How should North Shore Rail work?
Following on from yesterday’s post about the question of when we might need to think about rail to Auckland’s North Shore, there’s also an interesting question of where it should go and what form it should take. The Passenger Transport Report that accompanies the Harbour Crossing documents looks at this issue in some detail.…
31 Comments When might we need North Shore Rail?
Hidden among the vast number of ‘roads-mad’ documents that form the review of options for a future harbour crossing is one document that provides us with more of an insight into North Shore rail that we’ve probably ever seen before. In this post I will look at the issue of when might we need to introduce a North Shore railway line, while in a future post I will consider the matter of what form that rail link might take (ie.…
Video: the role of rail in Auckland
It took a bit of searching, but I have found the video played today at the launch of the spatial plan: on the role of rail in Auckland’s future. It is pretty awesome.…
Next harbour crossing: bridge or tunnel?
We’ve been waiting quite some time to hear about NZTA’s latest review of whether the next Waitemata Harbour Crossing should be a bridge or a tunnel. A few years back this debate was pretty much settled, with the preferred option being a set of tunnels.…
Guest Post: a modest proposal
Transport expert Chris Harris is back with another Guest Post:
Has anyone suggested running North Shore trains through a widened eastern clip on?
Everyone says that the existing bridge is too steep to run trains over and that’s usually the end of the argument.…
Improving the CBD section of the Northern Busway
I was having a discussion with someone last week over the question of how necessary a North Shore Railway Line is. I certainly agreed with them that it was the lowest priority of the “big three” rail projects that Len Brown has promoted (behind the CBD Rail Tunnel and rail to the airport).…
Seattle’s new light-rail system
The streetfilms videos that I’ve posted recently seem fairly popular, so here’s another one – on Seattle’s new (as in it opened last year) light-rail system: Sometimes I wonder whether this kind of “technical solution” could be a reasonable way to upgrade the Northern Busway.…
How to pay for these rail projects?
Somewhat unsurprisingly, many commentators have been quick to write off Len Brown’s transport vision for Auckland as impossibly expensive, ‘pie in the sky’ aspirations. Some of the criticism has come from predictable sources, like David Farrar’s Kiwiblog:
Len may think he has a mandate for the rail – and he does if the ratepayers of Auckland who voted for him are willing to pay for it.…
Auckland’s 2050 Rail System?
I like to play around with ideas for dream future rail systems for Auckland, and oddly enough sometimes my rail visions are embraced by those with some opportunity to make them into a reality. But aside from making for interesting discussion points, having a bit of a think about what we might want our public transport system to look like 20, 30 or even 40 years into the future is important for one simple reason.…
North Shore vs Southeast Rail
Out of the “big three” rail projects that Len Brown promotes as his rail vision, two make pretty obvious sense – the CBD Rail Tunnel and Rail to the Airport. The two projects work in synergy quite nicely actually – both expanding the capacity and the reach of the rail system.…
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