Only 1 percent of total land transport spending is allocated to new and improved public transport.

In Auckland the rate is even higher with 78 percent of people in agreement that the government should spend a greater percentage of its Land Transport Budget on improved public transport infrastructure in major urban areas or cities over the next decade.

“The Roads of National Significance and other roading projects are currently gobbling the lion’s share of government transport money, when what New Zealanders want is more investment to make public transport in cities better,” says WWF-New Zealand Climate and Energy Advocate Lee Barry.

“The futility of building more roads is not lost on Kiwis – they know fuel prices will rise and new roads will not help them.”

In the survey they point out that new or improved road infrastructure accounts for 59% of total government spending over the next decade, while new or improved public transport infrastructure accounts for 1.1%.  The chart for the current year looks like this:

Click for larger image

The Campaign for Better Transport is picking transport to be a major issue in the forthcoming election. The organisation is hosting a public meeting where the main political parties will be given the opportunity to explain what they intend to do over the next three years to improve transport, particularly in Auckland.

Spokesperson Cameron Pitches says he hopes the meeting will cover wide range of transport issues, but a key role of central Government is administering the $2.8bn annual fuel tax revenue in a “sensible and realistic” manner.

“Current Goverment policy limits just 0.8% of that revenue stream for public transport infrastructure projects. We think that the huge growth in numbers of people using buses and rail in Auckland in recent years justifies a bigger percentage than this,” says Mr Pitches.

Pitches describes the meeting as a unique opportunity for the public to show their support for intiatives such as the CBD rail link and more immediate alternatives to the costly $1.7bn toll road between Puhoi and Wellsford.

“It is our view that in Auckland the CBD rail link is absolutely vital to the continued growth in rail patronage. Other options such as a bus tunnel won’t overcome this, especially given electrification will make commuting by rail even more popular than currently.”

The meeting is to be held on Thursday 10th November, 7:00pm at the Ellen Melville Hall, Freyberg Place in central Auckland.

Confirmed speakers for the public meeting include:

• David Bennett, MP (National)
• Shane Jones, MP (Labour)
• Gareth Hughes, MP (Greens)
• Don Brash (ACT)
• Colin Craig (Conservatives)

Each speaker will be given 10 minutes to explain their party’s stance on all modes of transport and issues that affect the Auckland region in particular. Audience members will be invited to ask questions after all speakers have presented their policies.

The meeting is open to all members of the public, however as space is limited free tickets should be obtained through http://bettertransportnov11.eventbrite.com/ to guarantee a seat.

[Ends]

Notes:

Looking closer at Operation Lifesaver:

http://transportblog.co.nz/2011/11/02/looking-closer-at-operation-lifesaver/

CBD Bus Tunnel:

http://transportblog.co.nz/2011/10/30/a-cbd-bus-tunnel/

• 7 to 9am –Conscious Consumer Commuter Challenge. FREE coffee for commuters on foot, bike, boat, bus or train.
• 12pm to 2pm – Great food available from the farmers market and Cafés
• 5pm to 7pm – Green Drinks

Those that come to the breakfast between 7-9 will get a FREE fairtrade Kokako or Atomic Coffee,

Plus delicious sustainable food on sale all day from Ripe Deli, Cosset, the Library Café, Little Bird, French crepes, Paris Berlin Organic Bakery.  There is an organic meat barbeque, mussel fritters, gluten free and vegan food, and a whole Farmers Market to do some early morning shopping.

Auckland is a great big city; so why doesn’t it have a great big city transit system? That’s the question posed by inthel00p.co.nz, a brand new ‘fashion activist’ website.

With designs based on famous subway or metro signs, you’ll stay stylish while making a statement. Plus for every t-shirt sold via this website, they will give $10 to the Campaign for Better Transport! Simply order at their website, and enter ‘CBT’ in the special delivery instructions field. If you have any queries, please contact them directly.

• David Bennett, MP (National)
• Shane Jones, MP (Labour)
• Gareth Hughes, MP (Greens)
• Don Brash (ACT)
• Colin Craig (Conservatives)

The event is being held on Thursday 10th November, 7:00pm at the Pioneer Women’s and Ellen Melville Hall, Freyberg Place, Auckland Central.

Space is strictly limited – reserve your place by getting your free ticket from http://bettertransportnov11.eventbrite.com/

Each speaker will be given 10 minutes to explain their party’s stance on all modes of transport and issues that affect the Auckland region in particular.

We are requesting each speaker address the following two issues within their speech:

1. What does your party believe to be the best way to allocate centrally-held funds to different transport modes (road/rail/sea/active) and why.

2. What does your party propose to do over the next three years to improve transport in Auckland?

It should be a great night! Again space is limited and you will need a ticket to get in. Go to http://bettertransportnov11.eventbrite.com/ to secure your ticket now.

Mr Twyford, who said the proposal originated with the Campaign for Better Transport and had support from western business groups as well as three local boards, won a committee resolution for officers to seek a report from the council-controlled Auckland Transport.

He said the $350 million proposal would complement the western railway line, which went nowhere near Te Atatu and the high-growth northern sector of the former Waitakere City. He preferred it to run down the middle of the motorway and said it would cut the typical bus trips from Westgate to central Auckland from about 60 minutes to about 18 minutes.

This is a great idea and one that the CBT attempted to push a couple of  years back.  The unfortunate thing about all this is that the Waterview to Lincoln Rd section will already be subject to signficant widening as part of the Waterview upgrade.  However NZTA have only committed to bus shoulder lanes, leaving 9 lanes of traffic freely open to single occupant cars at all times of the day.

Hopefully the horse hasn’t bolted and it isn’t too late. The thing about this is that it can be done in a phased manner.  Auckland Transport blog carries on with the debate here.

Outer Link Map

We got off to a nervous start. The real-time information board at Westmere shops advised that the next “OUT” was “due”, then it flicked over to 9 minutes and then 19. At this point having waited for 15 minutes we phoned Maxx to find out when it was actually going to be turning up. Naturally as soon as we did this the bus turned up.

Although advertised as every 15 minutes it is actually a timetabled service.  “Timing stops” for our sector include Westmere Shops, Carrington and St Lukes.  After a short wait we departed at 11:24.  So teething problem #1 is that the times appearing on the real-time information board at Westmere didn’t even match the timetable, let alone the actual time the bus turned up.

We trundled along in style down Meola Rd. The bright orange Outer Link buses are brand new and are quiet and smooth. They have handy baggage storage, a marked push chair parking area and disabled seating just down from the front door. The seats are moulded to a fit standard size person. This is particularly noticable around your middle if you are a little bigger than the standard size person, and it will be interesting to see how comfortable the seats are for two bigger sized people sitting next to each other.  There are plenty of yellow grab handles for when full standing loads occur.

Like the Inner Link there is an announcement for every bus stop (Miranda Harcourt maybe? We were half expecting an announcement for Donaldson’s Dairy.)  Also announced at certain stops is the message that for time table reasons the “bus may wait a the next stop for a few minutes”. This happened at Carrington Rd, where we waited for 4 minutes, which was a little annoying. It left me wondering if there was a separate timetable for weekday and weekend services, since you would expect the Outer Link to run a bit faster than normal on weekends.  In any case we arrived right outside St Lukes about 25 minutes after departing Westmere, slightly longer than anticipated, but an enjoyable ride nonetheless.

For the return trip home the first objective was to locate the bus stop for the clockwise service. It is poorly signposted, but it is actually on the bus lane on the other side of St Lukes Rd, near the AA and Washworld. Better signage from Westfield St Lukes is really required here. There is also no bus shelter.  The other major issue is the length of time that it takes to cross St Lukes Rd on foot (about 4 minutes after pressing the button). While we were waiting the Outer Link turned up, so I jaywalked ahead so I could tag everyone on and get the bus to wait for everyone (stressing the driver as he was behind time a bit!).  Also the pedestrian crossing phasing really needs to be synchronised here so there isn’t a long wait in the middle of St Lukes Rd, otherwise jaywalking is going to be a regular occurence as people attempt to get the bus and avoid a 15 minute wait.  St Lukes is also a timing stop so there is a chance that the bus will wait, but then again it won’t if it is behind time.

The trip home was pretty quick because we were behind time and we sailed through the timing stop at Carrington. Turning right into Meola from Pt Chev the onboard announcements got a bit screwed up. First it was announced that the next stop was Motat 2 (a new stop), then as we passed the Kiwi Rd stop Westmere was announced, then as we came to the roundabout on Garnet Rd, Kiwi Rd was announced.  Meola Rd is also very narrow – at one point we had to stop behind a parked car to let the anti-clockwise Outer Link bus through. Some kind of parking restriction is really going to be required here soon, which is problematic for the big numbers of people that use the sports grounds on weeknights and weekends.

All in all though it was a good start for the service – I think it will become very popular as there are some really key “trip attractors” on this circuit such as Unitec and St Lukes shopping centre.   Fare-wise I was fortunate in that it is a single stage from Westmere to St Lukes which makes it $4.50 for the family paying by Hop (I think, I need to check). If we had to pay two stages then I doubt we’d use the service for weekend shopping - which makes me think we need a better ticketing product than the $25 family pass currently on offer through the Maxx website.

There is supposed to be a review in six months of all new central services, but I hope this doesn’t preclude the ability to put on more buses sooner than that to cater for demand.

More information at www.getacross.org.nz