The strange new real-time signs
Over the past week or so, a series of new real-time signs have emerged along the Outer Link bus route (and potentially in other places too). The signs are very different to the old ones – and require you to pretty much stand right in front of them to see when your bus is coming: While it’s certainly nice having this information, I must say that I vastly prefer the traditional signs – for one simple reason:
You can see them while sitting down in the bus shelter
Like most people, I tend to read a book, listen to music, check emails on my cellphone or other stuff like that while waiting for the bus.…
18 Comments The Avondale-Mt Roskill Spur
A lot of discussion around Auckland’s rail network is focused on large and very expensive projects. Much of this is justified as the next obvious places to expand the network (the City Rail Link, Rail to the Airport, a North Shore Line and a possible Southeast Route) will bring huge benefits, but at significant financial cost.…
Papakura Station Upgrade
One key element of the rail electrification project is that the wires only extend as far as Swanson in the west and Papakura in the south, whereas services currently go to Waitakere and Pukekohe stations. Furthermore, with a full EMU fleet it is not possible to intermix diesel and electric trains, meaning that all services from Waitakere and Pukekohe (or beyond) will need to terminate at Swanson and Papakura, with passengers transfering onto regular services to continue their trip. …
Looking at the CBD’s car & bus capacity
Many of the debates over the City Rail Link’s cost-effectiveness have revolved around the question of rail capacity. At what point does the railway network, without the CRL, become overloaded? How many people will be discouraged from taking the train because of this overcrowding?…
Tolling the Harbour Bridge
Everyone knows that the price tag for a future harbour crossing is eye-watering. For a tunnel option (which really is the only option in my opinion) we’re looking at something north of $5 billion – which is significantly more expensive than any other project we’ve ever seriously considered (over twice the price of the City Rail Link, for example).…
Vic Park Tunnel – causing traffic jams
It’s tempting to be amused by the various stories that have emerged this week about the new Victoria Park Tunnel causing huge congestion. The obvious amusing argument to make is that, just like we saw with the opening of the SH20-SH1 Manukau Connection, the opening of a motorway has just shifted the congestion or – in this case – actually created an even worse problem than we used to have.…
Parnell Station’s design details emerge
For a number of months I’ve felt rather uneasy about the proposed Parnell Station. On the one hand I think a station in the vicinity of Parnell makes a lot of sense – particularly one that could serve the university. But on the other hand I have been worried whether the actual proposed location for the station misses the golden opportunity for it to become a de facto university station.…
Strong support for better public transport
It’s no real mystery that providing better public transport has a lot of support among the general public. Firstly we saw Len Brown’s mayoral victory last year, with much of his support due to his push for making a “transformational shift” to Auckland’s rail system in particular.…
Traffic falling in the USA too
One of the most interesting things to note when it comes to transport trends over the past few years is the complete lack in growth of state highway traffic volumes since around 2005, with a little bumping around we actually find ourselves with the same level of traffic on our state highways in 2010 as we had in 2005: It’s perhaps a bit early to comprehensively know whether this is a short-term “bucking” of the long-term trend of inexorable growth – or something more permanent.…
National proposing more RoNS
National released their transport policy yesterday, with the headline proposal being to add in more “Roads of National Significance”. Here’s what the accompanying media release stated:
National has re-committed to its major $9 billion investment unblocking key roading arteries around the country, and will develop the strategy further by examining new routes that need upgrading to improve our economic growth and productivity, says National’s Transport spokesman Steven Joyce.…
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