Bring in the Masters to get our much-needed transit projects off the ground – and off the public books (as much as possible)
In the beginning of 2024, I wrote an article on Linked titled Enter Japan: Inter-City Trains Between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga? Yes Please. The basic idea was two-fold in achieving reliable and frequent inter-city rail between Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga:
- Nothing fancy: you stick to basics through a staged program evolving what you have, then using tried and tested to bring the system up to full potential. That is hourly services to Hamilton and two hourly services to Tauranga on passenger trains that can do 160km/h on 1,067mm Guage tracks
- Ask the Masters for help: Let’s face it, New Zealand absolutely stinks with large scale projects including 4-lane highways that need repairs on Day 0 of operations (and yes there are mega projects we do well like the City Rail Link, Central Interceptor, and Northern Busway but sadly these are exceptions not norms). So, we bring in Japan who are the world masters of Rail who would design, build, own and operate inter-city rail on a 35-year concession.
After the article garnered wide support across the platforms including 500,000 impressions, 7,300 reactions and some 71 comments I thought to myself why don’t we expand it to another project ripe for this sort of international help the same as inter-city rail.
Enter the Airport to Botany Rapid Transit Line – Stage 2
Enter Singapore (or Hong Kong): Airport to Botany Rapid Transit Finally? Yes Please!
First some background on Airport to Botany Rapid Transit or A2B for short!
A2B is an 18-kilometre-long rapid transit line (either bus or light rail) that spans from Auckland International Airport in the west, and Botany Metropolitan Centre in the east. It has the potential to be extended along Botany Road all the way to Howick in the future as population growth continues. Between the terminals at the Airport and Botany, A2B is meant to have eight intermediate stops and two major interchanges along its 18km surface running route. Those two major interchanges are:
- Puhinui Station to allow transfers to the Southern and Eastern Line commuter trains, and Te Huia (Auckland to Hamilton that will evolve into full blown inter-city rail services)
- Manukau City Centre with the stop on Davis Avenue. This allows transfers again with the Eastern Line, and all commuter and inter city buses that use Manukau Station as a hub
Stage 1 of A2B otherwise currently known of the Airport Link was completed before the pandemic in 2021 allowing buses to run between Manukau Bus Station and the Airport via Puhinui Station. Bus lanes cover most of the route for seamless efficient travel. Puhinui Station was upgraded to serve as an Interchange for A2B, and both commuter and inter-city trains with Stage 2 adding a bridge at the interchange to allow for direct transfers compared to the arrangement on the side of the station as we have now. As I mentioned earlier most of the route has bus or transit lanes to allow seamless travel with just the final (or starting) leg between Cavendish Drive and Manukau Station not having bus lanes yet.
Personally, I have used A2B Stage 1 a few times now whether it was catching the train from Papakura and transferring at Puhinui onto the Airport Link and heading out to the Airport for my flight, bags in two OR needing to get to Manukau and using the Airport Link going the other way to reach Manukau City Centre and I must say even at Stage 1 the service is remarkable 🙂.
Stage 1 A2B
Lambie Drive with the bus lanes and floating bus stop serving the Airport Line, and 36 bus
Airport to Botany Rapid Transit – Stage 2
Political Context
With A2B Stage 1 complete and operations attention turns to Stage 2, in extending the Line all the way to Botany and bringing the system up to proper Bus Rapid Transit OR Light Rail Transit specifications.
For full official information on where A2B Stage 2 is as of October 2023 (this date is for a reason) please see the following websites:
Airport to Botany Rapid Transit
Airport to Botany Rapid Transit (Auckland Transport)
Fast information on A2B in PDF format
Now I mentioned the October 2023 date because the political landscape has changed which impacts A2B and my viewpoint on it pre and post-date.
October 2023 was elections in New Zealand in where a conservative regime replaced the centrist regime (National replaced Labour). One of the campaign policies from National was to speed up the completion of A2B from who knows when in the 2030s under the previous Labour regime, and former Labour Mayor Phil Goff (who was replaced by conservative Mayor Wayne Brown in 2022) to the original completion date of sometime this Decade coinciding with the completion of the Eastern Busway which also terminates/starts in Botany Town Centre. It is of note A2B Stage was meant to be completed in 2028 some two years after the Eastern Busway was due to be completed but Phil Goff as then Auckland Mayor ditched it in 2021 and Labour got lost with Auckland Light Rail which got cancelled last week as of me writing this article. Mayor Wayne Brown also supports A2B and wants to also see it completed as close to the Eastern Busway completion time as well.
The crux though of the current regime speeding up the completion of A2B is that it is on a 50:50 cost sharing arrangement with Auckland Council just like the City Rail Link. Given the vexed issue over the cost of the CRL, Auckland Council unable to afford things right now, and the fact like inter-city rail in me not trusting KiwiRail, Waka Kotahi, nor the whims of MPs and Ministers in Wellington, I do not exactly trust Auckland Transport and again Waka Kotahi with A2B either is what prompted me to look at bring in the world masters. With A2B that would be Singapore and Hong Kong!
The Business Case
The Business Case can be seen here clicking on this LINK. It is in PDF form and some 373 pages long. For a deep dive I do recommend reading it especially in how Auckland Transport finally came around to the routing of A2B through Manukau which is and now via Manukau Station Road, and Davis Avenue before returning to Ronwood Avenue. Auckland Transport being Auckland Transport were not exactly looking a links with wider Manukau nor transit services at Manukau Rail and Bus Stations. Their rationale was everyone can walk up or down the hill of Davis Avenue between the services. Try telling that to the elderly, mobility impaired, those with kids, luggage, plus our wonderful weather which lead to myself and some good people (current and former) people at Panuku telling AT to pull their sodding heads and route it the way it is now.
The Business Case from page 178 (Short Assessments) outlines in details why the Hybrid option (the routing we have now seen above) became the favoured and most supported option with Stakeholders. I did notice AT are going to try some stunts with a medium-term idea but if the regime, and Wayne Brown are for maximum speed to completion this sideshow should be avoided. Have a read from Page 178 it makes for fascinating stuff (and serves a lot of vindication after I have lobbied so hard for A2B over the last 10 years).
Some changes at Ronwood Avenue
Manukau City Centre, and Te Irirangi Drive are blessed with big grass median and a grid street pattern making the adapting of the road corridors for transit and active mode spaces very straight forward. Infact Te Irirangi Drive and ironically Roscommon Road with their medians WERE design to take transit sometime in their life (Wont happen with Roscommon Road unless someone build THAT bridge to Karaka from Weymouth meaning the rail line once proposed might actually be viable 😛 ). Have a look at the Google Map images of Manukau and Te Irirangi Drive and you will see how those grass medians are a blessing!
BUT and this is why I get so damn well cranky with Auckland Transport it does not mean for AT to go consume up those grass medians and still need land either side of the road because they need to build for every possible car turnout intention at an intersection rather than just do better signal phasing. This over-engineering junk needs to stop. Transit systems are there to replace car trips so why AT continue to add general lanes to every transit program is a bit like loosening one’s belt to deal with obesity…
However, apart from Puhinui Road, most of A2B will be running on those grass medians including Ronwood Avenue, and Lambie Drive. Ronwood Avenue does not need A2B to run on those grass medians when the road corridor is wide enough to take the transit way while preserving the general traffic lanes and drive way entrances to the apartments and the mall. All that is lost is paid on street parking but Auckland Transport has a parking building on Ronwood Avenue anyway.
Effectively using A2B as the catalyst I am turning Ronwood Avenue into a Main Street for Manukau City Centre
The section on Ronwood Avenue from Lambie Drive to Davis Avenue would be turned into a Boulevard. Two general lanes on the retail side, and an active mode path fronting Hayman Park. The 36 bus that goes down this section of Ronwood Avenue would follow the A2B routings.
A close up of the Boulevard as it approaches Davis Avenue and how that one side of the existing road space can actually take two general lanes with very few problems. No driveway access is lost.
From Davis Avenue to Leyton Way would be the transit-way not only for A2B but also the 33-Great South Road service and the 361 to Otara. Again, Ronwood Avenue is wide enough to cater for general traffic on one side while the entrances to the apartments and AT parking building need to be sorted but easy enough to do! The Ronwood Avenue Station is where Auckland Transport have suggested outside the mall and I have marked as an interchange.
A close up of the Davis Avenue to Osterley Way section of the transit-way. The entrance to the AT parking building will need to be factored into the design!
The Ronwood Avenue Interchange would be located here servicing A2B, the 33 and 361 services. Note that the main entrance to the mall from the Farmers side, and the entrance to the retail on northern side of Ronwood Avenue.
The final section of the Transit-Way between Amersham Way and Leyton Way. This section is a bit tricky with a bus pedestrian crossing midway, and links needed to access the Great South Road which gets busy owing to traffic entering and exiting Leyton Way.
Those are the changes I would make for A2B along Ronwood Avenue to allow to be converted into a Main Street for Manukau City Centre
Hong Kong and Singapore?
Japan are the masters at rail with supporting transit-oriented developments but will display not much interest towards Bus Rapid Transit nor Light Rail. That is fine as Singapore and Hong Kong which operate extensive bus and light rail schemes do display an interest in projects like Airport to Botany Rapid Transit (it also allows some diversification between the Transit Masters on several projects at once).
None-the-less which ever two of the Masters decide to design, build, own and operate A2B on a 35-year concession will be of similar methodology to how we would go about inter-city rail with Japan.
A2B Stage 1, as well as the Business Case give a major leg up to any overseas entity wanting to make a go of Stage 2. But there are some complexities that present themselves unlike inter-city rail:
- Airport Station likely to stay in ownership of the airport company requiring the A2B operate to lease-back on some form of business sharing arrangement (happens around the world anyway)
- Puhinui Station will remain in Auckland Transport ownership and control. But the land surrounding the station is ripe from Transit Oriented Development
- The Manukau Davis Avenue station will need to integrate with the Auckland Transport Manukau Bus and Rail Stations. However, per the business case the massive carpark between Laidlaw and M Central is still in Panuku (public) control. Might be a perfect site for the entity building and running A2B to purchase the land and be given concessions for a full-blown Transit Oriented Development including a bus station for A2B, 33 and 361 on the ground floor getting those services off the windswept Davis Avenue site
- AT will have full control of the road corridors
- Botany Metropolitan Centre where the A2B terminal for that end will be is owned by AMP. Either concessions are made with AMP or the entity running A2B purchases the rights for the A2B terminal to be there. Given shortfalls of funding for the Eastern Busway Botany Station and the fact A2B and the Eastern Busway would be using the Botany Station, having the entity running A2B could also build the station for Auckland Transport to assist with the Eastern Busway
- After the 35-year concession the transit infrastructure returns to AT and the then former owner can bid for running the bus services like everyone else. However, that owner keeps their TOD’s and can do as they see fit in a free market real estate environment.
I would say bringing in one of the masters to assist with A2B would keep around at least half if not two thirds of the $2.1b 18km long project with eight stations and four interchanges off the public books.
Benefits and Conclusion
In-the-end we all win from an international transit master coming in to design, build, own and operate Airport to Botany Rapid Transit Stage 2 through:
- Overseas experience and the fact we are pretty poor at this kind of stuff
- Keeping most of the cost off the public books
- Bringing online a rapid transit system a much needed in Southern Auckland that has wider connections including inter-city connections more quickly than what is proposed by having this project 100% public funded
- Transit Oriented Developments: intensified mixed-use developments that both meet our housing shortage as well as the 15-minute City. These TODs also form an asset base and revenue stream for the A2B operator!
Did I mention wider connections?
While this was designed for light rail back in 2015, it still works with bus rapid transit. Each one of the stations on Te Irirangi Drive and the Ronwood Avenue station will have local services feeding into and through them. Not only does this along an integrated network but more passengers going through those TOD stations further supporting their residential and commercial bases!
Enter Singapore (or Hong Kong): Airport to Botany Rapid Transit Finally? Yes Please?
Nothing Fancy
Asking the Masters for Help
Getting a much-needed project with wider benefits in the transport and land-use space off the ground after so much dithering!
Talking Southern Auckland 