Western rail crossings – getting ready for even more CRL benefits
This is a guest post from Auckland Transport’s Head of Level Crossings, Tom Willetts. (The header image is one of ours, showing the level crossing at Rossgrove Ave, as seen from a waiting vehicle.) Greater Auckland will be taking a closer look at the proposals in a post next week – stay tuned!…
30 Comments Warkworth to Te Hana deal to cost us over $9,000,000,000?
A few weeks ago, I asked what Warkworth to Te Hana (WW2TH) will actually cost us. A fair question, given the government’s rush to sign a Public Private Partnership (PPP) for this new four-lane expressway ahead of the election, without releasing the numbers of what it will really cost.…
Moving beyond the Meola distraction
Last week’s announcement that the Government plans to punt a decision on the next Waitematā Harbour Crossing out beyond the election included an offer – or a barbed hook, depending on your point of view – to Mayor Wayne Brown.
The Mayor remains inexplicably fixated on the notion of building a road bridge from Meola Reef to the North Shore.…
ART of the metro
At last!
Shine down on us Robbie, we’re actually getting there.
In the same week that two brand new – and already wildly popular – city centre sculptures have been unveiled, and the opening date for our fabulous new underground urban railway was announced, Auckland Transport has also quietly agreed with our artful pitch on naming the top-tier transit services.…
The opportunity cost of expressway obsessions
A version of this piece appeared as an op-ed in The Sunday Star-Times on 2 August 2026, and in The Post online. It has been lightly updated to reflect events. (See also last Monday’s post: What will Warkworth to Te Hana cost us?…
What an exciting thought :)
We love receiving positive comments and emails from the non-cynics out there. Occasionally there’s an idea in the inbox that is both so good and so timely, we leap to share it.
Today’s example is especially relevant and appealing in the current context, with the reckless commitment of future transport funding by the current government to low-value, high risk, duplicate mega-highways in the exurbs.…
What will Warkworth to Te Hana cost us? And other burning questions
Last week, late on Thursday afternoon, Minister of Transport Chris Bishop announced that the government had signed the contract for a Public Private Partnership for Warkworth to Te Hana.
This answers our long-running question: are they seriously going to go ahead with this?…
Five years to restore safer* speeds in Auckland?
Tomorrow’s meeting of Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Delivery Committee (TIDC) has some interesting items. One that particularly stands out for me is in the Auckland Transport update.
And it’s on the Safe Speeds Programme. Aucklanders yearn for a return to evidence-based speeds
A year on from Auckland Transport’s mindbogglingly widespread implementation of Simeon Brown’s 2024 Speed Rule, they report that they have recently been hard at work on – and making some progress on – returning some streets and roads to more safe speeds.…
Western Line Level Crossing Early Challenges and Feedback
A few months ago Auckland Transport finally started talking about the need to replace level crossings on the Western Line – something I think will become glaringly obvious in a few months once the City Rail Link opens, especially when frequencies increase, likely early next year.…
RoNS Reality Finally Hits Home
In something of a Matariki miracle, the government has finally acknowledged that their mega-road programme isn’t feasible (as we’ve been pointing out for quite some time), and have scaled it back accordingly.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop has been hinting for some months that this was probably going to happen, with the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme alone expected to cost over $50 billion, but it’s good to finally have it confirmed as of last Thursday:
Transport Minister Chris Bishop is welcoming the publication of NZTA’s Major Transport Projects Pipeline, setting out the phasing for projects including the Roads of National Significance and major public transport projects.…
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