Tag: Auckland Transport

March Madness

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City Still Reeling from Thursday’s Motorway Disaster

 

I am still seeing reports all over the main stream media and social media on the traffic chaos from Thursday’s crash on the Newmarket Viaduct right in the afternoon peak. Pretty much the city is still reeling from what can be described as an absolute disaster as buses, cars and trucks were basically going nowhere in Central Auckland. In the end walking and trains (for those who could use them) proved to be the fastest method of transit on Thursday afternoon.

 

The Herald ran a piece this morning on the Thursday disaster:

From the NZ Herald:

Forecast: More traffic chaos ahead

By Mathew Dearnaley

5:30 AM Saturday Mar 9, 2013

Auckland’s worst traffic gridlock for years was caused by an extra squeeze of pressure on a stretched transport network – and it is not over yet.

Although the city has struggled through its busiest traffic week of the year, culminating in Thursday’s chaos after a serious crash closed all four southbound lanes of the main motorway out of town, Auckland Transport warns of a difficult weekend.

It is urging Aucklanders and their visitors to consider using public transport or share car rides with friends or neighbours as hundreds of thousands of people throng to a raft of events over the weekend.

Commuters stewed in traffic queues over three successive afternoons, but the longest were caused by the cascading impact of a 2-hour closure of Newmarket Viaduct’s southbound carriageway at the height of Thursday’s peak travel period.

The viaduct is the country’s busiest section of motorway, normally carrying 7000 southbound vehicles an hour during afternoon peaks, and the closure from a serious crash could not have come at a worst time for what the Transport Agency acknowledges is a highly sensitive urban traffic network.

…

Not only that, but Auckland Transport says this was already the busiest traffic week of the year, as students hasten to the first classes of term joined other commuters trying to make an earnest start back at work from the summer holidays.

The phenomenon known as “March madness” happens every year, and tends to ease off after the first frenzied week, but Automobile Association traffic spokesman Phil Allen says he has never seen a worst example of gridlock than on Thursday afternoon.

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You can read the rest over at the Herald

 

The point I am raising here is that unless we get on top of the transport situation, Thursday is only going to repeat itself more often and will absolutely cripple the city as we move towards two million people.

This week alone I had written several transport related posts that interlink to Thursday’s chaos:

SOUTHERN MOTORWAY GRIDLOCK – Bring Back the Eastern Highway?

A post on how if the Eastern Highway and the Botany Line were built in 2004, a fully operational and high-capacity back up route for trucks, buses, cars and trains (the trains tapping into the currently unreached East Auckland) in and out of the CBD bypassing State Highway one could have alleviated some if not a lot of the mess from a blocked State Highway One

 

PATRONAGE BELOW FORECAST – Rail Patronage Some Millions Below Forecast

This touched on an interview on Radio NZ with Auckland Transport Chair Dr Lester Levy and how rail patronage is going to be some two and a half million passenger trips below forecast ending June 30. Full trains mean an easier run on the motorway, empty trains as they currently are mean a blocked State Highway one – and I have seen both situations.

 

This weekend would have been a perfect opportunity to showcase our public transport system with an absolute diverse range of events including Pasifika Festival in Western Springs and Around the Bays tomorrow which bring out countless residents and visitors today. You would think rather than operate our infrequent weekend timetables today, Auckland Transport would go out of their way and actually run a full Friday timetable for buses and trains to help getting people out of cars and freeing up the roads. Further more you think our fares would be affordable to also get people into public transport. This means actually selling the old Rail Family Pass right across the rail network rather than Britomart, Newmarket and New Lynn; and allow that Pass to be used freely on bus shuttles from Britomart and Morningside to Western Springs for Pasifika. I even called on AT for reasons why this is not happening:

  1. and @AklTransport any reason why Rail Ticket Inspectors not selling the old Family Pass up and down the entire network today?

  2. Ben Ross ‏@BenRoss_AKL

    @AklTransport any reason why we are not operating Friday Train and Bus Timetables today with the amount of events on.#repeatingthursday?

 

Perfect opportunity today for public transport – wasted! Lord help any one on the roads today if they back up…

 

Moving on

 

GOING FORWARD – Progress

This post mentioned that despite Thursday I can feel confident and excited on a new leaf being turned for our transport system – for the better. That this new leaf and evolution will be led by private citizen initiatives rather than public civic institution led and that in time Auckland will actually have an integrated transport system that we all understand.

 

 

What will my next commentary be on March 25? I wonder with Auckland’s Transport

 

Mayor Supports South East Highway

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Mayor Supports Redoubt Road – Mill Road Arterial

 

Last month in my “ROAD PLAN CONCERNS” post I had noted Auckland Transport‘s continued progress on moving towards the construction of the 4-lane “bypass” from the Manukau Motorway Interchange (with State Highway 1) along Redoubt Road, down Mill Road, around the back of eastern Papakura and reconnecting with State Highway One near Drury.

The respective post had a commentary piece from the NZ Herald as well as links to the Auckland Transport web portal on work thus far with this new four lane corridor plan. Also of mention was: the said corridor is both close to home (being in Papakura and five minutes away from the southern end of the soon-mentioned corridor) and I often use to skip-pass a section of the Southern Motorway when it backs up (usually in the afternoons) BR:AKL will take a look at the situation, then later on post an alternative proposal to the scheme.

 

Now I will resume working on that alternative proposal and will publish after my return from the Australian holiday starting next week. Work on the Manukau Rail North Link situation (which resulted in a compromise and win) as well as a pending mega project had taken much of my time recently however most of that is now finished (for now).

 

This morning however, I note Councillor George Wood picking up on comments from Mayor Len Brown (who lives 30 seconds from the said corridor) on his support for the corridor project.

From Stuff.co.nz

Manukau to Drury four-lane highway supported by mayor

SCOTT MORGAN

A four-lane highway that would connect Manukau with Drury has the backing of mayor Len Brown.

The Redoubt Rd-Mill Rd corridor needs land that is now occupied by homes and farms to progress.

Auckland Transport is finalising the route the $246 million first stage of the Redoubt corridor will take. It is an alternative arterial route to the southern motorway.

The road is expected to take more than 20 years to complete and has been subject to opposition from local residents’ groups.

Mr Brown has to declare a conflict of interest whenever decisions are made about how the project will move forward because he lives in the area.

“I’m in the way of it.”

But as leader of the city he supports the idea.

“It’s critical that we get this work done.”

There is a strategic need for the growing communities of Papakura, Alfriston and East Tamaki to be able to connect through the eastern side of the isthmus, he says.

Mr Brown says he is concerned about the effect plans for the 20-year project appear to be having on people’s lives.

But progress on new infrastructure needs to happen now, he says.

…

You can go see the rest of the article over at Stuff

 

But you can see the Mayor has thrown his support behind this large and long-winded project. With the corridor inching at a snail’s pace and seeming unable to be stopped in its entirety the next step (and I am aiming to try this through the alternative proposal) to mitigate against the worst of effects from the corridor and aim for a full integrated transport package.

More to come as it happens

 

Update on Manukau North Link

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Progress Does Happen Folks

 

You will remember in posts that I will be at Strategy and Finance Committee tomorrow giving my presentation on some questions I would like the Committee to ask Auckland Transport tomorrow in regards to the Manukau North Link. For express mode I’ll provide the link to those questions HERE for your reading. And before someone mentions it again I do realise the language was strong on page three of the question list. I do apologse for the strong language used there that was unintended when the questions were sent – the issue around Manukau is an emotive one especially for those living in the Manurewa, Papakura and Franklin Local Board areas.

 

But I do not want to get caught up with semantics here as I had a conversation with Auckland Council Principle Transport Planner – Josh Arbury after the Transport Committee this morning. I won’t delve into the conversation much as I will basically allow the committee to happen and have everything recorded on the official Minutes before commenting again. However Auckland Transport have seen my questions and done their homework and I am satisfied that (unless someone bungled the physical delivery of the answers) the questions will be answered adequately tomorrow. By adequate I mean that unless someone has a change of heart in the next 18 hours a compromise has been sort (as I actually did want) and for me – that cursed mast that is in the way of the potential South Link should be moved out of the road in the duplication works saving time and hassle later. As for operations (timetables) which were also asked in my questions, we will come to that bridge when it happens but at least AT are aware of concerns especially around the triple transfer with Pukekohe passengers until the electrics are able to get to Pukekohe.

 

Again I will delve into this tomorrow but those who use to remember the Otahuhu to Britomart Shuttles via the Eastern Line will be interested to know operations wise (although we shall get full clarification as such) but those shuttles will be basically back but extended to Manukau. These shuttles are extremely useful when running ahead of a Papakura or Pukekohe to Britomart service to take the pressure off the inner stations for those longer “full” services as those trains are usually full half way into the trip. The shuttles also done properly allow for high frequency of services at the inner stations which is a boon to passengers 😀

 

So tomorrow is a formality where I ask the questions for the public record and AT or Mr Arbury reply to those questions also for public record before the Strategy and Finance Committee. I would ask the Committee to allow the reallocation as AT has asked for – so long as they move that mast out of the South Link’s way. I no longer object to the North Link Duplication.

 

Progress folks – it does happen

 

And a thank you to Mr Arbury for his time this morning 🙂

 

As for Transport Committee today, I saw councillors get their pitch forks out when asking Auckland Transport questions today o_O

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

 

 

Fare Evasion

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Fare Evasion in Melbourne

 

Lesson for Auckland?

 

As AT-HOP continues to be rolled out across the Auckland public transport network (albeit late, over budget and full of bugs) I would like to remind Aucklanders of the Melbourne situation in regards to fare evasion from a similar system to ours which includes “enforcement officers.”

From The Age:

 

Thousands escape fare evasion fines

Date: February 25, 2013 Adam Carey

More than 21,000 people avoided paying a fine after being booked for fare evasion on Victorian public transport system last financial year – meaning almost 11.5 per cent of fines issued were not enforced.

Figures released to the Victorian Greens and made public on Monday reveal that people who challenge an infringement notice have a better than 10 per cent chance of avoiding the fine, despite high-profile advertising campaigns warning “there is no excuse”.

“[Public Transport Minister] Terry Mulder’s whole ‘get tough, no excuses’ line on fare evasion is hollow,” Victoria Greens leader Greg Barber said.

“Ticket inspectors sometimes get it wrong. Special circumstances sometimes apply and the courts form their own view. That’s why 11.5 per cent of all tickets aren’t enforced – a pretty poor hit rate by any standards.”

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The figures show that 188,566 infringement notices were issued in 2011-12 and 21,674 of those were withdrawn.

Most withdrawals, 17,152, came with an official warning, with just 591 notices being withdrawn completely after being reviewed. A further 2417 fines were waived after being challenged in court.

Mr Barber said the state’s system of using patrolling authorised officers to police fare evasion was inefficient. He called for a return of tram conductors and fully staffed railway stations, not seen since the 1990s.

“It’s a pretty inefficient way to try to reduce fare evasion,” Mr Barber said.

“You’ve got to make it normal to meet a human, buy a ticket, have your ticket checked, or you’re never going to get any progress.”

A Public Transport Victoria spokeswoman said everyone was expected to have a valid ticket, but that passengers had a legal right to appeal against their fine.

“By far the most common reason for fines being withdrawn is where a passenger travelling on a concession fare has forgotten to carry their proof of eligibility,” the spokeswoman said.

“Where they can later produce proof of their concession entitlement, the fine may be withdrawn. Clear cases of fare evasion, such as those travelling with no ticket at all, will get fined and no excuse will be tolerated.”

The fine for travelling without a ticket is $207.

Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said last month that much fare evasion was “opportunistic” because of the lack of customer service staff on the network.

“There needs to be a full staff presence at every station from first to last train … it is simply penny-pinching to not provide that staff presence now,” Dr Morton said.

“It is no doubt that some fare evasion on the train system is opportunistic evasion that might be avoided if there was a consistent staff presence on stations and people had an idea that they might get caught.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/thousands-escape-fare-evasion-fines-20130225-2f162.html#ixzz2M45Q7Lit

 

Rather disturbing from Melbourne.

 

Now reading the Business Report from the February Auckland Transport Board agenda it states on page 19 that 16% to 23% of passengers travelling by rail were checked by roving Ticket Inspectors with an unknown percentage not having a valid ticket or tagged on AT-HOP card. 16% – 23% means a maximum of 6.000 individual checks done (according to the Business Report) where there is an estimate of around 30,000 passengers travelling per (week)day on the network across some 326 approximate services (Monday to Thursday, with more on Friday, and less on Saturday and Sunday). It means in technical terms that upwards of 23% of total revenue from rail passengers is protected meaning currently some 77% if total revenue if everyone paid their fare (or had a Super Gold concession) per day is at potential risk. In saying that there is safeguards at Newmarket and Britomart where you need a ticket or AT-HOP card one way or the other to get through the gate system, but the idea is to not get that far without a ticket.

77% of your revenue at risk from fare evasion – due to only 23% of all passengers being individually checked by roving Ticket Inspectors – big case of OUCH! So it begs the question would you take the risk on skipping out of your fare providing you were not passing through Britomart and Newmarket ? With those figures I quoted it would be a case of “Why Not!”

 

Now before anyone points fingers, I am a good citizen and tag on and off with my AT-HOP card when travelling by train – so I pay my fare as it is only fair.

 

What I am pointing out is that Auckland with AT-HOP has the potential issues as Melbourne does with Fare Evasion – although Melbournites face a stiffer penalty at $207 (Australian) and a higher chance of getting caught. Our poultry “penalty” fare is $10.30 and moves to $20 next month – however this limitation is due to legislation issues currently being sorted to address.

 

We also have the two issues with AT-HOP of: lack of customer service, and the reliability of Rail Ticket Machines and Tagging Posts (I usually do a post every fortnight on the machines breaking down over the weekends). I will write separate posts on these in due course however, those issues do not really inspire confidence in the public transport ticketing system to the point they could act as a catalyst to fare evade.

 

So a warning from Melbourne and another LGOIMA request to go fill out.

 

I wonder if “we” are taking in the lessons learned from our cousins in Australia?