Government’s Road Announcement Week
Transport Minister Chris Bishop was on a project announcement spree last week. As well as the Northwest Busway which I covered on Thursday, he also announced updates on three Roads of National (party) Significance in the Upper North Island.
A couple of things that stands out from these: From ones that have costs listed, is that construction cost inflation is massive and at $5.5 billion, the City Rail Link is starting to look like even better value.…
61 Comments Northwest Busway Makes Progress
In the history of Auckland’s many transport blunders, not building a busway along the Northwestern Motorway at the same time the motorway was being widened and interchanges rebuilt, when the need was clear and the success of investments like the Northern Busway were already understood, is up there with some of the worst we’ve had.…
Auckland’s Big Easter Rail Shutdown
Auckland’s ongoing rail pain will intensify again from this weekend as Kiwirail shut down the network for two weeks as part of their push to get the network ready for the City Rail Link.
KiwiRail will progress upgrade and renewal projects across Auckland’s rail network over the Easter holiday period later this month, as the region draws ever closer to next year’s opening of the City Rail Link (CRL).…
Stadium Unfeasibility
Tomorrow Auckland’s Councillors will decide on the next steps in the city’s ongoing stadium debate, and it appears one option is technically feasible but isn’t financially feasible while the other one might be financially feasible but not be technically feasible.
As a quick reminder, the Mayor started this process as a way to put an end to new, unfunded stadium proposals or upgrade plans for Eden Park popping up every few years, so that there was at least one preferred option.…
Upper Habour Bus change a step towards rapid transit
It appears that Auckland Transport is finally set to improve Auckland’s busiest non-frequent bus route, the 120.
As highlighted in my post a month ago on Auckland’s busiest bus routes, the 120 is the busiest route that doesn’t already run frequently all day/week and carries more passengers than many other frequent services.…
Time of Use charging progresses – but will it actually lead anywhere?
On Tuesday the long awaited Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Amendment Bill passed its first reading in parliament and now heads off to select committee for public submissions. This is the legislation that enables Time of Use charging schemes – what’s typically known as congestion pricing – to be developed and implemented.…
Meeting the government’s new PT fare revenue targets
It appears that Auckland Transport have finally realised the trouble the public transport system faces with the proposed requirements from the NZTA to hike how much public transport funding comes from users and other PT related revenue.
In November a discussion document was released that focused on setting new higher targets for the “private share” of funding for public transport.…
A drop of funding in the Level Crossing Removal bucket
Yesterday we covered a big part of a recent speech by Minister of Housing and Transport Chris Bishop. One aspect we didn’t cover was about the City Rail Link and his announcement of $200 million towards the removal of level crossings.…
National’s Urbanist Minister
On Friday, Chris Bishop, the Minister of Housing, Transport, Infrastructure and RMA Reform, gave an absolutely fantastic speech to the Committee for Auckland.
As a starter, he really sums up well why we need better cities with this line.
I make no apologies for being an urbanist.…
Pūmanawa Downtown West
The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 million in 2023.…
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