AT Need To Lift Their Game

Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even whether are there new routes/connections that could be made to fix the gaps left by how our streets were designed.…
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Better Event Trains

Sometimes it might not feel like it, but our public transport system is significantly better than what it was 10 to 15 years ago. However one area where Auckland Transport continue to really struggle is with events and the most recent weekend was no exception with complaints about trains from the Pink concert.…
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The GPS is a disaster for local government

One thing that’s not been reported much yet about the catastrophically bad draft Government Policy Statement released on Monday is what it means for local government around the country. Reading through the document, it was a bit surprising how little local government was mentioned at all – seemingly ignorant of the massive role district and regional councils play in delivering transport services and infrastructure.…
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The Government’s Ideological Transport Policy

Yesterday the Government launched their draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) for Land Transport for consultation, replacing the draft version that Labour released last year prior to the election. As the name implies, the GPS sets out the government of the day’s transport policies and planned spending on transport, over a 10-year horizon – although is refreshed every three years.…
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It’s March Madness Time again

We may still be in February but yesterday marked the start of March Madness, typically the busiest time of the year for transport of all modes. That’s due to a number of factors, such as: The summer holiday period is over meaning All schools and now University’s being back – and for the latter when expectations are high, before some eventually lose interest and start to drop out.…
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Will the 2024 RLTP be yet another debacle?

A couple of years ago, Auckland Council and Auckland Transport found themselves in court over the 2021 Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP). A non-profit alliance for transport decarbonisation, All Aboard Aotearoa, argued that among other factors, the RLTP was unlawful because it failed to give effect to the 2021 Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS) which focused on reducing emissions and tackling climate change.…
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Fuel Tax Fight and Rail Fail update

The two stories we covered at the start of the week continue to be in the headlines so it’s worth looking at the latest for each of them. Regional Fuel Tax Mayor Wayne Brown promised some ‘argy-bargy’ over the government’s decision to cancel the Regional Fuel Tax and he’s followed that up by requesting that AT stop work on all projects funded in part by the RFT, including those Minister Simeon Brown has listed as his priorities – though it also includes some good projects like Gt North Rd and his comments around cycleways and safety programmes leave a lot to be desired.…
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Auckland’s Persistent Rail Issues

Over the last few weeks in our weekly roundup we’ve commented on the frequent delays and cancellations that have occurred on the rail network this year since the rail network went back into full operation on the 22-Jan – with Kiwirail proclaiming they had ‘successfully delivered summer holiday infrastructure upgrades across NZ‘ Things have been so bad that of the 14 weekdays (not including public holidays) we’ve had since the rail network has been back in full operation, there have been delays and cancellations caused by track faults, crew shortages or other issues on 12 of those days.…
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