The Campaign For Better Transport

The Herald comes out swinging against Steven Joyce and heavy trucks.

Virtually from the moment he became the Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce was an “enthusiastic” supporter of mega-trucks. He was convinced of the productivity gains to be made from allowing greater maximum loads.

Little heed was paid to naysayers, who focused on the increased threat to safety on the roads. Acting decisively, Mr Joyce decreed that from May this year, trucks would be able to carry loads of up to 53 tonnes on specified routes, up from the previous limit of 44 tonnes. The upshot, three months later, raises questions about his reasoning and his rush.

It is now apparent that Auckland’s Southern Motorway will not be able to support the new trucks for several years. The Transport Agency has conceded it will take that long to make up to a dozen points “compliant” for them. The obvious weak points are bridges, such as those over the Tamaki River and the Puhinui Stream.

The Herald also points out the irony of the Transport Agency’s view, who say that:

..while it will be some time before mega-trucks can use the Southern Motorway to carry freight to and from Auckland’s port, consignments could be split up and sent by rail between the port company’s inland distribution centre at Wiri and the waterfront.

This is an issue that the CBT raised almost a year ago:

Whilst the current legal limit is a gross mass of 44 tonnes, most of the bridges on the state highway network and indeed the local road network were designed and constructed to carry lower loads. However, they continue to perform beyond expectations because of the conservative nature of some designs, material strengths that are higher than allowed for or ongoing upgrades and strengthening programmes.

306 state highway bridges would require strengthening, or detailed investigation and an estimated $85M would be required to fund the work over a period of several years.

Of these bridges, only 13 have already been included on the approved 09/12 Bridge Replacement and Upgrade Programme due to their current condition. The results have not been studied in detail to determine if any of the bridges should be replaced rather than strengthened.

As we’ve said before, this looks like a sop to the trucking industry, who seem to be expecting all other road users to help pay for the necessary strengthening work.

It is official –  maximum truck weights have been increased by the Government to 52 tonnes under a permit regime as announced by the Government in a carefully timed press release just before Easter. What isn’t so clear is how the trucking industry will respond.  If they pay according to the current RUC regime, then trucking companies will pay between 16 and 21% more per tonne of freight.

Furthermore, councils are unlikely to approve permits for heavy trucks without compensation of the damage they cause.  In moving from 44 tonnes to 52 tonnes, trucks of the same axle configuration are also likely to cause twice as much damage to the roading network.

There needs to be stronger regulation of the trucking industry.  There are already too many accidents involving trucks, and the number of roll over accidents will only get worse as trucks get heavier.

The Herald reports that:

Early community consultations are expected on route preferences for a new “road of national significance” costing up to $2 billion between Puhoi and the north of Wellsford.

That follows the Transport Agency’s awarding last week of a contract worth to $12 million for route investigation work on a proposed 38km link, entailing a four-lane extension of the Northern Gateway toll motorway to Warkworth and a dual-carriage expressway beyond that.

The investigation, by engineering and environmental specialists Sinclair Knight Mertz, is expected to take 15 months, but agency acting regional director Tommy Parker said he would be “disappointed if we are not talking about [route] options before about the middle of the year”.

 The Transport Agency fudges the poor economics of the project by saying:

…the figures were calculated by discounting the benefits at a standard 8 per cent each year after the road opens, a rate it sees as more appropriate to short-term projects.

It says if a 4 per cent discount rate could be used to reflect the longevity of the road, the economic returns could rise to $2 for every $1 spent.

I actually feel a bit for the NZTA here, basically being forced to justify a totally uneconomic project to satisfy the whims of the Minister of Transport.

Mike Lee pretty much hits the nail on the head with CCO’s and Auckland Transport:

According to the explanatory note to the third bill currently being deliberated by the select committee, the Super City was intended to “create one Auckland, which has strong regional governance, integrated decision making, greater community engagement and improved value for money”.

But what has become quite obvious is that Auckland isn’t getting this at all.

He bullet points the unacceptable features of Auckland Transport: Read the rest of this entry »

A letter from the Sustainable Energy Forum to Minister of Transport Steven Joyce has drawn a predictable response.

Tim Jones from SEF wrote this letter, calling for the Government to rethink its transport policy in the light of the International Energy Agency’s recent predictions of a forthcoming oil supply crunch and steeply rising oil prices, and of the rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions from transport in New Zealand.

Steven Joyce belatedly responds with a letter, concluding:

The reality is that, given our population density and history of the development of our transport system, private vehicles will continue to be the method by which most people will travel within the foreseeable future, and our investments need to reflect that reality.

The Campaign for Better Transport met with the Minister last July and got a similar response to our concerns.  We pointed out the record growth in public transport patronage in Auckland.  Like I said, at least you know where he stands. Tim Jones optimistically sees an opportunity in all this:

This provides both a very clear statement of the Government’s view, and an opportunity to present evidence to the contrary. SEF intends to contact the Minister and ask for a meeting to discuss the claims made in his letter, the way in which he fails to deal with the concerns we raised, and the evidence that exists to show that, in fact, a substantial number of road users do switch transport modes when fuel prices rise steeply.

Personally I’ve come the conclusion that nothing short of petrol hitting $3 a litre will make the Minister change his mind on this.

It is just galling to read the comments of Transport Minister Steven Joyce on the Puhoi to Wellsford holiday highway in the Herald today:

A report from the Transport Agency released yesterday by Mr Joyce gives estimates of cost for the whole job. These vary from $1.3 billion to $2.04 billion depending on how long it takes.

Mr Joyce said a $10.7 billion commitment to state highways over 10 years meant that funding was not the big issue for the project.

Funding is “not the big issue” even though this dog of a project promises to return 80c for every dollar invested. But the usual refrain of ”economic growth” apparently magically applies to this and all other roading projects, absolving anyone of justifying the cost:

Mr Joyce said the argument was getting lead infrastructure to help stimulate growth.

Quite how a wider holiday highway equates to economic growth is anyone’s guess.  Paying the unemployed to dig a big hole and fill it in again could potentially stimulate more growth than this utter lemon of a project.

And as Josh points out over at  his blog , the bottle neck is really Warkworth, the solution for which is a bypass around it.

The New Zealand Herald reports that KiwiRail is struggling to get the rail network ready in time for the 2010 “Big Day Out”.

The good news is Steven Joyce has stated that the Government will sign off on the Auckland electrification contract this coming Thursday.

Stuff reports the UK “rail giant” Serco is to look at New Zealand’s remaining four long-distance trains:

Minister of Transport Steven Joyce has confirmed the company sent him a letter recently saying it was preparing a paper on the train services. He expected the company’s ideas would be put into the mix of options for KiwiRail next year  when a strategic review of its business was completed.

Interesting – I wonder if Joyce is looking at asking KiwiRail to sell off Tranz Scenic.