Can it work?
The Ultimate Answer? Yes it can. The catch? Need to think outside the square if this is going to work.
Recommendation: Do not attempt to even try to put forward light rail plans for Dominion Road and/or the Auckland Waterfront from Wynyard Quarter to St Heliers (via Tamaki Drive). Try something in a Metropolitan Centre where there is a good population and employment base as a “test bed.” If it works then it can be rolled out to other areas of Auckland, if it “fails” then the consequences will be not as great as it would have been in the CBD. Also from the success or failure of a light rail system in a Metropolitan Centre you can adapt the system for when wider roll outs start.
So the question one would be asking is where you roll out this light rail system if it is not the Dominion Road nor the CBD Waterfront. Answer: Our sole second tier centre – the Manukau City Centre.
Now I have drawn up some simple graphics and posts before on this as part of a wider Sky Train initiative between the Airport and Panmure via Manukau and Botany Town Centre. The graphic below shows the wider scheme:
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The section of light rail I would recommend in trying to roll out first (once the Unitary Plan becomes operative) is the grey loop line that encompasses most of the Manukau City Centre and Manukau suburb. Here is a close up of the grey loop section:
Click for full resolution
If I was to change one part of the Manukau Loop it would be the western side in bringing the line up Wiri Station Road then through to Davis Avenue and back up to Cavendish Drive rather than running up Lambie Drive so that the loop runs through the Manukau Interchange opposite MIT. The walking distance back to Lambie Drive and the Manukau Supa Centre is less than 10 minutes so no major loss on moving the line.
There was a comment on whether the Manukau Loop should be at ground level or elevated like the rest of the Sky Train Line. I am favourable to elevation for a few reasons:
- Compatibility with the rest of the Sky Train Line
- The close proximity of the Wiri industrial complex thus high amount of freight traffic trying to reach the motorway system at Lambie Drive interchange
That said I am still open for reasons for having a ground level light rail system for the loop.
So why have I brought light rail back up again now. Because of this post on what is happening in Newcastle – New South Wales.
From the JBA site:
Revitalisation comes to Newcastle CBD via Light Rail
20/03/2014
| by Tim Ward BSc(Hons) MEnvMgt MPIA Associate, JBA |
Light rail is being embraced by Australian cities at a rapid rate.
On the Gold Coast the new light rail network commences operations this year. Sydney’s city and eastern suburbs light rail is undergoing environmental impact assessment and construction of the inner west light rail nearing completion. There are proposals for light rail in Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Newcastle. And the largest light rail network in the world in Melbourne is undergoing a facelift.
Planning for Newcastle’s Light Rail has been gathering pace in recent months. Since the NSW Government committed to truncating the heavy rail line as part of the Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy a number of pre-feasibility, options assessment and preliminary investigations have been carried out.
Above: an artist’s impression of light rail in Newcastle’s CBD. Source: NSW Government Hunter Development Corporation.
Funding for the Light Rail has been linked to the sale of the Port of Newcastle, which has been progressing well and which means the project is looking very likely to proceed.
The Light Rail project will contribute to the key initiatives outlined in the Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy to build a vibrant and viable city centre and promote increased public transport patronage. Other initiatives in the Strategy include:
- Establishing a university campus in the city centre.
- Revitalising Hunter Street Mall and reshaping Hunter Street as a key city destination.
- Providing additional connections across the rail corridor.
Transport for NSW released two preferred options (and a hybrid option) for the Light Rail corridor in December 2013 – one on Hunter Street and the other on the existing rail corridor.
Above: Transport for NSW’s two preferred options for Newcastle Light Rail.
…
You can read the full article here: http://www.jbaplanning.com.au/news/news-details/revitalisation-comes-to-newcastle-cbd-via-light-rail
Newcastle is a second tier city centre like Parramatta in the wider Sydney region – just like Manukau is to the wider Auckland region.
The Newcastle Light Rail concept to spur renewal in Newcastle’s City Centre has similar comparisons to Manukau City Centre in that:
- Establishing a university campus in the city centre (For Manukau that is the establishment of MIT and the expansion of AUT)
- Revitalising Hunter Street Mall and reshaping Hunter Street as a key city destination (so for Manukau it would be revitalising the Manukau Mall and turning Ronwood Ave into a pro-people “main street”)
- Providing additional connections across the rail corridor (so the Sky Train and Manukau Loop would have direct interchange access to the Manukau (heavy rail) Line (this would include the Manukau South Link) and the wider South Auckland bus network
Yes those bullet points were from the above JBA post but with local connotations added in brackets here.
How would we proceed for Manukau?
The urban renewal stuff for Manukau I have already laid out in the “21st Century Auckland Booklet PDF Mode” which I gave to the Auckland Development Committee in November. That said things have gone a bit too quiet and (here is my rant for the morning) elected representatives not replying to emails (or staying in touch) becomes as pet peeve of mine very quickly. Rant aside as I said the urban renewal map (that is the Manukau Super Metropolitan Centre) is up and Council are bring Manukau under the City Transformational Unit (well apparently). So the catch on this will be to try to get married up the City Transformational Unit and Project to the Super Met Centre concepts as best possible. Once this is done we can move to the light rail question AS PART OF the Super Metropolitan Centre work.
Once the marry-up is done we proceed with full business case studies and impact analysis of the Manukau Loop (and while we are at it we might as well as do the full Sky Train). Granted that setting the Manukau Loop up will be expensive as you also need a depot for the rolling stock as well as the rolling stock itself. Once that is done the adding on to “Sky Train” will be straight forward and “cheaper” as the establishing infrastructure is already there. Think of this as future investment – something Auckland and Wellington is a tad slow at.
After the analysis is complete then we can proceed from there with the loop. But for this “test bed” to work effectively is that the Manukau light rail Loop it will need to be coordinated with the wider Manukau Super Metropolitan Centre work. Done right I can see this working (the light rail) if it is done along side Manukau’s urban renewal and “proving” that Light Rail can work across Auckland. I would recommend watching our Australian cousins as they move through their light rail/urban renewal projects to pick up their good points and avoid their pitfalls. And there is a few light rail projects coming through in Australia as noted above:
On the Gold Coast the new light rail network commences operations this year. Sydney’s city and eastern suburbs light rail is undergoing environmental impact assessment and construction of the inner west light rail nearing completion. There are proposals for light rail in Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Newcastle. And the largest light rail network in the world in Melbourne is undergoing a facelift.
The light rail projects does not replace heavy rail projects out there like the Airport, North Shore, and Mt Roskill spur Lines but rather than alongside them as both heavy and light rail serve different requirements. The light rail system though can replace buses depending where the light rail system is laid down – especially the Sky Train Line and Dominion Road line.
I am pondering whether drawing up a presentation for the Infrastructure Committee next month to float the idea of light rail outside of the Isthmus as a test bed. I see any attempts of trying light rail on the Isthmus as extremely risky compared to a Metropolitan Centre like Manukau at the moment. This is owing to mainly Isthmus politics more than anything else. The risks in Manukau would be substantially less although the execution still needs to be pulled off correctly. If the project does fail in Manukau the consequences would be of less than if it did on the Isthmus. That said if the Manukau Loop is done correctly it should not fail with Manukau serving South Auckland – 38% of Auckland’s population.
Food for thought – so what do you think? And no I am not dismissing the Waterfront nor Dominion Road at all. Manukau first as the test for the sake of getting it right when we come to the big two that is the Waterfront and Dominion Road.
Talking Southern Auckland 
The good thing about trams, when discussing Dom Rd, is that they can run in a narrower corridor than buses. That’s what makes them appealing for Dominion Rd. That and the romanticism that people associate with them. I do think LRT (or trams – mix of own corridor and street running) could be great for Manukau but we need to walk first, so to speak. There is a substantial CAPEX that goes with trams. Can we get the 80% (or greater) benefit using buses in the meantime? Not clapped out old dungers but nice buses. Double deckers maybe, even if the patronage to start with is not requiring DD’s.
You can start with some medium size buses (50 seaters) , some paint (bus lanes) and better signal phasing (AT you are hopeless with traffic light phasing across Auckland) for the Manukau Area for around 10 years. After that there should be enough development in South Auckland and Manukau to start the first stage of the LRT network for the area.
Just need to work on the Lambie Drive Interchange which bottlenecks – well the only reason it bottlenecks because again AT are pretty hopeless with signal phasings. Short and sharp keeps the fleet moving.
I still have all those Street Mix pictures with the Manukau road lay outs
Skytrain (Vancouver) is not ‘light rail’ as such. It is more appropriately called ‘light metro’. Also, I would think a ‘City Link’ style bus route (with bus priority lanes as a must) would be more suited to the loop you suggest.
A bus loop system would not work for the same reason ground light rail wont work – Wiri Industry gets in the road at three different locations.
That’s all fixable with some ingenuity I’m sure 🙂