Tag: Public Transport

Changes to the City Rail Link [updated with video from Auckland Transport]

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LGOMIA request to go in for Post-CRL Operational Plan

 

Bit of activity around the changes to the City Rail Link this morning in order to scale back costs.

From the Office of the Mayor

Mayor announces 20 percent cut in cost of City Rail Link

Auckland Mayor Len Brown has announced a significant reduction in the cost of the City Rail Link (CRL) from $2.86 billion to less than $2.4 billion lowering the price of Auckland’s number one transport infrastructure priority by about 20 per cent.

A significant part of that cost reduction is an Auckland Transport (AT) decision to redevelop the existing Mt Eden Station and connect it to the CRL rather than build a new underground station at Newton.

That design change will save more than $150 million, improve the reliability and journey time of train services, minimise construction disruption and reduce property purchase requirements.

The other significant saving is a decision that additional electric trains will not be required as part of the core CRL project, saving more than $330 million.

Len Brown says the ongoing review of the design and costs for the project shows we can get the CRL operational using the existing fleet. It is expected new units will be required for the CRL’s future developments, as the network expands.

“This is an exciting development and makes a 2016 start date for the construction of the CRL even more realistic, especially at a time when more and more people are choosing to get out of their cars and travel by rail*,” says Mayor Brown.

“Aucklanders are behind this, the business and investment community are behind this, we just need to get on and get it done.”

Mayor Brown said he expects more good news on the cost of the project to come as optimisation, value engineering and advances in tunnelling technology are taken into account.

*The year to June 2014 saw a 13.9% increase in Auckland rail patronage, to 11.4 million trips.

—ends—-

More coverage can be seen at the following:

Auckland transport project overhauled

AT drops Newton Station for cheaper CRL

And from Todd Niall at Radio NZ this morning

The text version can be seen here: $500m cost cut in Auckland rail plans

 

More on this later today including sending in a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request on the post CRL operating plan

 

UPDATE: Auckland Transport has a video on the Mt Eden Station Changes

 

5:16pm and 5:46pm Britomart – Onehunga Services running – as Electric Trains

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Good news. Lets hope this holds up

 

I received my usual updates on Twitter about whether the electric trains are running or not after facing Day 11 of being grounded since power infrastructure faults became significant two Sunday’s ago

And this is what greets me

The 5:16pm main peak service from Britomart to Onehunga coming out of the Newmarket tunnel heading towards Britomart

 

And just a few moments ago as I write this

 

The second main peak service the 5:46pm also got away on time as well.

 

So our electrics are back after 10.5 days being grounded. The catch is will they hold out or will that fault return? We wait and see.