The Campaign For Better Transport

There’s an interesting article in yesterday’s Herald about the progress of sorting out the mess Steven Joyce left Auckland’s public transport in when he cancelled the Regional Fuel Tax a couple of months back. There’s some good news, some frustrating news and some potentially good news.

On the positive side, “Money has been assured for new Auckland railway stations.” These include Newmarket, New Lynn, Manukau, Onehunga, Grafton and Avondale – some of which are already under construction (thereby making the need to sort out funding for their completion rather urgent.) The money looks like it will come from a variety of places, including higher ARC rates, an increased subsidy from NZTA and – here’s the killer – cutting back on the costs of Auckland’s integrated ticketing project.

I really don’t know why the government is so against integrated ticketing for Auckland’s public transport. Maybe they realise that simplifying the ticketing in Auckland, and creating something as up-to-date as the smart-card systems we see in London (Oyster Card) and Hong Kong (Octopus Card) will lead to a surge in patronage on Auckland’s public transport system, thereby undermining their view of public transport as something only for the poor and carless. Or maybe they’re being pressurised by Infratil (the owners of most of Auckland’s bus service providers) into delaying a project that Infratil doesn’t like. Either way, it’s pretty depressing to hear that funding has been cut to Auckland’s public transport to the extent that the ARC has had: “to try to scale back the integrated ticketing project, which previously carried a capital cost of about $80 million, including a 60 per cent Government subsidy. Mr Lee said the council would try to find ways of halving that cost.”

These most recent developments mean that the best Auckland can really hope for is to get our version of Wellington’s Snapper Card. Now this is a great outcome for Infratil – as they own Snapper Card – but is no guarantee that this smart-card system will be equally available for all public transport operators in the Auckland Region. Therefore, there seems to be no guarantee that the ticketing system will, in fact, be integrated. When this lack of money for integrated ticketing is coupled with the Ministry of Transport’s decision to review the Public Transport Management Act (the very piece of legislation that gives ARTA the power to impose integrated ticketing), it’s hard not to be suspicious that this critical step in the future of Auckland’s public transport is going to be delayed at best, or possibly even cancelled.

There is a light on the horizon about Auckland’s electric trains though – with Steven Joyce saying “he would report to the cabinet next month on options for buying an electric fleet and that, despite Mr Lee’s nervousness, “we remain committed to electrification”. I can understand Mike Lee (head of the ARC) being nervous though, and I’ll believe that we’re getting electric trains when I see the contract signed.

Conflicting stories from within ARTA have apparently now been sorted out, as Mathew Dearnaley writes in the Herald.  Sharon Hunter from ARTA has emailed me and confirmed:

• The introduction of Onehunga passenger services is planned for introduction in the first part of 2010 following on from the completion of Newmarket station.
• It is intended that services will run from Onehunga to Britomart.
• Proposed station locations will be available to view at Open Days held for the local community towards the end of June this year.

We are very disappointed that we are in the planning stages.  Funding was awarded two years ago for the re-laying of the track.  ARC has had possession of the ex-ITM site on the mall since October of 2007.  Consultation was supposed to be happening by now.Station planning and funding should be well advanced by now as services were supposed to start in December of this year.

March 2009 was a record breaking month for public transport usage in Auckland. The ARTA monthly business report confirms that there were 6,115,155 bus, ferry and rail boardings in March across Auckland’s network. This is up 19.7% on last March. It also means that the 12 month rolling total for Auckland at the end of March was 58,325,170 boardings – a 10.6% increase upon the 12 month rolling total for the previous year. The image below shows the huge leap that March 2009 represents, and how it compares with the last few years (the highest month of all):

Regarding railway patronage, the figures are even better in some respects: 802,623 boardings for the month, a 26.7% increase upon March 2008.  The image below shows how this compares with past months, and also how it compares with March from the last few years:

This is all excellent news – although the figures are slightly inflated because Easter fell in April this year but March last year. It is clear that Aucklanders are responding to improvements to our public transport system and also that the increases in public transport usage that we saw last winter due to high oil prices were not just a once-off, but that people who perhaps tried public transport for the first time then liked it, and are sticking with it. Later this year we will see a few more milestones, as the Onehunga Branch re-opens and the Newmarket Station is completed. Hopefully we will also have some sort of integrated ticketing system going, and a few more trains available to handle the increased demand.

March and August are generally the months with highest public transport usage (no school holidays, uni holdiays or uni exams). It will be interesting to see if August 2009 can top March2009.

Confusion reigns about the location of the Onehunga railway station, originally scheduled to open in December of this year.

According to officials from ARTA and the ARC, Ontrack are claiming there are insufficient funds to extend the railway line from Galway Street to the rail station site the ARC purchased on Onehunga Mall, a distance of about 300 metres.

Back in 2007, Ontrack (now KiwiRail) considered that there were enough funds to rehabilitate the line as far as the waterfront boundary with the port of Onehunga.  Since then, additional costs have apparently arisen due to the need to allow room for overhead electrical wires below the Neilson St overbridge.

Now other options are being considered, with KiwiRail recommending a “temporary” station on Prince Street, just short of Galway Street.

Other Onehunga line station locations are yet to be confirmed.

The Campaign for Better Transport is extremely disappointed with this outcome. Funding for the line was obtained just over two years ago, and while the track work is mostly complete, it seems that the ARC, ARTA and Ontrack are a long way away from the development of the stations and the implementation of actual passenger services.

For Onehunga rail to be a success, there needs to be very strong integration with bus services from Mangere and elsewhere around Onehunga. The ARC’s current site seems ideal for this with sufficient space for bus or “kiss and ride” transfers.

Additionally, ARTA have announced that services will not run direct to Britomart, for reasons that have not been specified.  Instead Britomart bound passengers will be forced to transfer at Newmarket.  I can’t see this working well.  This fails to capitilise on the primary benefit of Onehunga services interleaving with services on the main trunk line.

I’ll post again on this once I find out more.

The Herald reports that:

Government motorway builders are preparing to move bulldozers on to the Onehunga waterfront this week, despite efforts by a community group to tie them to an alleged 35-year-old promise to provide sandy beaches.

The Transport Agency says its contractors can wait no longer to extend their $230 million motorway duplication project across Manukau Harbour to the foreshore, after giving the Onehunga Enhancement Society until March 31 to reach a funding agreement with Auckland City and the regional council on an 11ha reclamation plan

Meanwhile, the Onehunga Enhancement Society says:

“There needs to be a memorandum of understanding signed off by key stakeholders in this project to ensure the non-delivery of promises made over the last 30 years is avoided at all costs. If we can get an MOU and substantial [financial] figures for the 11ha and a substantial bridge linking Onehunga to its waterfront, I’m sure we could satisfy our community and avoid the potential for a judicial review.”

 I think this is about to get very interesting.

In 2006 we campaigned hard to reopen the dormant branch railway line between Onehunga and Penrose once again to passenger services.

Our 8,000 strong petition and support from the Auckland Regional Coucil saw the Government finally give the green light for funding on the 13 March 2007 – but we aren’t there yet!

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