Some great news today from Auckland Transport, that they’ve now awarded the contracts for the first two stages of the City Rail Link.
The City Rail Link (CRL) takes another significant step forward with the announcement today of the appointment of two construction consortia to commence the first phase of the CRL construction in the Downtown area.
Project director Chris Meale says there was wide interest from the New Zealand construction industry and Auckland Transport has appointed two Joint Venture contractors for the work; Downer NZ and Soletanche Bachy JV and Connectus (McConnell Dowell and Hawkins JV) for the first phase of design at a cost of about $3 million. The next phase will provide for a negotiated contract to construct the City Rail Link.
The Downer lead joint venture has been chosen to progress the CRL work through and under Britomart Station and Queen Street to the Downtown Shopping Centre site with construction likely to start in early 2016.
The contract includes establishing temporary accommodation for Britomart Station’s ticketing and customer service operations, underpinning the historic former Chief Post Office building, to allow the construction of the rail tunnels beneath and reinstating Britomart Station and upgrading urban space and surrounding roads.
“We are excited to have won a contract for what will be the most significant improvement to Auckland’s transport network since the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge,” says Chris Moloney of Downer.
The Connectus Consortium will construct the cut and cover tunnels under and along Albert St from Customs St to Wyndham St. The work is likely to start in October with the relocation of a major stormwater line in Albert Street between Swanson and Wellesley Streets.
“McConnell Dowell and Hawkins have a combined history of over 100 years in infrastructure construction in New Zealand. It’s enormously satisfying to be working together on a transport project that is helping to shape the future,” says Roger McRae, managing director, McConnell Dowell.
“Auckland’s population is set to grow rapidly over the next 20 years, reaching close to two million with nearly four out of every 10 New Zealanders calling the city home.”Auckland Transport’s Chris Meale says: “We are now definitely on the way to building a key missing link in our city’s public transport network. Once completed, the CRL will turn a one way cul-de-sac rail system at Britomart, into a two way through system that will be able to carry 30,000 people an hour, providing an efficient and reliable transport choice for Aucklanders.”
In another positive I also like how they’re talking about the project in that last paragraph.
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Fantastic!
I think it’s great as well. The sooner it gets started the sooner it will be finished.
I know your political reality but I worry if Auckland Council isn’t able to decisively and categorically announce the commencement of the CRL. There will be nothing worse in the public mind if large sums are committed but the public are not fully aware the project is underway and what benefits it will bring.
Over here, the NSW Government has been very successful in overturning a century of doubt and forcefully pushing through the North West Rail Link, and has earned a mountain of credibility to spend on less well supported improvements, like the extension of this system under the CBD and to the other side of Sydney.
Sydney is certainly a long way ahead of Auckland in terms of existing rail infrastructure.
Good lord. Is Auckland finally about to get some developed country rail network?
“Is Auckland finally about to get some developed country rail network?”
It appears so.
I’m certainly looking forward to having all of ‘Auckland’ infrastructure bought up to 1st world standards. Oh wait….
Tony, all projects are somewhere and no project is everywhere, this kvetching by Shoreites is very boring; it reeks of petulant over-entitlement. The only new Rapid Transit project on any scale since the 1930s is on the Shore, why is this part of Auckland home to the loudest complainers? And, you know, you can use the CRL too, yes that’s right, there’ll be no passport control keeping out the 20% of Aucklanders who choose to live on the lovely beachy side of the harbour. Furthermore, this is going to open the floodgates of upgrades and extensions to more places, Mangere, and yes over the harbour.
This blog is home of the best plan for a rail based harbour and Shore spine solution that we believe can and should replace the current nasty and over-priced road-only plan. Why begrudge current projects in other parts of your city, how about instead focussing on how this is a transformational upgrade for your city and not only great in itself but also a major step towards this kind of solution spreading to more areas.
It’s interesting that many on the Shore consider themselves apart from what they often call ‘Auckland’, like they are outside it, yet seem to only express this as a complaint, not with pride? Why not join in with all of us everywhere in the city, we’re all somewhere distinct too, yet also seem to understand we’re also part of a whole.
It’s only a bit of water.
What about Britomart, DART and electrification? These are all major rapid transit projects.
The North Shore has had some of the highest increases in rates due to the super city and we were never given a say on the amalgamation. I think that is where a lot of the discontentment stems from.
Fair call; Dart and electrification are major upgrades, but are not new routes, that’s only happened on the Shore. No, the kvetching from the Shore is about feeling special, Shore people had the same input into the whole thing as people in Howick, or Ponsonby, or Henderson, or Otara. Do you mean you didn’t have an extra special option that on one else had? True, so you didn’t get a level of treatment that matches your sense of specialness?
Well, I’ve no idea what you’re on about there Patrick but, the I can tell you about the view from just outside of Helensville.
It’s pretty farking bleak.
So while you guys can sit around celebrating a long fought win, I’m quietly seething over not being able to get a simple pot hole filled with some stones.
My Auckland? My arse.
No one on the shore would want to deny other areas a democratic say in the amalgamation either. Nothing to do with feeling special. Not wanting your rates to go up a double digit rates in perpetuity isn’t about feeling special, it’s about not wanting to be ripped off.
Nice way to reinforce Patrick’s point Tony. We have pot holes on my street in Remuera area too. Yes that’s the middle of the city, luckily enough a couple of us locals filled it in ourselves with some cold asphalt mix from bunnings. But I suspect the Shoreites wouldn’t want to get their hands dirty like us city folk.
Well, that’s nice Josh. But again, I wouldn’t know about what the ‘Shoreites’ are up to.
Funnily enough (or not), some of the residents up here in RODNEY have taken to attempting to grade the tracks to some sort of passable road. ATs response? “Hands off! We have standards to adhere to, do you know”.
Irony or Hypocrisy, you chose.
Ps, I invite you to come up and sample some of these roads I speak of. You could do what AT did and hire 4 wheel drives to navigate them. Safety first!
Which roads? I spend a lot of time in Rodney, recreationally and for work.
Here’s a small list for you
https://at.govt.nz/media/736578/Seal-extensions-banded-list-September-2014.pdf
From a quick look, a lot of those roads are very low volume traffic roads, even some that are high on the priority list. They simply don’t get the traffic volumes to justify spending large amounts of money on them, and maintenance costs are much higher when in those locations. Heck a drive on a couple of the high priority roads regularly and they are not that bad, OK they are not to city standard roads, but nor do they get city road volumes.
How can we justify delaying projects that benefits a large percentage of Auckland’s population (all whom pay the same volume of rates compared to the value of their properties) that have been neglected for decades, compared to projects that benefits a few and only been neglected for years. These roads should be kept in serviceable condition within the current maintenance budget, however don’t see the need to go re-grading and paving a lot of these immediately.
I’ve never tried to justify delaying your projects. We just want some farking projects of our own AS WELL.
The councils response is a program to seal 5, yes 5, roads over a 10 year, yes 10 year, period.
As for rates, again I am paying damn near the same as anyone else with a property of similar value yet receiving virtually nothing in return. Justify that.
As for maintenance, THEY ARE NOT BEING KEPT IN A SERVICEABLE CONDITION.
Yes, we’re angry. You can see this by how many submissions made to council over the LTP. Have a look at the numbers by area.
In terms of roading maintenance and roading projects Rodney is hitting well above its weight in terms of how much rate and tax it pays compared to what is payed out. Yes you pay the same amount as one person, but because of density of Auckland City there are just more people here doing the same!
Yet, Rodney still gets a lot in terms of roading up-keep. Spraw is expensive, the more rural you live the more expensive it is to maintain in pure km of infrastructure per person. It’s pure logic. The northern gateway was built not too long ago, and now the Puhoi to Wellsford motorway is going ahead, including the Walkworth Bypass. That’s a fair few $$.
I tend to disagree, with the roads on that list that I’ve driven, they are in serviceable condition. Unless you planing on driving you’re track spec’d Ferrari on it?
I know many Aucklander’s are not too happy in subsidising ‘your’ roads, to what they see are ‘holiday homes’ as it is, giving more subsidies to Rodney is not going to help any hopeful new incoming Major. Len Brown is probably your best hope as he is realistically no longer in the race for the next elections.
Sigh. I’m done. Guess I’ll just have to watch from the sidelines as Auckland rockets ahead.
“The only new Rapid Transit project on any scale since the 1930s is on the Shore, why is this part of Auckland home to the loudest complainers?” Yes and how much was paid for by rates from the rest of Auckland? zip! The North Shore was press ganged into the ‘super’ city to help pay for stuff not to receive any benefit so no bloody wonder we are cross. And its not just me (angry of Greenhithe) it’s heaps of people north of the bridge who a pissed off with it. And to make it worse after the 35% or whatever the rates rise was initially, last year the jammed another $900 onto my rates bill!
But that, angry suburbanist, is because outside of the stations it was paid for from the NLTF, as all Rapid Transit capex should be.
Why on earth should PT be subsidised by vehicle users? If road transport was priced to “clear the market” there would no need for PT subsidisation.
Let’s shut down the trains and buses and see how road users enjoy the level of congestion created. You’ll be doing about 5 metres per hour.
The buses will do just fine. Market clearing pricing means the roads will not be congested.
Sorry Matthew. Misinterpreted your post. So you’re advocating measures such as road tolling or congestion charging?
Regrettably no. We would need to move back to Standard Gauge to revert to a developed country network. Then we could have the speed that developed countries are used to.
For most of what we could do in NZ, cape gauge is fine. In Queensland they get up to 160km/h on it and the commuter trains in Perth reach 130km/h. That means a trip to Hamilton in an hour would be possible but we would need sort out the tracks by easing curves, bypasses and additional routes through Auckland. Still all likely much cheaper than converting to standard gauge.
“I know your political reality”
It’s your reality too. CRL has lots of backing, politically and in public. It’s typical of the opposition to any big project to become more harsh as things start to actually happen, but that’s not going to stop it.
I do get a sense that much of the public is unaware that this project is about to begin – AC/AT need to do better there.
“I worry…”
I doubt that you do. Your previous record seems to indicate that you’re a concern troll who’s mainly interested in sowing FUD about the project, perhaps from ideological bias in favour of cars as more “free”, “capitalist” or “fair-dinkum-traditional-Kiwi”, perhaps being paid.
Who were you replying to? Not me, I take it, though I am the only one who used the words “I worry”.
Given that the two thing you can’t accuse are of being kiwi or of favouring cars (across the ‘dutch’ I am well known on forums and blogs for pro-rail activism).
Yes, I was referring to you. Every comment I’ve seen from you on this blog has been complaining about too much PT spending and not enough road spending, and complaining about the “leftwing” bias of this blog.
Haha!!!!!!!!! I’ve worked it out. There is a second poster called ‘Ricardo’ – I’ve seen him too. Different person. You should retract before I ask the moderators to embarrass you. I think he is a Kiwi, whereas I am most assuredly not.
Yes, or Richard as his mother called him.
Patrick that’s bullshite and you know it. You can see my email address and IP too and you know I am not the same poster as ‘ricardo’. Why did you, or was it Josh, add my blog transport textbook to the blog roll if you are going to serve up such tosh.
I’m referring to the other one.
Will you confirm there are two separate posters? Myself and ‘Ricardo’
How much plainer do i have to be? ‘the other one’ refers to, well, the other one. Yes there are two; differentiated by the number of ‘c’s.
Can’t wait. Get her done and onwards with rail to the Shore and Airport.
Kurt, North Shore? AT don’t understand your terminology!
*cough*busway*cough*
As usual, spin and half truths. No approvals from Government for this project but you bunnies are going ahead anyway. Hey, it’s only money, right?
Yawn.
I hope you got ‘approval’ from the government before making this post
Sorry mr key, do you mind if we try to do something instead of sitting on our asses waiting for THE MARKETS to do the job for us?
The govt have already said they agree these enabling works should happen and happen now to tie in with the Precinct development. So who’s the bunny, looks like it’s you
Government has agreed so that is false. Also while talking money, should we go over these negative CBR motorways and compare to this highly positive CBR transport project yet again?
The government has required/committed to a business case in the future. What if it doesn’t stack up?
This project has business cases out the wazoo, it ‘stacks up’. The RoNS don’t stack up, or, more shockingly, have no business case ever made [Puford, T-Gully], but are funded on ministerial whim. With our money.
“The government committed to a joint business case with the goverment in 2017”. That is part of the 2013 announcement. Also the AC literature on the 10 year plan shows the CRL does not yet have a completed business case. There have been many to date, some showing very poor BCRs.
Well in my last meeting with the Minister he said he wants to ‘move away’ from BCRs. !? Presumably because the state highway projects his government wants to pursue have such poor ones. We do not share this desire. The problem with the studies to date is that they are already shown to be based on flawed assumptions by the already recorded a) growth in rail ridership in excess of baselines and at higher rates, and b) lower growth or actually falling traffic volumes. Basically the models systemically overstate traffic demand and understate Transit. It seems the world has changed but the assumptions underpinning the models haven’t.
This is a sign that we do indeed live in an age of disruptions and discontinuities [more i think than conspiracy].
The minister wants to move away from BCRs? Concerning but not surprising. They should at least stop paying for economic analyses in that case – save a bit of money.
Oh well, it’s all politicised to hell, that sucks.
No surprise the conservatives are retreating on BCRs they never believed in economics, just a stick to beat left governments with in the early seventies. We’ve had the same problem in Melbourne where the east west link got less than 1.0 but the right wingers keep saying build it anyway, for 10 billion.
I don’t think it is a left right thing. In NZ it was a labour government that disbanded transfund and paved the way for this free for all.
Agreed with Matthew W here, it’s not really a politically divided point, both National and Labour (C Right and C Left) have been just as bad as each other in the past with transport prioritising. Labour are making some of the right sounds at the moment, however their tactic in the past two elections periods have been to reject anything National puts out and head the otherway. So not sure if genuine or just politically motivated as a rejection of Nationals direction.
Just remember than it was a Labour led gov that funded the Northern Busway and Project Dart. Without those there would be no Rapid Transit system in Auckland, no 20% growth in uptake on those system, way worse traffic. Joyce wouldn’t have been cornered into seeing electrification as the cheapest option to sort PT without Dart, and no doubt would have just allowed rail to die, like the Napier-Gisborne line.
NZTA are now rebuilding both the Northern SH1 and whole SH16 without busways or extension to the current one, that’s a decision made in Wellington. Transit Capex used to be funded from the NLTF, but on these projects, aside from bus shoulder lanes [just better than nothing], there’s nothing.
I don’t care if it’s a change in gov or a change by the gov, but this does have to change. Rapid Transit is the urban equivalent of State Highways and is an investment for the motorist. It has to be done and funded from the NLTF>
Dart is a case in point. The economic benefits of throwing money into the rail system were woeful. I know everyone around here studiously ignores pricing transport as the solution, but it has been the obvious answer for some time now. No need for uneconomic transport spending.
I doubt Cameron Brewer, sorry, “Malcolm Jackson” will reply, but what is his insinuation? That the money will run out and we’ll only get the tunnel as far as Aotea?
Yep just like it’s only money for Waterview etc. etc. and before you say but my rates are paying for half of the CRL let’s have the discussion about what the NZTA should and shouldn’t be funding, bring it on!!
Yep. And Aucklanders had TONS more ability to decide whether they wanted CRL than they ever had over Waterview.
CRL was major topic for several local elections – Waterview never was, and was decided (very indirectly) by the whole country tipping to / staying with National on non-transport reasons, not by Auckland.
Both Waterview and the CRL are vital infrastructure that is required to keep Auckland moving. Its not really waterview vs crl as they compliment each other. It’s the priority given to the projects that was wrong.
Malcolm I’ve asked you before on this blog and another one (Talking Auckland) what your solution might be but you haven’t replied as far as I know.
What do you suggest Auckland should do instead of CRL? Duplicate the entire motorway system? Where would you put it? What would the central city look like after you’d built it? Where would you put all the car parking? How much would a duplicate network cost? $30 billion? More?
Or if you think buses would do the trick where will we route them, how many roads will need double sets of bus lanes and where will we turn them around?
I presume you realise the population is going to reach 2m soon? And no it’s not a cunning plan by the mayor – most of the growth is natural increase.
I realise as a Rodney ratepayer you’re angry about being forced into the super city, but that’s a different argument you should have had with Rodney Hide and John Key and which shouldn’t be used to stop progress in Auckland.
Yes it amuses me that the far right are angry about Supercity yet it was their hero who dunnit.
Only a proportion of the far right is against it. The supercity is great for Auckland as a whole, but a few are realising ATM they are not in the majority view when it comes to transport, and now are scared that roading is losing some of its dominance despite the economical realities and changing face of NZ’s largest growing city.
Linz, pricing transport at market clearing rates is the obvious answer
Well thankfully we have a big enough local authority to get on with what is needed and one with the vision and balls to push ahead despite a government firmly rooted in last century. They or their successors will catch up, but dragging them along is a drag. I feel sorry for Christchurch who’s similar plans were undemocratically swept aside and they are loosing a historic opportunity to rebuild better.
I think its the problem of NZ not having a constitutioin that formally separates the spending and taxing powers of central and local government. The idea of one Auckland (or Christchurch) city is nonsense if the central government can come in at any time, saying you’re not having a petrol tax, and then have no money to spend on local priorities. Even California gets this right.
We do, the local taxing regime is called rates, but its politically unpalatable to the local governments of Auckland and Christchurch to tax their property owners too much.
Unlike central Government which has no compunction about doing so and as this current central Government has shown, it will quite happily hand out those taxes it so collects, on an overt political basis as it sees fit.
And as the cities of Christchurch and Auckland don’t have mayors of the same political stripe as the current central Government has you can imagine where that largess does not get spent.
Hence the need for the local Governments to look for alternative revenue streams.
And the rail link to the airport will be included as well?
The airport rail link is impossible without first having the CRL. Just not enough capacity at Britomart otherwise.
I thought it was Labour who gave the go ahead for the Waterview Motorway. I think once the first section of the CRL is finished people will start asking why the whole project has to sit dormant for a few years. When the 2017 election comes around I expect we will see all the major political parties promising an early completion of the CRL, heck when National starts bleeding support as we get closer to the next election they may end up breaking out the chequebook earlier to keep Auckland voters happy.
Waterview is rational on a systems basis like the CRL, but it is the end. No more urban motorways for AKL. Or at least please can we have all major investment decisions go through the sort of exhaustive process the CRL has, the ‘central commitern’ of state highway planning has it’s efficiencies but is woefully undemocratic. And efficiently providing low value projects just amplifies their negative attributes! Instead let’s make sure projects are high value, transformative, and long term, first, and then deliver them efficiently.
Doloras I await your retraction
Patrick Reynolds, I to do wonder what the hell you are on about or more like what your on. This whole project has had Len Brown BS all over it and and he knew full well that he was done and dusted after the infidelity from the last election, He now gets his own back because he knows full well he will never get re-elected. The auditor general said that they didn’t like the funding process that was put in place and yet the project has gone ahead anyway. Even John Key surprisingly said that Auckland would not get funding any sooner than was already scheduled As for your singling out North Shore ratepayers, I think you have it completely wrong. For a start someone has to live there and yes we do happen to pay more for our rates in some areas then other parts of Auckland, and second the Northern bus way was a poor excuse for a railway because the powers at be of the time didn’t want to front up with the money for another harbour crossing or railway to Britomart. Britomart was then also a poor knock off from what it should have been because they ran out of money, Now it has reached it’s capacity they have to pull it apart and start all over again. And for all those that think having a CRL will remove congestion, think again, what decade do you think all this will take place because this will go on well past the next 20 years, in the mean time the city grows and grows because most councillors can’t see past there office desks the solution should have happened 30 years ago. The CRL will fix nothing for the short distance it will travel and the major cost that WE all end up paying for whether we us it or not. 90% won’t even get to see it let alone use it.And just to top it off Auckland Transport say that passenger numbers are up on the past 3 years, yet the improvements will do what to fix this. The money is better spend on a rail to the airport and the North shore, the CRL will do jack for the rest of us that don’t live anywhere near it. If the CRL is to do anything it should go to the airport so at least it has a real destination.
If Britomart (and therefore the network) has reached capacity, how can you add more services, such as a north shore line?
You can’t.
So if you want rail up your way to connect with that south of the bridge, you need the CRL first. Same for any extension from Onehunga to the airport.
Oh dear….
So much wrong in that spiel (including a lack of paragraphs. A few points
The CRL existed before Len came to office, suggesting it is his project is ignoring the facts. Also when Banks stood against him he also supported the project and has continued to do so showing it wasn’t just an election pledge.
The Auditor General didn’t want the whole project on the books without the government confirming it’s contribution but they’re fine with the enabling works which the council are paying for.
North Shore residents don’t pay more than other parts of Auckland. The city has been moving to a single rating system from the 8 different systems that existed before amalgamation. That has seen some major changes in some areas but the outcome is that people pay based on their property values. Someone on the shore with a 700k house will pay the same as someone in West Auckland, South Auckalnd or the city centre with a house worth 700k.
Britomart was not a poor knock off. The original plan by Les Mills was stupid as the train station was underneath something like 5 levels of carparking and the whole Britomart area was to be demolished. We have had a far better outcome with what happened
No one says the CRL will solve congestion. It will allow many more people to access the city more easily and free of traffic congestion though. You don’t have to see or use the CRL to benefit from it though. The mere fact that up to 30,000 people an hour are not moving on the roads benefits road users because those people had to drive they would be clogging up the roads and/or some trips simply wouldn’t be happening.
There is no space on the network for trains to the Airport or the North Shore without the CRL, it has to happen first to free up the existing constraints.
newzealandpress please explain to all of us how you would add rail to the North Shore and the Airport without the CRL, this should be good. I live in Birkenhead and yes I own my own house and pay rates but geeze Louise what is it about North Shore people and the CRL, get over yourself. I can see the benefits of the CRL as plain as day and gee I would be able to catch a ferry or bus to Britomart and then catch a train fully utilizing the CRL so yes it does benefit me. And wow with the CRL a line to the North Shore could then be added, crazy I know. How does Waterview benefit me? how does that ease congestion? how does the Puhoi to wellsford motorway benefit me? how does that ease congestion? Let’s have the discussion about what the NZTA funds and what they don’t fund, bring it on! Ever since moving back to NZ I have never heard so many people moan about their bloody rates, does my head in!!
“yes we do happen to pay more for our rates in some areas then other parts of Auckland”
Well from this year every residential property owner in Auckland pays the same rates for the same property valuation, so the hoary old argument that we pay more rates $ than everyone else is out of date -if ever was “in date”.
And this view is as out of date as are you and your opinions gussied up as half “facts”.
And if you want a pissing contest on total rates take per council ward, you’d need to have a much bigger argument than that because Orakei Ward takes that contest by a country mile
– and as Brewer is fond of pointing out, gets the least back per-capita of any council ward in the city. You guys make up under 20% of the population of Auckland yet seem to think you pay all the rates for all of Auckland, and your level of moaning is out of all proportion to your contribution.
So why not take your moaning and pissant little arguments about it all being “Len’s train set” and “all Len’s fault” and then stop also saying “its every other councillor since the year dot too” for this mess.
Take a deep breath and then really if you hate the way Auckland is going so much, then why not sell up and move elsewhere in the world – theres a lot of people who’d like to buy your house, and pay your current level of rates, when you do.
All so they can live in Auckland. Apparently quite a few are Australian I see these days. They’re refugees from their own state and national governments cock eyed “we’ll dig the f**k out of the outback and sell it to the Chinese for whatever until they don’t want it” economic policies, and when coupled the roading-first policies doesn’t actually do much for the average “Aussie Battler”. No wonder they’re moving here. But then they’re goining to be discouraged by the moaning idiots like you.
I see the median Sydney “house” price is less than the median “house” price in Auckland (whether in $AUD or $NZ), so we must be doing something right this side of the ditch.
Yeah things ain’t perfect over here, but the CRL is one of those projects that helps fix up past mistakes and enables growth all over Auckland to be handled for the next 30 years.
It’s not about whether a $700k house on the North Shore pays the same as a $700k house elsewhere. Prior to amalgamation a $700k house on the the shore paid a lot less in rates than a house in the south west or central (not sure about Rodney).
Why shouldn’t houses of the same value pay the same amount?
As for the shore paying less, it’s not about what they were paying but what they were expecting to pay in the future. From memory the after amalgamation and with all the long term plans that were in place the expected average rates increase was something like 9% which is way above what it actually was. That’s because some councils were loading up on debt and/or loading up on projects in their LTPs in the lead up to the amalgamation so not all rates/councils are directly comparable.
NSCC was planning about half what you quoted which included wastewater, so that has not changed much. I understand West Auckland was a bit of a basket case and had completely failed to plan for wastewater, hence northern interceptor.
I am not against equal valued house paying the same given amalgamation, it is the forced amalgamation that delivered very significant rates rises to some, without a referendum, that is the problem.
Guess you don’t do much readn and writn day-to-day, aye cuz.
Dear newzealandpress, if you take anything from Patrick’s banging on about the CRL it is that he is correct in saying that it unconstrains a bunch of deadend lines and turns them into a network, without which adding two further deadends to the Shore & the Airport would be even more suboptimal. Just as Patrick has conceded (again above) that the Waterview interchange and tunnel are necessary parts of a complete the urban motorway network. The CRL is the same. You are also totally wrong in your ascertion that “the CRL will do jack for the rest of us that don’t live anywhere near it”, because that is exactly who it is designed for; those who don’t live near it so they can make frequent reliable train travel. Your argument is a ridiculous as suggesting Auckland Airport is only for those living in Mangere.
Haha this has made for some enertaining reading.
I get the feeling these people posting against the CRL would drive to work, I might be wrong.
But i see the obvious problem, people nowhere near rail most likely on the north shore will complain (not all I live there to) when ratepayer money is spent on rail.
It will always be that way until that mode covers all parts of Auckland.
But I am excited about it, I told my m8 and he was like “trains I didn’t know Auckland had them” And then told my partner and she said “oh Len’s train set”
but I see a future in the CRL.
As I see every other large city has rail & subways under and over it, I don’t understand why Aucklanders think they should be exempt from big city transit,
Its not like we have some new magical way of getting around.
Yes this is the case. Ironically though the solution to the somewhat niche or ‘hidden’ nature of the rail system in Auckland is the CRL. Once open it will mainstream the mode and the complaints [they’ll still be complaining] will be ‘where’s our line’, not ‘don’t invest in that’. There will suddenly be a whole lot of pride about being from the only NZ city sophisticated enough to have a [wee] underground, even by drive-only Shore-dwellers, who may use it once a year to get to Eden Park, say, if that. It will be added to that list of Auckland icons; Rangitoto, Harbour Bridge, Sky Tower.
Getting it started is the hardest part and is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Though this shouldn’t be a surprise because it does require thinking about our city in a very different way to what has consistently been the case since the mid 1950s, most people’s life times; that last time we changed direction. That last departure in urban form and transport technology was easier to get going because it was started with a destructive act ; the ripping up of the tram tracks. Destroying things is easier than building them; it’s cheaper, quicker, more revolutionary, and has a sort of gleeful energy.
The rebuild of Auckland as a city with real alternatives to only driving has been slow and hard work. Looking back perhaps the key moment was the creation of the Northern Busway, as it slowly killed several urban myths as it’s success built and probably gave just enough confidence to the visionary side of the argument to press on with all that follows. Among the myths: Shore people too posh to bus, Aucklanders won’t use Transit, too late to add Transit to a sprawlly city, AKL too low density, change is too expensive… etc
Irony is that the NB’s success is what has led to the spending on rail elsewhere in the city, and sooner rather than later, to its likely replacement to some form of rail system.
It is all about the Shore! [cf see SkyPath]
Careful Patrick, won’t be long now before the Councillors Wood, Quax and Brewer (the unholy trinity) claim it the Northern Busway was all their doing so they deserve the credit.
Same will happen with Skypath too once its open and a raging success. Suddenly those North Shore-ite naysayers (like Wood) will be demanding cycleways galore on the Shore because you know they’re being left out by lack of cycling facilities.
Ya can’t win with these people.
I wonder if this would have beem sooner if Auckland had more autonomy like as if we were a state in NZ. Correct me if I’m wrong but look at the states in Oz they have done more things since they do not rely on central government for all this. The only thing federal government sets is the immigration, tax and things concerning the country as a whole. The local things such as PT was left to the trasnsport minister of the state
RJ. I wish that was true. We have our own problems including an anti rail PM. But you guys could benefit from constitutional local governments with taxing and spending powers
Anyway nz Is the flavour of the month with rising dollar worth more than ours, Chinese buying your milk but dumping our iron ore. We are on the road to perdition.
Need a sod turning ceremony when the real work starts. This should be a real shot in the arm for Auckland and its economy which is pretty much at the bottom of the heap at the moment.
Can we bury the sod who is supposedly running the city as a homage to the taniwha that they are bound to disturb?
Except there’s no sod being turned… Would be funny to see Len trying to shovel through the asphalt though! 😀
I guess rates are going up as a result? for something that most aucklanders dont use. too busy in our cars…
I luv it! All the rightwing dingbats that crawl out of the woodwork. Why bother trolling this blog? If Aucklanders are so wedded to their cars then why worry what a blog says?