Further patronage analysis
I must admit I got a little sidetracked in writing yesterday’s post about PT success, by the analysis I did of Auckland’s bus patronage since 2002. Analysing the patronage of the bus network, and of all PT modes as a whole, is actually something deserving of its own dedicated blog post as there are some quite interesting things you find if you look closely enough.…
13 Comments Measuring PT success
A lot of effort, and money, has gone into improving Auckland’s public transport system over the last decade – mostly in the form of upgrading the rail system, building the Northern Busway and providing the bus companies with increasing levels of public subsidy.…
Integrated ticketing: what’s going on?
Call me cynical, but if I don’t hear anything about a public transport project for quite some time I start to get suspicious. This generally is for good reason – with examples including the near screw-up of electrification last year and the consistent delays to the Onehunga Line’s opening almost passing under the radar without a ‘peep’ from the powers to be.…
Vancouver vs Auckland: the case for openness
I’ve talked a lot about the need for the new Auckland Transport CCO to be open, transparent and accountable about what it does – and how this will be a dramatic change from the highly secretive agency that ARTA was. There were some very positive steps towards this last week, with Auckland Transport announcing at the first meeting of their board that all future meetings will be held in public.…
Shedding some light on this $30 million “funding gap”
My previous post, which commented on an NZ Herald article relating to operating costs of Auckland’s rail system, noted the somewhat bizarre emergence of a $30 million funding gap. While my previous post asked the question of “where the heck did this funding gap come from?”…
Why “Auckland Transport” needs to engage with the public
Last week I asked the question of whether the Auckland Transport CCO would become a “secretive agency”, like ARTA has been, or whether it would be publicly open, accountable and transparent. While my concern in that blog post was about the specific question of whether Auckland Transport will publish agendas and minutes from their Board Meetings online (and there’s still no sign that they will), the extent to which Auckland Transport engages with the public – or conversely the extent to which it undertakes most of its work in secret – will be a key factor in whether the agency becomes a success or whether it ends up being a failure.…
Rail patronage skyrockets in September
The September ARTA monthly business report has been uploaded to Auckland Transport’s website, and the patronage statistics in particular make for spectacular reading. Here’s a summary of the report: Two things in particular stand out: the 27% increase in rail patronage from September 2009 and the (obviously somewhat related) 25,000 passengers who took advantage of free trains on the weekend when the Newmarket viaduct was closed.…
The end of ARTA
As well as Auckland’s councils being replaced by the Super City as of today, we also see the end of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and the beginning of the new Auckland Transport. ARTA have put together a useful report showing their major achievements over the past six years, and also information on where things are likely to go next.…
Will “Auckland Transport” be a secretive agency?
One of my biggest gripes with the decision to hand transport matters in Auckland over to a semi-independent “Council Controlled Organisation” as part of establishing the Super City was whether that agency would end up doing most of its work in secret.…
On-time PT stats: too blunt a measurement tool?
Humantransit has a thought-provoking blog post on whether measuring “on time performance” is really the best way to gauge the effectiveness of public transport in providing what its users want and need. Here’s a couple of interesting paragraphs:
I have a great deal of sympathy for transit executives trying to deal with on-time performance, because many of the causes of delay are outside a transit agency’s control.…
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