Here is Palmerston North’s bottom line: A rail service to Wellington that is inferior to the one we have now will not be acceptable.

Investigations into a city rail link between Mt Eden and Britomart show it could have one of the steepest rail gradients in the country.

Last week Auckland Regional Transport Authority strategic transport planning manager Matthew Rednall presented an update to Auckland City Council’s transport committee.

He says earlier this year the council signed a memorandum of understanding to progress investigations for the link.

“Parts of it are very steep, there is a 70-metre height difference between Mt Eden and Britomart.”

He says the gradient would flatten out at points to accommodate underground stations, which would be on 200-metre-long platforms with access points to the surface.

“We are working on what land is required.”

Mr Rednall says stations would be about 700 metres apart, with possible locations at Aotea Square, Karangahape Rd and Newton.

“They are three distinct areas that connect the city,” he says.

“The catchment would provide coverage for the whole of the CBD.”

Transport lobby group the Campaign for Better Transport today announced concern over KiwiRail’s decision last week to mothball the rail line between Taranaki and the Waikato.

“We fear that this could be the thin edge of the wedge, with more line closures to come,” said Jon Reeves, a spokesperson for the Campaign for Better Transport.

As a consequence of the closure, milk product sourced from Fonterra farms in Taranaki and bound for Tauranga will now travel hundreds of kilometres further, via Marton rather than directly from Stratford.

“As a country we are supposed to be focussed on improving the efficiency of freight and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.  It doesn’t make sense to delay the decision on reopening the line until next year.”

KiwiRail CEO Jim Quinn announced last week that repairing the line in the wake of a recent derailment, at a cost of $400,000 cannot be immediately justified, “given that only one return train uses the line a day at present.”

But Mr Reeves points out that the reason the line has little use at present is that the track is in such poor condition.  “It has been so run down over the last decade that trains are barely capable of using it. If the line was fixed to a suitable standard then freight and passengers could take advantage a direct link between Taranaki and the Waikato.”

There have been at least seven reported derailments in the last year on the rail link, which runs from Stratford to Okahukura, just north of Taumaranui.

“We agree with the need to close the line temporarily so that the necessary repairs can be carried out safely,” said Mr. Reeves, “but we would like to see a commitment from KiwiRail and the Government to reopening the line as soon as  possible.”

Mr. Reeves acknowledged that the final bill for bringing the line up to standard could well be over a million dollars, but said that this amount was “peanuts in comparison to the billions being spent on roading infrastructure in this year alone.”

[ends]

Notes:

KiwiRail press release:

http://www.kiwirail.co.nz/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=35&cntnt01dateformat=%25d%20-%20%25m%20-%20%25Y&cntnt01returnid=55

Map of North Island rail lines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NorthIsland_rrMap_v02.svg

For futher information, please contact Jon Reeves 021 535 295

Amongst the information given below in this article in the Herald, Sharon Hunter also had the following to say (although she did also say nothing is set in concrete):

• Onehunga line services will almost certainly terminate at Britomart (as opposed to Newmarket, as has been feared).
• ARTA will be working with Dress-Smart to display train times and information in the shopping mall, much like what has been done at Sylvia Park.
• Feeder buses from Mangere are being considered
• The main bus station in Onehunga will stay were it is.  ARTA will be looking at re-routing buses past the Onehunga railway station.
• ARTA acknowledged that the suggestion of one month’s free travel trial period at the commencement of the service is a nice one, but that it is perhaps unlikely to happen.
• There may be a Park and Ride service offered at the old ITM site.
• Completion of the project is timed for the end of the first quarter of 2010.

As the Herald reports, unfortunately at the moment only hourly services are being considered for off-peak and weekend travel.

Diggers will start earthworks in the next two weeks for a second Penrose railway station, needed to re-open the Onehunga branch line to passenger trains.

That follows Auckland Regional Transport Authority and KiwiRail confirmation of sites for the three main stations for the line, which is to re-open in the first half of next year.

The other two stations will be between Mays Rd and Captain Springs Rd in Te Papapa, and at a site off the lower end of Onehunga Mall, which the Auckland Regional Council has bought for about $8 million.

KiwiRail will build a short spur to platforms on the site, to keep the main line clear for freight trains to and from the Onehunga waterfront and airport passenger rail services.

A fourth station near Mt Smart Stadium for special-event trains remains a possibility.

The regional transport authority is considering running trains every half an hour at peak times and every hour between peaks and at weekends, although it has yet to make definite decisions on the frequency of services.

Spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said the authority would keep in mind a request from the Campaign for Better Transport for half-hour services at all times.

The campaign, which collected 8000 signatures for a petition to reopen the line, says half-hour services are needed to draw shoppers to Onehunga Mall and the nearby Dress-Smart centre and to cater for SuperGold card holders entitled to free public transport after 9am each day.

Maungakiekie Community Board chairwoman Bridget Graham said of the transport authority’s proposal for hourly off-peak services that “we have got to start somewhere”.

But she believed the resurrection of passenger trains, which stopped running to and from Onehunga in 1973 after a century of operations, would prove more popular than the transport planners envisaged.

Community interest was such that more than 100 people crammed into an Onehunga hall last week to study station location plans, and Ms Graham said she had received calls from people asking when the trains would start running as they were interested in buying homes in the area.

“It’s very good news for Onehunga,” she said of the project.

A dedicated transport link between Auckland airport and the commercial business district is essential to lift the region’s tourism standing, Tourism Auckland CEO Graeme Osborne says. “My sense is that we are not any closer to that thing materialising. According some greater priority to an airport-CBD link is pretty important.”

Osborne says cities like Dublin and Beijing have invested heavily in dedicated CBD-airport links.

“The trip from the airport to the CBD is absolutely essential to create a positive first impression.”

He says with 1.8 million people coming through Auckland Airport every year – about 70 per cent of international arrivals and departures – an airport-CBD link cannot be left to chance.

“I think the cycleway is a successful new product innovation but I think the house has got to be in order as well. The airport-CBD link is on the list and we have to keep pushing for it.”

The case for investing in visitor infrastructure is strong and extends to better waterfront transport links and improved parking for campervans.

Osborne says the best option for an airport-CBD link is rail but concedes that Dublin and Beijing have successful road links.

But rail has all been ruled out in the short to medium term by Auckland International Airport Ltd. Former chief executive Don Huse told the New Zealand Herald in 2007 the long-term solution for surface access to the airport is public transport, including a rail link to the city, but said completing road networks should come first.

“The capital cost of putting rail in place is enormously expensive. The rolling stock is enormously expensive and running the service is enormously expensive,” he said then.

“We are somewhat sanguine about rail.”

A airport company spokesman said this month the company remained committed to more efficient travel between the CBD and the airport and supported proposals such as “clear routes” to make bus and car travel quicker.

Work is under way on widening Mangere Bridge and its approaches and the long-planned western ring road now extends to Mt Roskill.

Use of public transport in Auckland has hit a 25-year high, with commuters reporting increased satisfaction with the service on offer.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority’s annual passenger figures showed 58.6 million trips were made in the year to June 2009 a 7.7 per cent increase on last year and the highest level of public transport use in the city since the mid 1980s.

In 1984, Aucklanders made 60.69 million trips on public transport, but by 1994 that number had declined to a low of 33.3 million.

Rail use has almost doubled to 7.6 million trips, the highest since records began in 1955.

Meanwhile, a customer satisfaction survey conducted by research company Gravitas showed satisfaction rising from 71 per cent in 2005 to 84 per cent this year.

“This has been a very good year for the growth of public transport use in Auckland,” said ARTA Chairman Rabin Rabindran.

“The very fact that Aucklanders are now asking for more public transport is an indication in itself that we are headed in the right direction.”

Forty-five per cent of respondents to the Gravitas survey said they were using public transport more often than 12 months ago, while 91 per cent said they would probably recommend using their chosen mode of transport.

Ninety-six per cent said they were likely to use public transport again.

Sixteen per cent cited fuel and vehicle costs as their reasons for using public transport, and that it was a less stressful way to travel to work and school.

Mr Rabindran said the survey also indicated that customers wanted greater frequency and a more integrated transport network. Authorities are working on an integrated ticketing system to streamline the use of ferry, bus and train services in the city in time for the Rugby World Cup 2011.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said the aim was for Auckland to have a public transport network capable of 100 million passenger trips within 10 years.

COMMUTER TRIPS

Annual passenger transport numbers (for the year to June 30, 2009)

* 58.6 million trips, highest level since the mid-1980s.
* 7.6 million rail trips, highest since records began in 1955.
* 1.5 million on the Northern Express, a 150 per cent growth in two years.
* 2.3 million trips taken by senior citizens on SuperGold card in the first six months of 2009.
* 75.5 per cent increase of student travel on public transport.

The Government insists that electric rail is still on, dare we say, track. But Auckland is borrowing to buy an ageing diesel fleet of British cast-offs.

 

 All abooooard the great traans-Auckland rail jooourneeey. Bear in mind, folks, there will be many stops before we reach your preferred destinations.

 

 Where do Aucklanders want to go? For more than 80 years Aucklanders have wanted modern, affordable and regular train services to drop them off near work and home.

 

 But plans have been derailed more times than Amy Winehouse has been booked into rehab and left many of us nose-to-tail, alone in our cars, listening to her croon about it.

Under the previous Government, trains were to be modernised, electrified and run underground from Britomart to Mt Eden. This would be paid for through a 9.5 cent regional fuel tax that the Auckland Regional Council championed.

But the new Government abolished regional levies in May, ostensibly to share the burden with the rest of the country through national taxes.

Now, the plan is for the Government to lend the regional council $33 million to help buy six diesel locomotives built in the 1970s, with carriages from British Rail.

To mind the gap until the money can be raised? It would seem so, but at what cost?

No matter how hard The Aucklander tried to find out, no one could tell us how much of our rates was going to subsidise our taxes for this.

The regional council has already stumped up $30 million-plus for the ageing locomotives that should be shunted into sidings when electrification is switched on in 2013.

Chairman Mike Lee says the Transport Agency loan is expected to be for a four-year term, with interest at the yet-to-be-determined government bond rate.

The council still has $257 million of projects to fund but only $55 million available over 10 years.

Mr Lee says balancing the budget is a challenge after the Government cancelled the fuel tax and redirected most funds to building roads.

“This action led to a funding shortfall of more than $200 million over 10 years, which jeopardised key public transport initiatives.

“As a result, the ARC has been forced to borrow $44 million this financial year to ensure necessary investment can continue.”

While the Government has said it will buy the electric fleet through KiwiRail, possibly with the private sector involved, Mr Lee is concerned about delays.

“How electrification will be funded remains an open question.”

It’s not just the rolling stock that is causing concern.

Despite the underground city rail loop from Britomart to Mt Eden being mooted for decades, the regional transport authority is only now seeking consultants to protect the route.

This is too late for easy passage through the 41-storey skyscraper that Westfield plans for its site over the road from Britomart. Its basement carpark would go exactly where the tunnel is proposed.

Fast track de-railed once again

Colin Priestly says the Government should upgrade Auckland’s rail before pouring any more asphalt around the region.

Mr Priestly, 64, is a fan of trains but fears that buying 30-something-year-old trains from Britain is a stop-gap that will prevent much-needed electrification of rail  and the loop track around the city. Only last week, Mr Priestly says, he had to prise open the doors of an old train on which he was travelling.

“The trains are starting to pack up now,” he says. “Are they going to waste more money on doing them up and buying old stock? How many years are you going to get out of these trains before they start going off the tracks?

“They need brand-new stuff. Your guess is as good as mine as to where they are going to get the money. They should go for the jugular and get the lot.”

Mr Priestly believes people would flock to rail if it were a better quality service. “It’s cheap to use. I like the comfort and you don’t have to sit at stop lights and you can set your watch to them now. The more improvements, the more people will use them.”

Lynda Rehm, of Blockhouse Bay, says the ring-route and electrification should be higher on Auckland’s agenda.

“We have to get people into the city. There’s a huge workforce. You go to Britomart and you still have to walk everywhere to get to work,” Ms Rehm says.

Mr Priestly remembers fondly Mayor Robbie’s proposed light-rail route over Waitemata Harbour and around the city.

Unfortunately for generations of Aucklanders, Sir Dove-Myer Robinson - mayor from 1959-65 and from 1968-80 - was ignored. He was overlooked again in 1976 when a National Government overturned Labour’s plans for electrification between Papakura and Auckland and a central underground system.

Sir Dove-Myer’s ideas, Mr Priestly reminds us, were scrapped for the lack of money.
He hopes that he is not going to hear that again.

Colin Priestly says we should have heeded Sir Dove-Myer Robinson. KELLIE BLIZARD

Now let’s look at two ways in which that money could be spent:

The first option is on a cheap and nasty Waterview Connection. This open cut, fully surface level option is projected to cost almost exactly $2.2 billion. This is a total of $1.456 billion for construction costs, $290 million for SH16 upgrades and $450 million for financing costs. This option will involve the demolition of around 500 houses, the loss of a huge amount of open space in a part of Auckland that is considered to already be short of open space. Because of its high social and environmental costs, its cost-benefit ratio may be below 1. Furthermore, 73% of the benefits it will supposedly bring are  internationally criticised ‘time-savings benefits’, which don’t actually seem to exist in the longer-term. So, to conclude, for this option we get a 4.5 km motorway driven through a suburb, a huge loss of open space and all justified on fairly dodgy time savings benefits that may not even exist.

The second option, which also costs $2.2 billion, would involve a two track railway line being built from Avondale to Manukau City via Onehunga and the airport. This option would firstly involve completing the Avondale-Southdown railway line – that has been designated since the 1940s. Because of its long-running designation no houses would have to be demolished to make way for the line. Completing the Avondale-Southdown railway line would open up rail access from West Auckland to the airport and south, it would offer freight trains an alternative route through Auckland to the congested Newmarket junction, thereby over time allowing higher frequencies of passenger trains to be operated. This part of the project would cost $729 million and include four train stations – for interchanges with high frequency bus services to the city along Manukau, Dominion and Sandringham Roads.

The rail option would also involve linking the airport to the city by rail – with trains able to travel from Britomart to Onehunga, then over the Mangere Bridge to the airport. Furthermore, it would also link with the existing main trunk railway line near Manukau City. This finally creates a high quality public transport link from the city to the airport, creates an alternative  rail link between Manukau and Britomart, increasing the capacity of the Otahuhu-Wiri section of the Southern Line. It makes running inter-city trains to Britomart a possibility, and they could even go via the airport for extra connectivity.

They both cost $2.2 billion.  They both compete for the same money, a crown grant. I wonder which has the most long-term benefit for Auckland? I wonder which will be built?

Signals turned green yesterday on Auckland’s $1 billion-plus rail electrification drive, as KiwiRail signed a hefty contract to provide long-suffering passengers with an ultra-modern train control system…the signing of a $90 million deal between KiwiRail and Westinghouse Rail Systems Australia…priority will be given to laying new signals between Otahuhu, Britomart and Morningside by the end of 2010.

This is welcome news to all rail commuters.  The article also has a handy list of the  13 signal and points failures so far this year.