The Campaign For Better Transport

Committee election results from last Tuesday’s AGM are:

• Convenor: Cameron Pitches
• Secretary: Dr Graham Bush
• Treasurer: Ross Galloway

Committee:

• Cr Graeme Easte
• Garth Houltham
• Jon Reeves
• Jennifer Northover
• Josh Arbury
• Jeremy Harris

I’m sure I speak for everyone in thanking Barry Palmer for his years of support for the CBT, and before that decades of effort he put into initiatives such as the Light Rail Transit Association and his own personal battles against Auckland’s roading mentality.  Barry retires from the Committee due to ill-health.

An exciting media release from KiwiRail:

The four rolling stock manufacturers are Hitachi Limited; Hyundai Rotem; Bombardier Transportation Australia Pty Limited; and a consortium of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, SA. (CAF) and Mitsubishi Corporation, KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn, said today.

The Manukau Courier reports the 300 metres long by seven metres deep and up to 18 metres wide rail trench in Manukau has now been completed  on the $42 million Manukau rail link.

An historical perspective by Gordon Bonetti, CBT Member

The Maori people of New Zealand have a very apt proverb, “Mata a muri kei te aro ke!”Loosely translated it means, “ To find the way forward we must first look back into the past.”So it was from this viewpoint that this article was compiled.

NZ Herald’s editorial of 20th May “We’re Stuck with Kiwi Rail,like it or Not” twice makes the statement, “Rail has not paid its way for generations,if ever.”  Historically, there is evidence this is incorrect.  Transport archives reveal that from 1965 to 1970 NZ Govt. Railways actually ran profits totaling $16 million, had a surplus again in the early 1980s then made a record profit of $23.9 million in 1984. So,whilst a state run operation in a regulated environment where road & rail were co-ordinated, rail was profitable.  However, despite warnings to the contrary, the Bolger Government continued to implement the Transport (1983 ) Amendment Act, further progressing the Douglas-era “freemarket” deregulation model. Thus evolved the present transport shambles we have today. Eventually by 1990 in the cut-throat, free-for- all transport market which evolved, rail was $1.3 million in debt. (The Bolger Govt trunk electrification cost $300m of this.) So in October 1990 Govt. wrote off the debt from the Railways Corporation & injected new capital to form a separate entity NZ Rail Ltd. This company made a profit of $36.2m in 1992 and $18.0m in 1993.

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• 13 July 2010, 7:30pm
• Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Rd
• Special Guest Speaker Mayor John Banks

This meeting is a CBT member only event.  (Yes you can renew your subscription on the night for $20!). Seats are limited to 60, so please RSVP to so that we have an idea of the numbers.

John Banks will talk about transport issues facing Auckland, followed by a Question and Answer session afterwards.  To make the most of the time allocated, please forward your questions to   so that we can sort through the most popular issues.

The AGM will then be run following the conclusion of the Question and Answer session.  Nominations for the positions of Convenor, Treasurer and Committee are invited.

ARTA Media Release

“A lot of activity will be happening over the Queen’s Birthday weekend with commissioning of the final 3km section of double track from the new Avondale Station to Tititrangi Road in New Lynn, which begins at 7pm on Friday June 4th. In order to complete the final section of double tracking, commissioning will continue throughout the following week. This means a temporary weekday timetable, with different times from Waitakere to New Lynn, will also be in place.

Temporary timetables will operate on the Western Line from the evening of Friday 4 to last service on Sunday 13 June.

Bus replacements will be in place for all Western line stations from:

• Waitakere to Avondale on Friday 4 June from 7pm
• Waitakere to Britomart on Saturdays 5 and 12 June, Monday 7 June
• New Lynn to Britomart on Sundays 6 and 13 June
• Waitakere to Swanson on Tuesday 8 June to Friday 11 June.

Amended rail service times will operate over the period Friday 4 to 13 June

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Clem7 is a PPP toll road in Brisbane. ABC News reports that:

An independent report out today claims RiverCity Motorway is making $870,000 a month but having to pay $8 million a month in interest on its $1.3 billion debt.

RiverCity chief executive officer Flan Cleary says he has not seen the report but he questions the figures.

He says it is too early to say if the group is going broke.

“We’re six weeks into a 45-year concession,” he said.

“Obviously our traffic numbers are disappointing and we’d like them to be a lot higher, but it really is just too early to say where we are.

“We’ve got two years before we have to meet any bank covenants and we’ve also got four and six years before we have to do any refinancing.”

About 24,000 motorists are using the Clem7 each day, but the company had aimed to have about 60,000 drivers using the tunnel at this stage.

As I keep saying, all of the risk with PPPs ultimately ends up with the rate and taxpayer.

Incredibly, our campaign for a waterfront tram has been adopted by the ARC and the Sea+City development team.  The Campaign for Better Transport and MOTAT pitched the idea to the ARC in 2008, and Mike Lee and Sea+City have well and truly picked up the ball and run with it.

 The Herald reports:

Trams are being prepared for a comeback on Auckland’s waterfront, in time for next year’s Rugby World Cup.

More than 50 years since trams disappeared from city streets, the Auckland Regional Council has approved the first stage of a proposal which could ultimately be part of the region’s wider public transport network.

The initial stage will focus on the Tank Farm redevelopment by ARC group subsidiary Sea+City, which will receive $6.3 million to $7.4 million from Auckland Regional Holdings to develop a 1.5km tram circuit by July next year.

Future developments, such as an extension to Britomart across a future Viaduct Harbour bridge, will be left to the new Super City council.

Sea+City expects to initially use two heritage trams from the Museum of Transport and Technology (Motat), although the regional council is also discussing with Victorian state government officials a possible long-term loan of some Melbourne trams as the service grows.