Tag: Auckland Transport

AMETI Part One – Walking/Cycling Day

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Your Chance to Walk AMETI Part One before it opens

 

From Voxy

Walk or cycle Auckland’s new road and tunnel at Panmure

Monday, 13 October, 2014 – 10:51

Auckland’s newest road is expected to take thousands of trucks a day off Panmure roads when it opens to traffic in early November.

Auckland Transport will open the 1.5km Te Horeta Rd in Panmure to traffic on Sunday 2 November. The road goes through a 220m tunnel, has new cycle lanes and a shared cycle and foot path alongside, which will all open at the same time.

A community event will be held on Saturday 1 November so people in the area can walk or cycle through the tunnel, along the road and on the shared path.

Completing the new road is the final major milestone for the $180m first stage of the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI). It also included building the new Panmure Station, three new bridges and new cycling and walking links.

AMETI is a group of projects aimed at giving people in the south-eastern suburbs improved transport choices and better connections to the rest of Auckland. See an aerial video and photos of the new road, station and other upgrades here: at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/ameti/.

Auckland Transport Chairman, Dr Lester Levy says completing the first stage of AMETI will be an important milestone for transport improvements in the area.

“People in the area are beginning to realise the benefits of the longer term programme of improvements for the south east. It is also one of the first major transport infrastructure projects to be completed by Auckland Transport since the new Auckland Council was established.”

AMETI Programme Director, Peter King says the new road is expected to carry 20,000 vehicles a day, including 2400 trucks.

“Te Horeta Road will link Morrin Rd to Mt Wellington Highway to cut peak journey times between Mt Wellington and Glen Innes.The direct link will bypass the Panmure roundabout and Ellerslie-Panmure Highway, easing congestion on this route.

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Full details, article and source: http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/walk-or-cycle-aucklands-new-road-and-tunnel-panmure/5/204559

 

Now to get Part Two under-way. The Busway from Panmure Station to Pakuranga Town Centre. Parts Three and beyond would be extending that bus way to Botany and Manukau City Centre forming the South Eastern Bus-way. In due time it can be converted to rail to form the Botany Line (The Botany Line Sky Train)

The Botany Line Sky Train Route
The Botany Line Sky Train Route

 

Auckland Transport’s Continued Failure

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Stronger Action Needed – NOW

 

Credit is due where credit is due as I always say. NZTA’s Auckland Division is pretty good with the Tweets on happenings around the State Highway Network, major incidents on our arterial roads, events, and from time to time even public transport even though NZTA’s main jurisdiction is the State Highways with Auckland Transport supposedly meant to be picking up the rest.

Well Auckland Transport seems to be absolutely tone-deaf to happenings around its own network including the trains while NZTA seem to be slowly filling the gap as resource and skill allows.

 

This morning something went wrong on the Western Line (update: Breakdown) causing delays, cancellations, and over crowded trains having to skip stations in their trip to Newmarket and Britomart thus leaving passengers behind. Now if that was not causing enough angry Tweets from commuters then this next bit would.

Reports came in pretty fast that due to an over crowded train on the Western Line, a poor passenger had collapsed and required medical treatment at Baldwin Avenue Station. Of course this is going to cause further delays but having a passenger collapse due to over crowding trains is not on by any stretch.

Now when you have disruptions on a public transport network you expect Tweets, Facebook Messages, and even phone texts to go out just like Civil Defence did in the blackouts earlier this week. This way people are alerted and can make decisions rather than standing at a station wondering when their next train would come. Social media these days allows rapid and near instant communication to the world of such situations. Of course Auckland Transport could have diverted Southern Line trains to go do some shuttling between New Lynn and Newmarket to assist and rail buses (or just alerting people to go use the bus with AT-HOP universal across the system) being dispatched would have further assisted the Western Line.

But what did we get? Until about two paragraphs ago in writing this post we got absolutely nothing from Auckland Transport across the media spectrum AT ALL. Result? The Baldwin Avenue incident which is very easily avoided.

 

So while this incident occurs the Auckland Transport CEO gets a pay rise, and the head of Comm’s as well as the Chief Operation Officer twiddle their thumbs.

Bit unacceptable while Auckland Transport has failed to deliver most of its targets?

Call me a bit of an old fashion person but I thought when a leader failed to deliver their targets set out it was instant dismissal. How times have changed.

 

And as I finish this up I just saw this:

 

Horse long bolted

 

School Safety on the Cards

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NZTA and Auckland Transport Streamline Funding Processes

 

From NZTA (and Auckland Transport)

School safety benefits from streamlined funding process

9 Oct 2014 08:38am | NZ Transport Agency: Auckland and Northland

Projects to improve safety around several schools in Auckland are being fast-tracked through a new streamlined funding process developed between the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Auckland Transport (AT).

The projects are part of AT’s Safety Around Schools initiative, which is primarily focused on 20 high risk schools located in Otahuhu, Mangere, Otara, and the eastern suburbs of Manukau from Howick to Botany Downs.   They include the installation of pedestrian crossings and refugee islands, 40kph school zone speed limit signage, and cycle lanes.

Total cost of the projects is $4.5m.  The Transport Agency is covering $2.4 million of the cost (53%), and AT the remainder.

In the past, both AT and the Transport Agency would review and approve funding applications.  Under the streamlined process introduced earlier this year, AT can review and approve funding applications for projects under $5m using the Transport Agency’s funding criteria.

“It means that funding can be delivered more quickly than in the past,” says the Transport Agency Planning and Investment Manager Coralie O’Brien. “Helping improve safety for children around schools is a very positive example of how the simplified process works.”

AT’s Community and Road Safety Manager, Karen Hay, says the Safety Around Schools initiative also aims to reduce morning congestion by encouraging people to walk and cycle and use public transport as an alternative to the car.

“This is having a significant impact on congestion and pollution. Initiatives have reduced the number of cars delivering students to school by 12,000 during each morning rush hour.  That equates to 2.4 million trips saved every year without even counting the trips saved in the afternoons.”

AT is also investigating further safety initiatives for schools in central Auckland, and in the west and north of the city.
One of the Transport Agency’s roles is to provide funds from its National Land Transport Programme to help councils and their organisations deliver a range of public transport, roading and cycling and walking projects for their communities.

Transport Agency funds are gathered from excise duties on fuel, road user charges and vehicle registration fees and re-invested in transport-related projects like AT’s Safety Around Schools initiative.

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Source: NZTA website

 

Good to see this happening. That said I have not forgotten about the Southern Motorway upgrades including the Takanini Interchange upgrade which caused some concerns around lack of bus lanes in the given area. I am waiting for the next phase of the development to be complete to see what comes up before firing any relevant questions off again – to Auckland Transport.

 

Comms Failure 101 over New Big Brother Surveillance System [Updated]

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Auckland Transport Teach Us Comms Failure over New Big Brother Surveillance System

 

Someone in Auckland Transport will be banging their heads on the desk after this rather large comms failure in regards to the new surveillance system due to be rolled out for an unknown sum of money.

From Stuff:

Sophisticated surveillance coming to Auckland

MICHAEL FIELD Last updated 15:52 01/10/2014

Surveillance technology that uses high definition cameras and software that puts names to faces and owners to cars is coming to Auckland.

Surveillance will also include scanning social media and news websites.

Auckland Transport, the regional transport provider, has yet to announce the multi-million dollar deal, but California’s Hewlett-Packard Development Company said today it has the contract.

No dollar sum is given.

They call it a “visionary Big Data” project and in a statement said Auckland has selected HP “to drive groundbreaking future cities initiative”.

With over 2000 cameras deployed across Auckland, the system will use a “HP Intelligent Scene Analysis System” and licence plate recognition for accurate identification.

They will screen for dangerous activities and analyse safety threats across the city.

All the data gathered by the cameras will be processed by HP cloud servers based in Palo Alto, California.

Auckland Transport’s PR department has not confirmed the announcement, but Auckland Transport’s Chief Information Officer Roger Jones is quoted by HP.

“The safety and well-being of our citizens is always our top priority and the Future Cities initiative is a big step in the right direction,” he is quoted saying.

“Only HP could comprehensively deliver the custom solution, expertise and ecosystem at this scale to transform our vision into reality.”

The vast amount of data including text, images, audio and real-time video will be analysed by HP’s system.

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Full article, video, and source here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/10567293/Sophisticated-surveillance-coming-to-Auckland

Okay the part in bold either illustrates comms incompetence or someone not telling the full story.

 

However, check these line of Tweets out over the procurement of the system:

Credits to Transport Blog for pointing this out

 

I believe an investigation by Council, and the Auditor General might be very well needed into the procurement of this Big Brother system. As for Auckland Transport? Blessed and Special come to mind over this…

[Update] Auckland Transport Replies

Auckland Transport replied on Twitter last night pointing us to the Herald article about scheme that was published in late July.

However, Transport Blog continues on the case this morning with this post: AT’s surveillance system 

The questions are no longer about the scheme itself per-se but the procurement around it….

Auckland Wants Decent Public Transport AND Affordable Housing

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Auckland gets surveyed and responds

 

From Auckland Council

Public transport tops Aucklanders’ priorities

The majority of Aucklanders say better public transport, less traffic congestion, and more affordable and quality housing are the top priorities for the region.

The results are part of an annual survey measuring what Aucklanders want from their council and how they feel Auckland Council is performing.

The annual survey is a valuable tool to help the council gauge the concerns and priorities of its residents, and to identify where the council needs to improve its services, activities and communication.

The latest council-Colmar Brunton survey was concluded in September 2013 and measures a range of factors, including perception and attitudes towards council’s performance, and what Aucklanders want from their council.

When asked what Auckland needed to focus on to become the world’s most liveable city, 61 per cent of respondents said improved public transport, 54 per cent said reduced traffic congestion, and 44 per cent said more affordable and quality housing.

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The report from the survey can be found below

Note: The survey looks at the full efforts and branding of Auckland Council