Weekly Roundup 19-January-2024

It’s Friday again and so we’re bringing back the weekly roundup again.

This week in Greater Auckland

• On Monday, Matt covered the news that the new government has officially cancelled Auckland’s (tunnelled) light rail project.
• On Wednesday we shared a post about the idea of straightening the 25 bus route.

EVs to pay road user charges

Fresh from cancelling the clean car discount, the government are now going to be taxing electric vehicles.

The coalition Government is confirming that the exemption from road user charges (RUC) for owners of light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids will end from 1 April, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.

“Petrol tax and distance-based RUC are paid by road users to contribute to the costs of maintaining our roads, but EVs and plug-in hybrids have been exempted from RUC. Transitioning EVs and plug-in hybrids to RUC is the first step in delivering on the National-ACT coalition commitment to bring all vehicles into the RUC system.

“This transition to RUC is about fairness and equity. It will ensure that all road users are contributing the upkeep and maintenance of our roads, irrespective of the type of vehicle they choose to drive.

“Plug-in hybrids are powered by electricity and petrol and have had to pay petrol tax, but not to the same level as petrol equivalent vehicles. To ensure that plug-in hybrids avoid paying twice through both fuel excise duty and RUCs, these vehicles will pay a reduced rate RUC.

This has long been on the cards, and there is a need for fairness – not to mention the National Land Transport Fund is already stretched. But, coming so soon after the removal of the clean car discount, it does make it seem like this government has it in for EVs, and is desperate to please the oil industry.

And that perception really isn’t helped by comments like this from a government party, describing EVs in general as “a rort”.

https://twitter.com/actparty/status/1747407495998624139?s=61&t=QWUD_fnqMBgy7gYWLGShyw

It’s also notable that while the government is claiming this is all about fairness and equity, the charges set for EVs of $76 per 1000 mean that EVs will be paying higher road taxes than many modern petrol-powered cars.

The changes to Road User Charges being implemented by the Government incentivise buying polluting vehicles over clean cars, says Better NZ Trust spokesperson Rob Birnie.

“The new system will see many petrol-fuelled cars paying less to use the roads than EVs. The Better NZ Trust is supportive of everyone on our roads fairly contributing to the upkeep and maintenance of our roads, however the changes proposed by the Government do not come close to accomplishing that goal,” says Birnie.

The changes will result in RUC being charged on Battery EVs (BEV) and Plugin Hybrid EVs (PHEV) starting 1 April 2024. BEVs will be charged at the existing rate of $76 per 1000km, while PHEVs will pay $56 per 1000km. Petrol and non-Plugin Hybrids, on the other hand pay 89c a litre in Fuel Excise Duty and related charges. This means petrol burners pay under $76 per 1,000km in Fuel Excise Duty if their fuel efficiency is better than 8.5l per 100km.

For one example I looked up, where a brand makes both a petrol and electric version of the same model – based on reported fuel efficiency, the petrol version could end up paying less than half the taxes of the electric version. That’s what you call a perverse incentive.

Public transport fares increasing

We covered this last year from the AT board meeting papers, but this week AT confirmed that Public Transport fares will increase from 4 February.

Public transport fares in Auckland will rise from 4 February 2024 to help meet significant and sustained operating cost increases.

Each year Auckland Transport (AT) reviews its fares against changes in operating costs and available budget, taking into account the cost of living and the investment needed to maintain and improve public transport services. Fares are then typically updated in February.

“This year we are having to increase fares to keep up with the rising cost of running and maintaining Auckland’s public transport network,” says AT Director Public Transport & Active Modes, Stacey van der Putten.

“In recent years we have been mindful of the impacts COVID-19 and extreme weather has had on our customers. We deferred last year’s fare increase until April and in 2022 there was no increase at all.

“But operating costs have spiked dramatically over this period, driven by high inflation and staff shortages. Adjusting fares to raise revenue is unfortunately one of the steps AT needs to take to cover these higher costs.”

A weighted average increase of 6.2% will be implemented across AT’s fare structure. For standard adult fares, this works out to be an increase of between $0.06 and $0.40 per journey on buses, trains and ferries.

“We are committed to keeping public transport an affordable option for all Aucklanders, so the increase for longer journeys is only 1% – 4%,” says Ms van der Putten.

“Shorter journeys on Auckland’s public transport will still remain some of the most affordable in the world when compared with many other international cities.”

Despite the changes to fares, patronage growth is forecast to continue and this will generate more revenue to help AT meet its operating costs. This growth will be accelerated by the introduction of contactless payments for fares via debit/credit card, Apple Pay and Google Pay later this year, which will make public transport more accessible for those without a HOP card.

Aucklanders can also look forward to simpler fares and more affordable public transport for frequent users following an independent review of AT’s fare structure. The review will explore initiatives such as a weekly fare cap and its findings are expected in the coming months.

Some cool new CRL pics

The City Rail Link Team continue to put out very cool content about the project. This image is from near Maungawhau Station, where there’s an underground junction.

There’s been a few neat timelapses too. Here’s construction at Maungawhau, with three years covered in just under two minutes:

And two and a half years at the Victoria St/Albert St intersection in just over a minute:

Progress in Pt Chev

The Pt Chev to Westmere project is cracking along, with major works on Meola Road (which remains open for walking and cycling access, while closed to general traffic), and lots of underground activity on Pt Chevalier Road.

The latest newsletter from the project team is full of really great pics and interesting details. It’s an excellent reminder that for all the media nonsense from certain quarters about “gold-plated cycleways”, this is a full-scope rebuild that is delivering improvements across the board.

As an article in Stuff today asks: is the town centre (over)due for a boost next?

Rail faults: not just an Auckland problem

It’s not just Auckland’s rail network that needs an overhaul, with Wellington’s network also in need of significant work – highlighted by recent failures due to faults. RNZ reports.

Stranded passengers believe a fault which shut down all outgoing Wellington rail services for several hours this week is another example of an increasingly unreliable network.

KiwiRail was investigating what happened but local council and transport advocates said it was obvious the capital’s trains were severely underfunded.

Nearly 140 commuters spent hours stuck in carriages in sweltering weather on Wednesday.

KiwiRail Metros NZ general manager Jon Knight said overhead lines expanded in the heat resulting in connection shorting and outages.

Power had to be shut off at Wellington Station to allow staff to safely inspect and fix the problem, he said.

And

On Wednesday, Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Daran Ponter said the shutdown could be a foretaste of what lay in store without further government investment in the ageing network.

“We need somewhere in the order of $150 million in the next three years to keep the renewals programme going. If that money isn’t forthcoming KiwiRail has already advised us we would have to, in some cases, run twice as few trains as we currently do and [in] some instances we would have to close particular lines,” Ponter said.

Some rail history

An interesting thread (and link to more detailed blog post) about some rail history.

https://twitter.com/NZtransporthist/status/1747705966588805159?t=SRMCXRw3nm7PDpsKgdfHcA&s=19

and the additional tweets in the thread.

At the time NZRC had just short of 20,000 staff, the report recommended cutting staff by around 6,000. Kiwirail today has only 4,500 staff. The report called for reducing freight train staffing from three to one by removing guards vans and locomotive assistants.

Train lengths to be increased and the manual drawgear should be replaced with much stronger automatic drawgear. Two of the five railway workshops should close (three were ultimately closed). Ferries should be staffed on a volume-variable basis, and had poor cost control.

NZ Road Services coaches were deemed to be mechanically of poor reliability, performance and comfort. The number of freight depots should be heavily consolidated. Curiously it also proposed the mothballed Silverstar sleeper train be refurbished with mixed seated/sleeper config

and used to operate Wellington-Auckland daylight and overnight, with the Silverfern railcars transferred to a Picton-Christchurch-Dunedin service to replace the Southerner and Picton-Chch express. That did not happen.

On speed limits and what matters most

Former government minister and then Mayor of Christchurch, Lianne Dalziel, has written a great piece about why lowering speed limits is important for safety, and why the government shouldn’t roll them back..

There were relatively light levels of traffic both ways, but there was an incident that left me cold.

I came around a corner on the coastal road, pleased to have Kaikoura in my sight, only to see a car with the front right wheel well over the middle line. We both swerved a little to our left. I could see the driver’s face clearly. He looked a little taken aback. That would be an understatement for how I was feeling.

I was travelling under the 80km/h speed limit as I entered the bend. A split-second difference in time was all that stood between my car and his. I think I would have been dead if he or I had been travelling any faster.

…..

And yet the guidelines are clear that the chance of a crash is reduced at a lower travel speed because the road user has more time for decision making, is less likely to lose control, more able to take evasive action and can stop more quickly. That makes sense and it is backed by evidence.

The statistics that correlate speed with injury and death make for grim reading. Even small reductions in speed limits can make a big difference.

It was interesting to see the minister cite the fastest highway in the country – the Tauranga Eastern Link expressway at 110km/h – as the safest road in New Zealand. This was to counter the evidence that higher speeds are never safer. However, the expressway has a median barrier separating opposing lanes of traffic and two lanes each way giving plenty of room for passing. Of course, there are no pedestrians or cyclists allowed on this stretch of road.

Most of our roads are required to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists as well as vehicles, and we are all aware of the insufficiency of median separation and passing lanes on our state highway network.

Weekend reads

• A great big long read in the Guardian about the rise and rise of Lime scooters (and e-bikes). Full of fascinating details, like this one about a recent TikTok-inspired craze for “hacking” the e-bikes to get free (albeit unpowered) rides:

So many people started cycling hacked Lime bikes that Time Out called their distinctive sound – a “click-clack” caused by the half-engaged locking system – “London’s summer soundtrack”. Lime’s tracking data showed the culprits were almost exclusively children travelling to and from school.

• Related: new research finds that around the world, school bike buses are opening the door to enthusiasm for kid-friendly cities, and safe and easy cycling to all sorts of other places.
• Here’s a nice piece from the Spinoff, from just before Christmas, all about the beautiful new mana whenua-led artwork uplifting the formerly grotty Myers Park underpass.
• Also in the Spinoff, a deep dive into the origins of conspiracist fantasies about the straightforward idea that it’s good if you can access everything you need without driving for hours.
• Meanwhile in Switzerland: this year there’ll be a public referendum on limiting motorway expansion.
• And a great read in Newsroom, on how we need to move past prioritising cars over people:

Instead, we need to focus on understanding how to design cities and towns that will support a ‘good life’ for everyone. That is, places where we have access to education, health and other services, healthy locally produced food, where there are ample opportunities to socialise and participate in the community, have fun with family or friends at a nearby park, enjoy locally created arts and culture, and enjoy bird song as we walk or cycle to the shops or school. If any country has the capacity to do this well, it is Aotearoa New Zealand.

To crack the transport emissions nut, we need to rethink the way we live, and to build communities where people want to live, in the fullest sense of the word – not just more houses and roads.

Has there been anything else that’s stood out for you over the recent weeks?

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