How to get Better Resilience out of the Rail Network

 

A Rail Efficiency Program Series

 

The All-Encompassing Rail Efficiency Program – A New Introduction

 

August last year I kicked off (then it stalled owing to circumstances until now) the Rail Efficiency Series – How to get better resilience out of our existing rail network:

THE RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM

 

HOW TO GET BETTER RESILIENCE OUT OF THE RAIL NETWORK

 

A RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM SERIES

 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE REP

In this new series, I be running posts on how we can get more resilience thus punctuality and reliability in the existing Auckland Rail Network prior to the City Rail Link opening. In this post I will give a an introduction to the Rail Efficiency Program which was briefly mentioned in my submission to The Auckland Plan.

Those who travel on Auckland’s passenger rail network as I do on a regular basis know the frustration when your train is delayed or even worse cancelled due either some kind of fault, breakdown, accident, pesky freight train in the way, congestion at pinch-points (such as Puhinui, Otahuhu-Westfield, or Newmarket), and/or the effects of an earlier disruption still snowballing through the network affecting the train you are on. Now there are some things either happening or in the pipeline that will help reduce the frustrations and disruptions such as:

You can read the rest of that particular post through clicking on the respective link.

 

Now in that introduction series I had listed six technical proposals in getting more resilience out of the existing rail INFRASTRUCTURE:

This is the Five Step – Rail Efficiency Program that I will dedicate a post to each of the five steps (including graphics) before giving a final sum up and final submission ready for Auckland Transport and Council.

THE FIVE STEP – RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM (TO BE COMPLETED BY 2018 (PRIORITY ONE IN MY AUCKLAND PLAN SUBMISSION))

1. New or rebuilt cross overs at major stations (basically all stations that act as Fare Boundary stations on the rail network)
2. Westfield Junction Flyover
3. Relocation or adding of new stations on the rail network
4. Cross-overs at all stations between Papakura and Swanson
5. Third Main from Westfield to Papakura

Now there is a sixth step in my REP, that is remove level crossings on the rail network between Papakura and Swanson. However I have placed step over a 15 year program due to the resources and planning required to grade separate some of our level crossings.

 

Now the above still stands and will be “advocated” for where possible. However since then (as things do) other things come along and crop us – such as the  accompanying posts: TO BETTER (AUCKLAND’S) TRANSPORT, ELECTRICS NEARLY THERE, and a post by another blog on existing infrastructure; THE VIRTUES OF INVESTING IN TRANSPORTATION. And especially in light of remarks from Councillor Mike Lee – Chairman of the Council Transport Committee which were:

But council transport chairman and veteran electrification campaigner Mike Lee believes the new trains will not be enough to boost flagging patronage unless they are supported by general service improvements, notably far better punctuality and extended weekend timetables, without prohibitive fare rises.

“I would not bank on electric trains in themselves fixing chronic underlying human management problems,” he said.

Although he was preparing to pop champagne corks last year in expectation of overtaking Wellington’s annual rail patronage of 11.3 million passenger trips, he is bitterly disappointed by a fall from a record 10.98 million trips in Auckland for the 12 months to April – a figure boosted by the 2011 Rugby World Cup – to little over 10 million by November

I thought it might be time to go ‘all-encompassing’ in the Rail Efficiency Program to build a strong proposal to submit to Council and Auckland Transport so that the flagging rail patronage is reversed and going where it should be – UP – again.

 

So here I go in giving it a shot in outlining the ‘All-Encompassing – Rail Efficiency Program (AE-REP):

 

THE TEN STEP – All-ENCOMPASSING RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM (TO BE COMPLETED BY 2018 (PRIORITY ONE IN MY AUCKLAND PLAN SUBMISSION) (with additions as of 2013))

1. New or rebuilt cross overs at major stations (basically all stations that act as Fare Boundary stations on the rail network)
2. Westfield Junction Flyover
3. Relocation or adding of new stations on the rail network (Adding Walters Road Station while closing Te Mahia Station being one idea) (extra feeder bus, kiss-and ride, and park-and-ride facilities would be helpful as well for major stations as a starter (plus a select few others like Walters Road Station))
4. Cross-overs at all stations between Papakura and Swanson
5. Third Main from Westfield to Papakura
6. Manukau-South Rail Link
7. Electrification to Pukekohe
8. Grade Separation of Rail Level Crossings (although this would be a 15-year program)
9. Introduction of (modified) full Zonal Fares 
10. Stepping frequencies all lines to 15 minute frequencies at the absolute minimum between 6am – 9pm on all lines (between Papakura and Swanson) – 7 days a week with 30 min frequencies for Onehunga on weekends, then slipping back to 20-30 frequencies outside those hours. As for Pukekohe frequency could be stepped up to every 30 minutes initially Monday to Friday and hourly on Weekends. Now this is all Pre-CRL due to the restraints at Britomart, however once the CRL is opened you can move to the maximum the new signalling can handle which is 12-Trains Per Hour (every 5 mins).

Now that 10-step program does not include what is already happening on the existing network (or what will be happening in the case of the City Rail Link) but does build strongly upon it:

• Electrification of the Rail Network allowing Auckland to run the faster electric trains
• With the new electrics (EMU‘s), capacity is increased from larger and more rolling stock running more frequently
• The City Rail Link opens up this latent capacity on the Rail Network and in-part removes the Newmarket pinch-point. The CRL turns Britomart into a through-station and through-stations have larger capacity than a dead-end station such as the current Britomart layout
• The Third Main which seems to be now slowly under-construction from Westfield to hopefully Homai (and extended to Papakura eventually). The third main gives freight trains a dedicated track to run on in a congested piece of network keeping the freighters out of the road of passenger trains – especially in the peak times

 

I have left some more human “resource” elements out of the AE-REP as that is for a separate debate and for that debate to happen in the Auckland Council Transport Committee – not the blogs!

 

However the 10-step AE-REP does draw inspiration from the THE VIRTUES OF INVESTING IN TRANSPORTATION piece in the fact that if you don’t get the current infrastructure investment right, it becomes a rotting and collapsing foundation for any heavy-scale new capital infrastructure investment you place on top of it (try placing a house on a layer of cake and see what happens after a period of time).

 

So as I originally said in August, I will expand on the (now) 10-step AE-REP over the next few months to flesh out the ideas behind the Program.

 

The All-Encompassing – Rail Efficiency Program by Ben Ross; How to get Better Resilience out of the Rail Network

 

 

 

BEN ROSS : AUCKLAND