Rail Safety and closing level crossings
It’s rail safety week – and as part of their latest safety campaign, Kiwirail have highlighted just how many collisions and near misses there are:
In the year to 30 June, 40 vehicles or people collided with trains across the national rail network and there were 305 near misses.…
29 Comments The Harbour Crossing Boondoggle
Yesterday, not to be outdone by National’s mega roads plan, Labour announced an absurd $35-45 billion harbour crossing programme that doubles down on the transport planning mistakes of Auckland’s past.
Two new three lane road tunnels under the Waitemata Harbour, one going in each direction, and a separate light rail tunnel that will link to the existing Auckland Light Rail corridor is the proposed plan for a second Auckland harbour crossing, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Transport Minister David Parker announced today.…
The Pothole Blame Game
Potholes have become an election issue with both National and Labour blaming each other for the state of our roads.
For its part, National have created a $500 million Pothole Repair Fund
Asked whether this was a political gimmick Brown said: “Not at all, this is a reality of our roads being in the worst state they’ve ever been and the need for us to be investing in making sure that they are safe to drive on so we can keep our economy moving.”…
City Centre Transport Update – July-23
Last week Auckland Transport gave an update to the council’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee on city centre transport operations. You can watch the presentation here, along with questions from Councillors, it’s just under 30 minutes long. There were a few things that stood out (including from the attached presentations).…
Con Job: AT’s Connected Communities debacle
Auckland Transport recently cancelled Connected Communities (aka ConCom), a flagship programme launched in 2018 that was intended to deliver walking, cycling, public transport and safety improvements along 12 key corridors in the region.
These weren’t going to come cheaply, with AT budgeting to spend about $100 million per corridor.…
Government encourages illegal parking
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how it’s time to update parking fines. The maximum fines allowed are defined in legislation and are so outdated that they’ve been unchanged for nearly a quarter of a century.
Because infringements are set at a national level, the existing low level of fines is particularly bad for cities like Auckland where the demand for parking and the impact of inconsiderate parking is much higher.…
June-23 AT Board Meeting
Yesterday was the latest Auckland Transport board meeting and we’ve already covered Gt North Rd and AT’s budget. But as I said in yesterday’s post, there was a lot on the agenda so here’s what else was interesting. Gt North Rd
Jolisa covered the potential Gt North Rd outcomes on Monday and the great news is that the board have signed the project off in its full form, promising to find the funding shortfall to deliver the entire thing.…
Puhoi to Warkworth opens
On the weekend Auckland’s newest motorway opened, but will it be the last?
Following a formal opening on Friday, during the weekend the $880 million Puhoi to Warkworth (P2W) motorway opened to traffic. At the same time, Auckland Transport’s Matakana Link Rd was also opened.…
Pedestrian Level Crossing Closure Proposals
In order to run more frequent services across the rail network once the City Rail Link opens, Auckland Transport have been required (as I understand it by Waka Kotahi who are the rail safety regulator) to remove all level crossings from the rail network.…
It’s time to update parking fines
Parking enforcement, or the general lack of it in many parts of the city, has been a major issue for many years now. While I’m sure AT will be the first to say that enforcement is not intended as a revenue gathering source, in some places the lack of enforcement also impacts on how much parking revenue they collect as people have worked out it is often cheaper to get a parking fine once every few weeks rather than pay normal parking fees every day.…
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