All Electric from July 20
A few weeks ago in a post about dwell times I mentioned that from July 20 all services all lines will be operated by electric trains (with the exception of the Papakura to Pukekohe shuttle). Regular rail users may have started to see advertising appear on platforms announcing the change and as part of that there are also new timetables with tweaks made to all lines – the Eastern line is almost completely unaffected.…
50 Comments Letter to NZTA
After the launch of the National Land Transport Programme in Auckland last week I wrote the following letter to NZTA with our concerns focussed on two future projects in particular. We have already received a reply confirming engagement on the issues raised: We are all having quite a bit of trouble taking all the transport institutions seriously over RTN designations and intentions.…
SkyPath: Councillor v Advocate
NBR Radio
In which Councillor Cameron Brewer tries extremely hard to find a possible cost to ratepayers in a privately funded and user pays addition to our transport networks, while ignoring the real cost of $13m to ratepayers for a free-to-use walking and cycle project in his ward [just one example].…
The busiest days to cycle
A month or so ago Auckland Transport kindly provided me with some data from their automated cycle counters that have been installed on a number of sites around the city. The data shows how many people on bikes passed each of the sites for each day up to the end of May and for some of the sites the data goes as far back as later 2010.…
More on the National Land Transport Programme
Last week the latest iteration of the National Land Transport Programme was announced. This is largely a business as usual plan, dominated by the big spend on a few massive state highways projects. However there are a few things to be celebrated, especially for cycling, and even more in the language and thinking in the supporting documents.…
Sunday reading 5 July 2015
Emily Badger, “The Pope’s wise advice on traffic, parking, and public transport“, Washington Post:
Here the Pope is arguing that our communities have been spoiled by all our cars:
The quality of life in cities has much to do with systems of transport, which are often a source of much suffering for those who use them.…
Ministry of Transport CEO on the future
An interesting piece on Radio NZ what the CEO of the Ministry of Transport think will be the future of transport in NZ. I agree with some of what he says but in others it seems like he off the mark.…
The Skypath decision
I’m still buzzing over the fantastic news that consent for Skypath was approved this morning. What makes it even better is reading the decision of the commissioners. It appears to be a comprehensive result and leaves no doubt that this project is both good and satisfactorily addresses the concerns local residents have raised.…
A great day for Auckland – Skypath Approved
It’s just been announced that consent has been approved for Skypath. I’ll have a closer look at the details shortly but for now it’s time to celebrate, this is a great day for Auckland. Well done to everyone involved and a huge thank you to Bevan Woodward and his team who have tireless campaigned and pushed this project forward.…
Kirkbride Interchange and Rail Future Proofing
Rail to the airport is in the news again – and not in a good way – this time related to the Kirkbride interchange the NZTA are currently building and whether it’s future proofed for rail. The answers by Auckland Transport and the NZTA also hint at some of the dysfunction, lack of critical thinking and potentially deliberate sabotage that’s long plagued this project – one which is constantly one of the most popular publicly.…
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