New Auckland Transport Chief Executive
Yesterday, Auckland Transport finally announced who would replace David Warburton as Chief Executive later this year. The job has gone to Shane Ellison. It certainly seems that he has significant experience with running public transport which will be very useful for Auckland.…
22 Comments Election Transport Policy Roundup
Transport featured prominently in this election, particularly in the opening weeks of the campaign. At the same time, the differences between the parties when it comes to transport policies has been stark. It’s also worth remembering the outcome of the 1News poll recently.…
Pre-emptively poking holes in the land tax bucket
Land taxes have – unexpectedly – become a hot policy topic in the run-up to the election.
Land taxes were originally suggested by the economist and social reformer Henry George as a fairer alternative to income or business tax. The logic behind them is that land values are shaped by the activities of society as a whole, rather than the individual owner: they are boosted by public investments in transport and good schools, and by the productivity gains that arise from lots of workers and businesses interacting in cities.…
Solved: The mystery of the Wellsford-Whangarei business case
Exactly a month ago, the National Party announced the biggest element of their transport policy for this election, $10.5 billion on 10 new Roads of National Significance. These are: Wellsford to Whangarei
East West Link in Auckland
Cambridge to Tirau
Piarere to the foot of the Kaimai Range
Tauranga to Katikati
Napier to Hastings
Manawatu Gorge
Levin to Sanson
Christchurch Northern Motorway
Christchurch to Ashburton As we pointed out at the time, these appear to be a great lesson in diminishing returns, with some of the state highways due to be supersized having fewer than 10,000 vehicles per day use them.…
PT Ridership around New Zealand
Auckland had a pretty good year for public transport ridership in the last financial year (to the end of June). Overall, compared to the 2016 ridership increased by 5.5 million (7%) to 88.44 million trips, the highest point since 1955. The biggest mover, and accounting for 51% of that improvement came from huge growth on the rail network, which increased by 2.8 million (17%) to 19.6 million.…
More on Kiwi Rail De-electrification
*This is a guest post by Roger Blakeley, Bob Norman, Alex Gray and Keith Flinders.
Dr Roger Blakeley, former Secretary for the Environment; Bob Norman, former Commissioner of Works; Alex Gray, professional civil engineer and Senior Project Manager; Keith Flinders, Electrical Services Consultant
KIWIRAIL’S NIMT DECISION EXPOSED IN LEAKED DOCUMENTS
Roger Blakeley, Bob Norman, Alex Gray and Keith Flinders
Leaked documents show that KiwiRail’s decision in December 2016, to replace electric locomotives on the electrified section of the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) with diesel locomotives, was based on flawed logic and justified by misleading information.…
Upgrading Takapuna’s heart
While the beach may be the soul of Takapuna, Hurstmere Road is perhaps it’s commercial heart. Working in Takapuna, it’s a heart I know well (in fact at the time this post is published I’m probably walking along it to get some lunch) and it could definitely do with a bit of love.…
Transport Priorities for a New Government
A change of government within the next week is a possibility. Transport has already been quite a high-profile part of the election campaign, and a change of government could mean fundamental change for the transport sector in areas well beyond just the headline large flashy projects where much of the attention gets directed.…
Sunday reading 17 September 2017
Welcome back to Sunday Reading. Here are a few of the interesting things that came across my desk this week.
The San Francisco Bay Area housing market is now so munted that it may be contributing to an exodus – “Job losses jolt Bay Area, South Bay, San Francisco“.…
Visions of the future coming from the past
We’ve been seeing a string wacky transport ideas promising to be the future of transport, particularly over the last years. While the proponents of them claim that they’re new, it seems the origin of many dates back to old sci-fi magazines from the 50’s and the possible visions of the future they held.…
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