Category: Hot Discussion

An issue causing hot discussion either here in the blog or in the wider community

LGOIMA Request Approved

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Request into Rail Punctuality Etc  has been Approved

 

 

Good news folks. I had filed a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request to Auckland Transport on rail: punctuality, reliability, extensive patronage breakdown for the December-January period. This LGOIMA request was filed as the recent AT Statistics papers for the December 2012 – January 2013 were missing those particular figures that have been in previous statistics reports.

 

And go figure, guess what just got pointed to me by Auckland Transport Blog: those figures I asked for – stuck up on the AT website apparently yesterday after the meeting when not many of us would have being paying attention (The Board meeting was on Monday, today is Thursday).

 

Well thanks to pdfs and Scribd, here are those real figures for your inspection:

December 2012 – January 2013 Public Transport Figures – including: punctuality, reliability, and patronage by Line

 

 

Got no idea what AT are trying to hide as while punctuality still sucks, it is actually improving slowly but surely. Only problem is those rail patronage figures are still of major cause to be of concern.

Happy Reading

 

 

Wary on PPPs

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Proceed With Caution On PPP’s

 

Based on Australian Experience

 

 

I love Brisbane and am going back there for a holiday in the middle of March. Brisbane is my second home and where I lived for two years as part of my err “gap-year.” Brisbane is also similar in some respects to Auckland in regards to its civic structure, urban fabric, transportation systems, and political stupidity in investing in the wrong project.

Now I did just say political stupidity – and why is that? Check these two pieces from NZ and Brisbane on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) not delivering as they were meant to:

 

First from the NZ Herald:

Stephen King: PPPs need better ways to handle risk

5:30 AM Tuesday Feb 26, 2013

As another toll road in Australia fails, what is the future for public-private partnerships?

 

Instead of taking traffic off congested suburban roads, high tolls may mean too few cars use the toll road. Photo / APN

Is there a future for privately funded toll roads? BrisConnections has been placed into administration only seven months after opening the Brisbane Airport Link toll road/tunnel. It has not had sufficient users to make the project viable. So what does this mean for future public-private partnerships (PPPs)?

In the short term, it will mean very little. The citizens of Brisbane have a great tunnel that (from my experience) cuts significant time off a trip to the airport. The investors have done their dough. And there may be various lawsuits about who misled whom.

However, this is the fourth in a series of PPP toll road failures, including Sydney’s Lane Cove and Cross City tunnels, and Brisbane’s Clem7. If PPPs are to have a future, we need better ways to handle the project risk.

The risk associated with large infrastructure projects can be significant. For toll roads, the viability of a project depends on projections of future traffic flows. But these flows may be highly variable, depending on a range of choices by the government and car users

…

 

You can read the rest over at the Herald website

 

Now what Mr King was referring to in regards to PPP failure and by virtual extension political stupidity in Brisbane is this Brisbane Times piece I Facebooked not so long ago:

From Brisbane Times:

Airport Link in administration

Date February 19, 2013 Bridie Jabour

Brisbane’s Airport Link tunnel has gone into voluntary administration. Photo: Harrison Saragossi

UPDATED

The $4.8 billion Airport Link tunnel has been placed into voluntary administration.

In an announcement to ASX, tunnel’s operator BrisConnections said the company had decided to place the tunnel into administration citing low traffic levels and debts worth more than the tunnel.

The board of BrisConnections entered negotiations in November to restructure the tunnel’s debt but on Monday night, the board was told lenders were not prepared to support any of the restructure proposals.

The latest traffic figures show an average of 47,802 vehicles using the 6.7 kilometre Airport Link each day, about half of the original forecasts which had daily traffic of 90,000 vehicles.

BrisConnection conceded in the ASX statement that an extensive marketing and phased-in toll regime had failed to attract enough traffic but Non-Executive Chairman Trevor Rowe was still positive about the future of the tunnel.

‘‘It’s disappointing that the board has to reach this decision,’’ he said.

‘‘The AiportlinkM7 is unquestionably a world class piece of transport infrastructure that will continue to support Brisbane’s growth into the decades ahead.’’

BrisConnections was placed into a trading halt in November and two board directors resigned after a dismal report to the ASX on Airport Link.

In the report, the company admitted for the first time the tunnel’s debt might be more than its value and a research analyst said at the time the most likely option for the Airport Link was to put it up for sale.

The tunnel had a toll free period which ended in October last year with traffic forecasts falling tens of thousands of vehicles short even when the ride was free.

The costs of building Airport Link blew out so much for construction company Leighton Holdings that it contributed to them posting a yearly loss of more than $200 million which has been turned around to a $450 million profit since it handed over the tunnel and its other high profile troubled project, the Victorian desalination plant.

Airport Link was opened in July 2012 and connects Brisbane’s northern suburbs with Brisbane’s CBD and the airport, the Clem7 and the Inner City Bypass.

The tunnel will remain open and available to users as normal.

Airport Link is the second Brisbane tunnel to financially collapse with the operator of Clem7, RiverCity Motorway Group, going into receivorship in November with $1.3 billion worth of debts.

News of Airport Link’s collapse forced Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk to defend Brisbane City Council‘s decision to push ahead with the city’s third toll tunnel, the $1.5 billion Legacy Way tunnel

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/airport-link-in-administration-20130219-2eope.html#ixzz2M2OKsOiE

 

 

The Brisbane saga should sound a warning to both Central Government who are ploughing on with the Wellington Transmission Gully Motorway – which is a PPP (the Herald article above mentions the risks of that as well) and our Auckland Council if we consider PPPs for some of our larger projects including the City Rail Link.

 

I have called for a PPP with the City Rail Link with our public authorities handing the tunnel construction and maintenance, while having private companies operate the stations for say 50 years providing they get the rights for urban development (including sky rights) in the immediate vicinity of stations as part of a wider investment program. Now I know in Tokyo’s railway has stations that are built and run by companies basically on behalf of the rail metro line and in the same token have developed often impressive complexes of residential, commercial office and commercial services (retail, malls, hotels) above and around the said station.

These impressive complexes allow the Tokyo authorities to share some of the costs of rail metro line station building with private companies in return for pretty much guaranteed patronage due to the urban complexes built above and around the stations.

So there are cases where PPPs for in this case with Tokyo – rail can work. This could be a very good example for Auckland to follow-up on when the CRL is being built. However the Brisbane and Transmission Gully Wellington Road PPP projects (go figure – I said roads) are also examples on what NOT to do with PPPs.

 

So Auckland (including AT and Council) still have a long and hard road ahead in plausible financial planning for some of our larger mega-projects like the much needed City Rail Link. On one side it could go extremely wrong and bankrupt the city, on the other we get an golden opportunity for a needed transit link and some actual world class urban renewal in our grey and drab CBD!

 

Food for thought

 

 

Generation Zero: Support on Public Transport

· 1 Comment ·

Press Release from Generation Zero

 

On

 

Increasing Support for Public Transport Investment

 

I have certainly not forgotten about Generation Zero and their efforts for more balanced transport funding. This was from them today over the latest UMR Poll in regards to transport funding support levels:

 

From Scoop.co.nz – Scoop Media

Poll shows Govt’s dinosaur transport plans behind the times

Monday, 25 February 2013, 3:41 pmPress Release: Generation Zero

Poll shows Government’s ‘dinosaur’ transport plans behind the times

25 February 2013

Youth organisation Generation Zero has endorsed a recent poll by UMR research showing that support for spending on public transport has doubled over the last 20 years.

When asked whether they preferred Government money being spent on motorways and public roads or on public transport, 48 per cent of survey participants supported spending on public transport – in contrast, 37 per cent supported spending on motorways and public roads.

The poll by UMR Research shows the changing times in New Zealand with a reverse from 1992, when 43 per cent of those surveyed preferred Government money to be spent on motorways and other public roads, compared with 25 per cent support for public transport as the priority spending candidate.

Generation Zero spokesperson Louis Chambers said, “It’s time for the Government to get with the times on transport funding in New Zealand.”

The centrepiece of the Government’s transport strategy is to spend over $12 billion on its seven so-called ‘Roads of National Significance’.

To raise the money for these motorways, the Government has had to raise fuel taxes and is amending the Land Transport Management Act to allow the New Zealand Transport Agency unlimited borrowing capacity with only a signoff from the Finance Minister required.

Meanwhile, the Government is refusing to fund smart transport initiatives like the Auckland City Rail Link, and the National Land Transport Programme 2012-15 shows that for every dollar invested in new infrastructure for rail, buses, walking and cycling, 20 dollars will be spent on new state highways.

“This poll shows that New Zealanders understand our transport future can’t look like the past, and smart cities need smart transport systems to support them,” said Mr Chambers.

“But the Government doesn’t seem to get it – spending billions on unnecessary and uneconomic motorways like the Kapiti Expressway at the expense of vital smart transport projects like the City Rail Link.”

“The Government’s dinosaur transport plans will entrench ‘business as usual’, locking us into increased carbon emissions and dependence on foreign oil. As young Kiwis, that’s not what the future we want to be handed.”

“It’s time to deliver New Zealanders the better public transport systems that they’re calling for, but this will only be possible if we stop throwing money at these motorways of madness.”

About Generation Zero:
Generation Zero is an independent youth organisation seeking to catalyse action on climate change in New Zealand. For more information see:
www.generationzero.org.nz
www.facebook.com/GenerationZero

ENDS

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The UMR poll was pretty convincing and I am willing to support Generation Zero in their call made above about our Dinosaur Central Government being that – Dinosaurs in regards to these Roads of National (Party) Significance.

BR:AKL also continues to support Generation Zero’s 50:50 transport funding campaign. 😀

THE MANUKAU INTERCHANGE – Work Resumed?

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Work Resumed on the Stalled MIT and Manukau Transport Interchange Building?

 

 

Last Friday before heading to up north for a spectacular weekend away chill-laxing I popped in Manukau to do some last-minute shopping (as you do). As I was coming down State Highway One to approach the Manukau turn-off I noticed the Mainzeal crane was actually working at the MIT and Manukau Transport Interchange site. I thought to myself; “Okay, have we started again?” As I have covered in previous posts such as the “THE MANUKAU INTERCHANGE – FROM THE HILL” work has stalled at the site leaving the place like a mess and an eye sore.

 

Here are the recent photos from the site with the crane actually working

2013-02-22 12.55.04

 

 

2013-02-22 12.54.59

 

Click pictures for full resolution

 

So a good sign that the crane was working and workers milling around? In this case it is a no. I went up to the fence at the site entrance to have a closer look and saw no construction trucks of any kind. What was happening is that the crane was lifting down portable generators and other construction equipment into trucks and the subsequent equipment being taken off site.

Umm not so good as that means the site is now pretty much abandoned with a small squad of security guards posted at the entrance gate keeping a watch. It also means Auckland Transport will not be opening their new transport interchange at the same site in June (which was already a delayed date – the interchange was meant to be open next month) if I read their February Board Meeting Agenda properly.

 

To add a new twist to this I am reading that the Auckland Council Governing Body is having its meeting at the Manukau Civic Building which is where I had my RPTP hearing earlier AND is right next to the MIT site. Now is the mayor and councillors going to take the train from Britomart to Manukau Station (which is under the MIT building site) and back again for this meeting or they going to chicken out and take cars? While at the Civic Building I wonder if George, Sharon and Dick will take the rest of the Governing Body to the MIT eye sore and show the rest of the Councillors and Mayor what South Auckland is currently lugged with. I might show up as the tour guide just to emphasis a point to boot.

 

Regular updates from the Manukau Interchange will occur until the building is finally complete. In the meantime it really does look like an eye sore from the outside AND inside…

THE MANUKAU INTERCHANGE – From The Hill

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Is it Really Now an Eye Sore?

 

On Tuesday in my “THE MANUKAU INTERCHANGE – CTD“ I showed the Manukau Interchange (and resulting MIT building for which the interchange is contained in and with) not looking the best picture of roses – in fact the skeletal structure and dust blowing through an abandoned construction site is rather sad and looking like an eye sore.

 

I also said in that post: “The shot I did miss was the shot of the frame and steel girders of the MIT/Manukau Interchange from the top of Redoubt Road heading down the hill towards Manukau City Centre and the motorways. It was a sad shot as the entire ghost site now looks like a large eye sore if one was view gazing towards the airport and picturesque Manukau Harbour (I wonder what it looks like from an aircraft flying over head seeming the main flight path is right there).”

 

So I went and got some of those long and wide shots yesterday and you can ask yourself whether the skeletal structure is an eye sore or not:

 

Still waiting on how Auckland Council and Auckland Transport plan to get the Manukau Transport Interchange finished sooner rather than later…