We often are looking at what is coming up or what we could do differently so with March now over I thought it might be interesting to take a look back in history and see what we were talking about in the same month a year or two ago. Here are the themes or posts that caught my attention in the brief scroll back through time.
2010
The month started out with a big change to the rail network in the form of the first part of the New Lynn trench opening, it was still only a single track at that time and the station building along with the bus interchange were still under construction but it was a pretty big moment. New Lynn is one of my favourite stations in Auckland and aside from Britomart and Newmarket is the busiest on the Western line. It is also likely to get much busier in the future with all of the development in the area.
We also learned the preferred alignment for the CRL. This came out before the business case was completed and while the government hasn’t yet agreed with the need for the project, the council and Auckland Transport are now working to get route designated.
This post on the tender document for our electric new trains had a timeline which caught my eye. Things slipped a bit last year when Kiwirail extended the tender to include a number of companies not originally short listed. Most were from China leading to a number of people suggesting political interference but the eventual winner was one of the companies on the original list. The contract will finally signed in October last year with delivery expected in mid-late 2013. (I am also hoping to get some updated pictures of what they will look like but am still waiting for AT to get back to me).
Lastly the theme at this time was looking at the upcoming Super City reforms and what that would mean for transport. There was a lot of concern about the implications of having council organisations that would operate largely independently. Personally I think that things have worked our fairly well although there is still a lot of stuff that happens behind closed doors.
2011
March 2011 was a pretty big month, the first draft of the Auckland plan was released and definitely led to some interesting discussions about how the city should evolve over the next 30 years. The final version of the plan was just signed off a few days ago and while there are some things I’m not entirely happy about, on the whole I think the plan is ok and hopefully we can now get down to implementing it (well the good bits at least).
This video was also released of the vision for rail network, sadly the North Shore line seems like faint hope at this stage and Airport line is not to much better.
Also released in March in was the latest study into another harbour crossing. Both bridge and tunnel options were looked at and both had appalling BCRs but even so in the final version of the Auckland plan it has managed to be listed as the third most important transport project for the region. The plan picks the tunnel as the best option and based on the estimates would cost obscene amounts of money, especially when we consider that the number of vehicles crossing the bridge isn’t growing and hasn’t been for some time. It also doesn’t look the option of building a PT only crossing initially which is something I think should be considered.
Part of the reason for traffic not growing has been the enomous success of the Northern Busway which at peak times is estimated to be carrying 30-40% of all people crossing the bridge. Last year we saw huge problems with ‘March Madness’ with long queues forming to get onto buses. Luckily we haven’t seen things that bad this year which is most likely to increased frequency of services.
The last thing that caught my eye was that March was when we first heard about changes to the link and a few other bus services. After some tweaks they were eventually introduced in August and no coincidence that since then we have seen patronage on Isthmus bus services start sky rocketing.
I found it quite interesting to see what was important back then as we often forget what was happening and if people like this then I might try to make it into a regular feature.
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It’s useful looking back to really be able to see past the day to day issues and actually get a better picture of the progress we’ve made over time. I feel quite optimistic compared to where we were two years ago, but for some reason less optimistic about progress from one year ago. Not sure why.
Perhaps its a time scale thing, over a two year period things would have changed a lot more so if you look back next year on 2011 you might get the same feeling as looking back now on 2010
I agree with both Peter and Matt L.
Matt L is right in that the big projects of 2010 (New Lynn Station and start of tendering EMUs) are both now complete, so those projects give a sense of progress. New Lynn is up and working and EMUs are underway (at last they got ordered in 2011, and we got more than we thought we would).
But on the other hand, I share with Peter a concern that many of the 2011 projects are the big hard stuff, that will take years and years to come to fruition if ever, so the feeling is that 2011 is a less successful year than 2010 was, even if we’re looking back at 2010 at the same time in 2011 (1 April 2011), 2010 feels more productive than 2011 is/was. Missing from 2010 is HOP card rollout, and not the bastardised “Snapper in Drag” we have now.
There is also a sense of “hardening” of opinion by central government since last year against giving all the SuperCity the toys it was promised back in 2010 if we were good Aucklanders and accepted our Supercity medicine without fuss.
Reminds me a dead-beat dad reneging on all the presents he promised his kids – if they behaved nicely.
I get the feeling tgoo that Auckland council and AT etc has and is doing pretty much what they said they’d do and Wellington is tut-tutting, saying no more, you’ve had enough “treats” already. Yet, we’re not even a fraction way though the required catch up and have yet to get any “treats”.
Doesn’t bode well.
And 2012 is only 3 months old and I feel the progress is even slower again, delays in HOP rollout, lack of clarity on fare zones under integrated ticketing (which itself is years and years behind already now). PTOM model slowly coming along.
It might be that. I also wonder whether this time last year we felt really optimistic at what the new Super City might be able to achieve, while a year later the reality has set in that with the current government it’s very difficult for the Council to achieve much transport transformation.
Zero budget announced for 2012 does that mean non-started big projects will be moth balled? If that’s the case then highway projects will have to be mothballed as well.
The next big spend should be the CRL followed by the airport rail loop.
What should be started or kept going in 2012 is;
Ameti!!! (Can’t have it soon enough! Botany to Panmure on the bus currently is like pulling teeth)
Integrated zone based, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly ticketing.
Dedicated 24/7 bus lanes over the harbour bridge (and for emergency vehicles).
More ferries for Halfmoon bay with the connector bus service matching all ferry sailings.
More ferries for Pine harbour.
A ferry service serving both Te Atatu Peninsular and Royal Height combined. (Ideally Auckland should have a loop servicing all wharves in the inner harbour. Clockwise and anti timed with Waiheke, Halfmoon bay and Pine harbour ferries)
Cycle path alongside the eastern rail corridor.
Cantilever a pedestrian route around the eastern bays, commuting cyclists get the current foot path. (I would like to see the road widened, sea wall extended with 24/7 bus lanes going both directions when the cantilever is built but high $$$’s)
24/7 bus lanes on Dominion road.
North western bus way
And with the above and the CRL, an airport rail loop & a north western bus way. Auckland will be able to handle the increased population predicted.