then opefully they’ll start orienting their developments around better PT connections (such as airbridge to West City, covered access to Sylvia Park).
maybe shopping centres could give a discount to PT shoppers, or a coffee or some appreciation for making them save money on carparking?
…flash your HOP card; get a discount. Good idea for AT to team up with marketers of major shopping destinations…..
I don’t imagine any smart thinking like that from Westfield, but KIPT (Sylvia Park, Lynnmall) might be keen if it was suggested. Too late for this year probably, but maybe we should lead the charge for next year?
Japanese are not major users of EFTPOS compared to NZ for small purchases, but scan payment by transit card is very common, particularly cafes and vending machines but increasingly in large retailers like UNIQLO where people buy clothes with Pasmo or Suica cards in Tokyo as an example . AT have presumably already seen their disruptive potential of HOP to the small cashless market and take on EFTPOS and pay wave systems.
Previous christmases Lynnmall had a free delivery promotion… happening this year?
KIPT [Lynnmall, Sylvia Park] are much better about PT than Westfield.
Assuming this excellent campaign idea has been developed by AT in conjunction with various retailers, let’s hope it generates some synergies that see improvements to directional signage and pedestrian flows between stations and shopping areas. The good thing about being a tourist in major cities overseas is there are signs everywhere, often inside shops indicating directions and distance to the subway/metro so getting lost is never a problem.This is lacking in Auckland.
Would also be opportune for an operator to develop user pays bag lockers near stations, so after you’ve done your shopping you can store it while you go to movies or dinner before catching your train or bus home. .
St Lukes is only a km from Morningside station, id consider that to be a walkable distance. One more mall accessible by train.
Bikeshare would make that even more attractive.
Luke I think observed behaviour suggests that most don’t agree with you on that. 1km now is too far for most, so they drive.
I doubt it would burn off the calories from a cheeseburger scoffed at the foodcourt
It’s not a great walk though and then you get to St Lukes and have to find a way in. They only have one entry that doesn’t involve walking through the car park. I hope whatever plans they have included active edges along Morningside Road and St Lukes Road.
It’s weird how bad the walk into St Lukes is, across the carpark. I mean, most of their customers arrive by car, and so the average shopper is going to be doing a lot of walking through the carpark. You’d think they’d make more of an effort.
I don’t think Auckland has a mall more hostile towards pedestrians than St Lukes. You can’t even see an entrance from the street (any street!).
Even attempting to catch a bus to and from the location is far harder than it should be – on many occasions I’ve watched a city-bound bus arrive on Morningside Drive, load up a dozen or so passengers and leave, all while I’m waiting for traffic to slow enough so I can cross the road and board said bus. It’s infuriating.
The mall is well supported by bus links, yet it does absolutely nothing to accomodate those who make use of them. AT doesn’t appear to give a shit about them, either, as the bus stops in the area are all far too small, and the footpaths, much too narrow. The wonderful four-lane St Lukes motorway obviously takes precedent here.
The lone Morningside Drive crossing is located at the the St Lukes Rd intersection, right where people are least likely to cross. Meanwhile, the St Lukes Rd crossing drops pedestrians right on an island situated between two vehicle accessways.
I haven’t even mentioned the wonderful paint-as-infrastructure pedestrian path which tracks past the food court’s dumpsters…
Nicely said Dan. St Lukes is aggressively hostile to pedestrians, it’s almost as if it it tries to shun people from it. I used to live on Kingsway Ave and enjoyed the walk up to the mall before having to almost grit my teeth through the entrance, such is the terrible pedestrian access.
We can only hope that Westfield will have had some sort of change of heart and make the mall more pedestrian-friendly when the expansion (they have consent for) down Morningside Drive begins. If they reduce the psychological distance (unfriendly entrances etc.) to go with the slightly reduced physical distance to Morningside Station, they could find a nicely increase in the clientele coming by PT… which can only be a good thing, how the carparks fill up at peak times.
“We can only hope that Westfield will have had some sort of change of heart and make the mall more pedestrian-friendly when the expansion (they have consent for)”
That’s the problem right there. Rather than hoping that developments provide both active and pt infrastructure, out of the goodness of their hearts; the governance of this city should simply require it.
Westfield London built two massive malls at Stratford and Shepherd’s Bush. I haven’t looked into Stratford but in the case of Shepherds’s Bush they paid many millions towards the rail infrastructure. The whole development effectively sit’s atop a rail, bus and underground interchange, the mall parking building has a direct connection onto the motorway. The walk access to the mall is via an integrated, external, pedestrianised street, parking is “round the back”.
None of this was out of the goodness of their hearts.
Personally, I hate malls and like to think Internet shopping was invented to avoid them, but if this city wants to be “liveable”, a bit less ask and a little more tell wouldn’t go amiss.
Agree re St Lukes car park, it is walkable from my house but horrible to go through the car park, especially with kids.
“While most items are fairly easy to carry one public transport, there will always be some things that are awkward to lug around. Tying in PT use with some kind of home delivery service could make for a winning combo.”
I have been calling for some time for a Takkyubin type service – like the ubiquitous Yamato Transport Company.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/Yamato_Transport_logo.svg/180px-Yamato_Transport_logo.svg.png
It’s easy shopping in Japan that you can just tick the date and the 2 hour time block you want your purchase delivered in. Great for getting larger items or if the shop branch doesn’t have something you want in stock. Freight companies there also deliver luggage to and from airports and train stations so people can travel by PT unencumbered by heavy baggage.
While NZ has been behind on these sorts of services the growth of the package industry driven by online trade is seeing major improvements to user preferences in courier and freight businesses. CourierPost for example now offer evening deliveries and online redirections.
I was a senior exec 2009/2010 in the JV Deutsche Post-DHL has with Yamato Transport Japan. One of our key clients was IKEA. A large proportion of purchases in IKEA stores in Japan are hand carry items – often the equivalent of 2-3 medium-sized plastic shopping bags worth and surprise, surprise, those purchases are predominatly made by customers visiting the store via bus, train or using both PT modes for their inward and outward journeys. For between JPY750-1,500 (NZD8.00-16.00 at the current exchange rate) Yamato’s Kuroneko Takkyubin service would deliver those goods from an IKEA store to customer residences within a 15km radius.
2-3 plastic bags worth of items often comprises a table lamp, cutlery and crockery sets, a duvet cover and bed sheet set, 3-4 storage accessories and/or a cushion.
With Yamato delivery bases already located within reasonably close proximity to each IKEA store, we made use of the Takkyubin’s milk run delivery procedure whereby delivery vans would call by an IKEA store at regular intervals throughout the day on their way to other pickup / delivery locations. Customers visiting an IKEA store in the morning would receive their goods at home late that afternoon or early evening and goods bought late afternoon and evening at the store, would be delievered the following morning. The delivery costs for the customer were kept low because we were able to make use of existing delivery procedures and only operate the service upto a maximum of 15km – a distance that covered most of a store’s catchment area.
Perhaps a similar approach could be trialled in Auckland – working with NZ Post to keep delivery pricing and timing at an attractive level.
Rob,
Interesting.
I read the other day that NZ Post are moving away from traditional bikes to small on footpath “one man” delivery vehicles that can carry far more than even a cargo bike can.
Perhaps this indicates that they are looking at this sort of thing for survival of NZ Post and if so its a worthwhile idea.
I’ve long said that with rise of online shopping as a consumer I will probably have a better and longer relationship with the guy who delivers my online shopping to me than the outfit I order it from.
And maybe a return to the old days of when shops would deliver your stuff to you.
It would take a huge cultural change for Westfield to be interested in PT. Remember it was them who didn’t want the Manukau Station anywhere near their shopping mall.
Funny coz in New South Wales Westfield would be the biggest supporter of transit oriented shopping. The list is very long – Parramatta, Chatswood, Miranda, Blacktown, Hurstville, Bondi Junction, Hornsby, Burwood and on it goes.
You won’t be taking the train anywhere for the boxing day sales. Also where is st lukes mall, just a brisk walk from Morningside. Quite car centric though, you can’t even access it without crossing carparks etc lol, Henderson westcity is pretty simular in that regard though from the train station.
When the Henderson rail station and West City were re-building at about the same time, the Waitakere Council tried at some length to interest Westfield in a bridge or good pedestrian connection to the new rail station, but they weren’t interested in customers who didn’t come with a car boot. Westfield enticed the Postshop out of Railside Ave, then barricaded the previous arcade link to it. The Council forced them to put in a more direct connection out to Railside Ave, but within a year they had incorporated it within a shop store-room and cut the link.
Why are the big box stores at Pukekohe not mentioned in this campaign? The Warehouse, Kathmandu, Repco, Stationery Warehouse and a range of smaller shops are all just over the new footbridge from the Pukekohe Station. (It should be noted that many of the parknrides at Pukekohe use the parking spaces of the shopping area. DIY people in Auckland might also be interested in the engineering retail (aimed at farmers) on Manukau Road, only a 4 minute walk from the station at Pukekohe.
Because people aren’t going to travel down from other parts of Auckland all the way to Pukekohe just to look at Warehouse Stationary, Kathmandu etc. Those who will go there will be locals or people who live further south, so wont be using the train to get there anyway.
Many other stations on the network have big box stores around them too.
So first day back at work for Auckland Council is officially 5 January, but guess what? The trains aren’t running on the western line (Henderson office) until 12 Jan, and rail buses don’t take bikes. Looks like I’m going to need to step up my cycling – cycling the whole way into Henderson is barely slower than taking the bus according to the timetables.