“Ravenously space-hungry monsters”
Stu’s talk at an IPENZ forum the other week put forth a lot of smart critiques of and recommendations for the transport profession. I was particularly taken by this slide: Stu argues that failing to account for the “opportunity cost” associated with using valuable land for moving cars can lead us to misallocate resources.…
47 Comments Why is Auckland’s rail system so expensive to operate?
On Monday the NZ Herald ran an article about the cost comparisons between operating Auckland and Wellington’s rail services. Based on the numbers in the article, it doesn’t tell a particularly pretty story:
Aucklanders facing a new transport rate are paying far too much to subsidise the city’s trains, says councillor Mike Lee, a long-time champion of rail.…
A closer look at Simplified Fares
On Monday Auckland Transport launched consultation for an amended Regional Public Transport Plan and that included a large section on integrated fares – or Simplified Fares as AT call them. Since writing the post AT have released a lot more information about their Simplified fares proposal so I thought I was worth while addressing the topic in more detail.…
Helping Our Heritage Come Alive – Queen Street and Wellesley
This is an image from Mark Bishop. We’ll be running a number of these over the coming weeks.
These images were developed by merging together various historic black and white photographs (all from the “Sir George Grey Special Collection” – Auckland Library) with contemporary colour photographs taken at the same location.…
Electrics out west
It seems we’ve hit a tipping point with the roll out of electric trains in which they are now sometimes being used to cover for services that have broken down. Presumably this means the pendulum is starting to swing positively for the number of drivers who have been trained to drive them.…
Council/Government battle heating up
It seems the fight between the council and the government is turning into an all-out war. The first front was on housing where Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith threatened to override the council who are refusing to approve three SHA’s in rural Kumeu because of a lack of supporting infrastructure.…
Waterview Connection April Time-lapse and Fly-through
There have been two new videos from the Waterview Connection project in recent days. One is the regular monthly time lapse update the project have been producing and this edition shows them building two temporary bridges from the two tunnels to the northern approach trench so they can move tunnel lining segments and other equipment into the second tunnel easier.…
Working paper: Trade-offs in urban planning
Back in April, I had the opportunity to present a paper on the economics of urban planning at the New Zealand Planning Institute’s annual conference. The paper, which benefited from the support of my employer, MRCagney, and discussions with a menagerie of planners and other economists, is now available online for anyone who’s interested.…
RPTP update: Integrated Fares, LRT and more
In 2013 Auckland Transport adopted the current Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP) – a document required by legislation and which sets out how the regions public transport system will be developed and operated. The 2013 RPTP was significant as among other things it officially added the New Network to Auckland’s plans.…
Volunteers wanted: Auckland public life survey
Five years ago Gehl Architects enlisted a team of volunteers to document public life across the city centre. The work culminated in a summary report (1, 2) and a great Auckland Conversation event.
Since that time there have been remarkable changes across the city.…
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