Making sensible mode decisions
One thing the light-rail debate over the past couple of weeks has re-emphasised is there remains a lot of confusion about the different modes that can be used for rapid transit and also how we should make decisions about what mode to use for specific routes.…
146 Comments Elevated Lines
This is a guest post by Ella Kay.
I’m currently staying adjacent to one of Berlin’s U-Bahn lines. I wouldn’t usually notice how proximate I was to a train line (apart from being near enough to a station), but couldn’t avoid noticing it here as the rail line is just below eye level of my fourth floor window.…
Big projects change
The years of work and millions of dollars that have already been spent on designing and developing light-rail potentially end up going down the drain if the Government picks the Super Fund option. But as I’ll cover below, large projects not only tend to take a long time to deliver but significant changes in them are almost a certainty.…
Flashback Saturday: Airport Rapid Transit isn’t really about the Airport
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in October 2017.
The idea of providing Airport rail through a short spur from Puhinui is one of those ideas that continues to pop up. It emerged again in an opinion piece the NZ Herald ran just over a week ago (which was oddly a repeat of a piece they ran exactly a month earlier).…
Weekly Roundup 25-Oct-19
It’s certainly been a busy week with all of the light rail news and discussion. So here’s a bit of a round up of the other stories that have cropped up this week.
City Rail Link Demolition
The area around the Mt Eden station is going to start looking very different as demolition has started in advance of the main construction works.…
Oct-19 AT Board Meeting
On Tuesday the Auckland Transport board held their latest meeting. I decided to attend this meeting due to the significance of the decision over speed limits but also because it was the last meeting both Chairman Lester Levy and fellow director Mark Gilbert.…
Fixing the light rail mess
Over the last few days the twists and turns on the light rail saga have felt more like those of a roller coaster than a mass transit system. It all started with an article in the Sunday Star times with leaked documents showing the entire process to deliver light rail was derailed by a six-slide proposal from the NZ Superfund and their Canadian partners.…
The 2019-2022 Council Term
So the 2019 Auckland Council election results are now finalised, which means it’s a good time to ahead to what might happen over the next three years. The mayor and 16 of the 20 councillors are returning from last time, so the story will likely be one of continuation as much as change.…
Super Fund Mess will delay Light Rail by years
We’ve been incredibly concerned for some time with what is happening with light rail. From a project that was almost ready to start construction, at least on an early works package, it is now mired in delay and uncertainty.
I had initially written this post as a more general outline of my frustration at these delays.…
Flashback Saturday: The cost of space (for cars)
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Peter was first published in June 2015.
Earlier this month, urban policy researcher Todd Litman published a useful summary of some of his new research into the cost of sprawl:
Our analysis indicates that by increasing the distances between homes, businesses, services and jobs, sprawl raises the cost of providing infrastructure and public services by 10-40 percent.…
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