Transport hassles — Auckland vs Wellington vs Christchurch

[ssweetpea]

I guess the Nat MPs are not sending their 14 year old from the North Shore to Papakura to be met at the station and driven to a friend's home south of Hunua. If the train to Pukekohe was more regular Sp3 would go there instead as it is slightly closer.


Why should I waste time and diesel driving there and back, or more accurately sit in traffic there and back when I can load up his Hop card and let him travel on student fares?

Sp3 can carry his own gumboots!

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The New Zealand Herald....

Push for rail-only tunnels

Campaigners say billions could be saved by
choosing cheaper harbour crossing option.

By MATHEW DEARNALEY | 5:00AM - Thursday, July 23, 2015


The Campaign for Better Transport is alarmed the project will include identifying the best locations
for vehicle exhaust venting stacks. — Photo: Brett Phibbs.

TRANSPORT CAMPAIGNERS want the Government to consider saving billions of dollars by building a rail-only crossing under Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.

They are accusing the Transport Agency of pre-determining that a pair of tunnels carrying three lanes of motorway traffic each way should be built for “around $4 billion” by 2030.

That follows an agency presentation inviting tenders from consultants for a multimillion-dollar project to prepare designations for land needed at each end of a route between Esmonde Road in Takapuna and Auckland's central motorway junction.

The Campaign for Better Transport is alarmed the project will include identifying the best locations for vehicle exhaust venting stacks.

It says smaller rail tunnels would cost a quarter as much, leaving plenty of money to extend tracks right up the North Shore.

Campaign convener Cameron Pitches has, in a letter to Transport Minister Simon Bridges, accused the agency of failing to consult Aucklanders about its preferred crossing, and asking him to intervene to stop a route protection contract being awarded early next month.

“There is no point in protecting a route for a mode of transport that may prove to be of little value in the future,” he said.

He has also written to Auckland Mayor Len Brown and councillors, warning them that $4 billion will not pay for increasing the capacity of the surrounding motorway network.

Mr Bridges said last night rail had not been ruled out, and he had been assured “that proper process and consultation has been followed”.

Agency northern director Ernst Zollner said the public had been consulted through the project's identification in the 2012 Auckland Plan, and would continue to be kept in the loop through a designation hearing and development of a business case.

“A business case will determine when the crossing is needed, and what modes of transport it will include.”

“The project is not at that stage yet, and suggestions that decisions about its form have already been made are inaccurate and misleading.”

The agency has earmarked about $15 million for the business case, with a reserve allocation of around $10 million for property purchases should it decide to build a crossing. Its industry presentation depicted double-deck tunnels with three motorway lanes on top and rail below, which it said would cost “around $4 billion”. That compares with rail-only tunnels estimated in 2008 at $1 billion to $1.2 billion.

But in March, Mr Bridges, said the main project was likely to cost between $4 billion and $6 billion.

Mr Brown would not be drawn on the campaigners' preference, saying the project needed to be prioritised in relation to other vital transport infrastructure for the city, as well as ensuring it was future-proofed for rail. “That's why agreement with the Government on an Auckland transport accord is so important.”

Another harbour crossing by 2030

• Government's preference: Twin tunnels, each with three motorway lanes with potential for trains to run underneath — expected to cost $4bn to $6bn.

• Campaigners' preference: Smaller rail-only tunnels estimated in 2008 at $1bn to $1.2bn.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11485304

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from North Shore Times....

Rail link to Auckland's North Shore prioritised in transport plan

By TOM DILLANE | 1:54PM - Saturday, 17 September 2016


The eastern side of Auckland Harbour Bridge where the Additional Waitemata Harbour
Crossing tunnel is planned to be built. — Photograph: Simon Maude/Fairfax NZ.

THE GOVERNMENT has given its first-ever clear indication it will help fund a rail link to Auckland's North Shore.

The announcement appeared in the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) plan released on September 15th and states “Waitemata Harbour crossing improvements, including mass transit upgrade of Northern Busway” are a priority during the 2030s.

The report is significant because it is the first time the Government, Auckland Council and New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) have indicated together there will be a “mass transit” component to the Additional Waitemata Harbour Crossing (AWHC).

The AWHC will be a $4 billion tunnel under Auckland Harbour to be completed around 2030.

The ATAP report joined together all the major funding contributors to Auckland transport infrastructure: Ministry of Transport, NZTA, Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, the Treasury and State Services Commission.

Auckland Councillor from the North Shore Ward, Chris Darby, says the term “mass transit upgrade” of the harbour crossing essentially means light rail — not additional buses.

“It shows what I am interpreting as rail to the Shore because it's ‘mass transit’ which is only really a type of rail,” Darby says.

“I'm not picking that to be a heavy gauge rail, I'm picking that to be a light rapid transit, contemporary trams, to the Shore.”

“For the first time in any document that I've seen, there is reference to the Waitemata Harbour Crossing improvements including mass transit upgrades of the Northern Busway.”


An artist's impression of a light rail system on Auckland's Queen Street.
Could we be seeing the beginning of such a system now?.

However, TransportBlog spokesperson Matt Lowrie says, while he “struggles to think how ‘mass transit’ would be just buses”, rail to the North Shore is still not absolutely locked in.

“I understand that for some people there's an ideological opposition to the word ‘rail’ rather than just saying ‘mass transit’,” Lowrie says.

“But yes, it's a way of saying ‘rail’, it almost certainly will be rail, but they just don't want to say it yet.”

“There's still work to go in terms of people within government agencies accepting rail as a viable solution.”

“Rail is the leading candidate though.”

Auckland's future public transport network set out in the ATAP has "mass transit" of some description extending in a line from Britomart travelling North to Orewa.

There is also a planned public transport line shooting off from Akoranga to Takapuna.

Councillor Darby was, however, keen to stress a $4 billion shortfall in public transport funding needs to be resolved over the next decade.

“From 2018-28 we have $4 billion of funding to find which is currently not identified in council or government budgets,” Darby says.

“In the next year Council and Government will need to dig down and come to agreement on non-ratepayer alternative funding tools.”

“All these projects that are identified in this document, and the decades they're in, they're all subject to robust business cases.”

“They are likely to move, some up, some down as we progress.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • Opinion: We need a rail network to the North Shore

 • Opinion poll sought for harbour rail link

 • Rail to Auckland's North Shore will “absolutely” happen: Mayor Len Brown

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/north-shore-times/84358154