‘No, I don’t know much about it, it’s Auckland Council’s plan not Auckland Transport’s plan’.
I kid you not readers, I kid you not. That is what an Auckland Transport Officer had said at a City Rail Link briefing to the Local Boards yesterday. I can safely say beyond doubt the Local Boards were not very amused at the slightest.
From Facebook
Auckland Transport need help
They tried to ‘sell’ the City Rail Link to local boards this morning without backing up their statements with facts or figures
This is one of the biggest projects we potentially will invest in yet only one slide mentioned cost, none on rail patronage or on growth stats in fact the poor presenter even said he didn’t know much about Unitary plan he worked for AT
Virtually every Board asked for information on benefits to their area and more details
-
Ben Ross Didnt know much about the Unitary Plan because he worked for AT. FFS AT need to be on ball because of the UP and the pressures it will place on infrastructure. For the rest again the left hand is certainly not talking to its right hand… Does The CRL no favours!Desley Simpson Truth is stranger than fiction – ask Angela Dalton!Angela Dalton I couldn’t believe it – I asked if they had taken into consideration the UP in their assumptions as it promotes work where you live which would impact on rail patronage. He looked surprised and said `No, I don’t know much about it, it’s Auckland Council’s plan not Auckland Transport’s plan‘. Good grief !
————————
So the main question is to Auckland Transport: “What was the purpose of that presentation when you can not deliver the answers that are actually needed (and sought after by the Local Boards) because the Unitary Plan (which impacts rail patronage while the rail system impacts development around it) was not an Auckland Transport Plan?”
The Unitary Plan is much as an Auckland Transport Plan as it is an Auckland Council Plan. The Unitary Plan dictates where the urban development will go. What the Unitary Plan can not do is predict the maximum level of development within a said zone that zone would allow. None-the-less the zone does indicate what type of development and what maximum level of that development would be allowed so Auckland Transport would have an idea how to plan transport needs around this.
So if the rail line has a station in or near a Metropolitan Centre (so Manukau, Sylvia Park, Papakura, Newmarket, New Lynn and Henderson) you can expect some decent rail patronage servicing that station and subsequent rail line. As further consequences of this you will have wider impacts over the rail network which in the end will dictate frequencies and train capacities needed. The City Rail Link is designed to open up the rail network to allow more high-capacity trains (the 6-car double Electric Train consists holding 750 passengers) more frequently. Now how is Auckland Transport meant to plan for growth along the rail corridor (as well as getting the numbers put together for the City Rail Link) but I struggle to see how AT can do this if they are not working with Council around the Unitary Plan.
Again what we have here (which has been typical of Auckland for the last 60 years) is the left hand not talking to its right hand. That is our transport planning/use is not marrying up with our land planning/use. Rather that they are sitting in their little nuclear silos at opposite ends of the world obvious to all until too late.
I can understand the frustration from the Local Boards against Auckland Transport as I would be equally frustrated as well. Key information is missing and you wonder why confidence for the City Rail Link is slipping even from proponents. It is not that hard to get the costs and modelling done (per the Unitary Plan intentions) so I am wondering what Auckland Transport are doing (apart from star-gazing).
I might put a Local Government Official Information and Meets Act request him to see if I can give Auckland Transport a jolt.
Update: Rail Fallacies
When I ran the Rail Fallacies series a while ago in regards to overseas experiences and our own City Rail Link I was accused by Transport Blog of scaremongering and trying to “kill off” the City Rail Link.
Well that is a ‘No’ and a ‘No.’ I do not scaremonger I point to overseas experiences that serve as a warning so we do not repeat those mistakes here. I am also not trying to kill off the CRL, in fact I support it and always have. But again I will point out to warnings from overseas so that we do not repeat the experiences here.
That said and in light of situation with the City Rail Link yesterday at the Local Boards’ Briefing, what Auckland Transport is doing is not helping allay those fears in avoiding the Fallacies.
Recap links
Sydney and The Rail Fallacy MK II
Me and The City Rail Link [note: this was written pre CRL-Lite update]
Barnett Thinks Outside the Square With the City Rail Link
And now I see we are having issues with the Special Housing Areas. More on that in a subsequent post
Talking Southern Auckland 