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The Rail Efficiency Program #2
How to get Better Resilience out of the Rail Network
A Rail Efficiency Program Series
The All-Encompassing Rail Efficiency Program – A New Introduction
August last year I kicked off (then it stalled owing to circumstances until now) the Rail Efficiency Series – How to get better resilience out of our existing rail network:
THE RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM
HOW TO GET BETTER RESILIENCE OUT OF THE RAIL NETWORK
A RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM SERIES
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE REP
In this new series, I be running posts on how we can get more resilience thus punctuality and reliability in the existing Auckland Rail Network prior to the City Rail Link opening. In this post I will give a an introduction to the Rail Efficiency Program which was briefly mentioned in my submission to The Auckland Plan.
Those who travel on Auckland’s passenger rail network as I do on a regular basis know the frustration when your train is delayed or even worse cancelled due either some kind of fault, breakdown, accident, pesky freight train in the way, congestion at pinch-points (such as Puhinui, Otahuhu-Westfield, or Newmarket), and/or the effects of an earlier disruption still snowballing through the network affecting the train you are on. Now there are some things either happening or in the pipeline that will help reduce the frustrations and disruptions such as:
You can read the rest of that particular post through clicking on the respective link.
Now in that introduction series I had listed six technical proposals in getting more resilience out of the existing rail INFRASTRUCTURE:
This is the Five Step – Rail Efficiency Program that I will dedicate a post to each of the five steps (including graphics) before giving a final sum up and final submission ready for Auckland Transport and Council.
THE FIVE STEP – RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM (TO BE COMPLETED BY 2018 (PRIORITY ONE IN MY AUCKLAND PLAN SUBMISSION))
- New or rebuilt cross overs at major stations (basically all stations that act as Fare Boundary stations on the rail network)
- Westfield Junction Flyover
- Relocation or adding of new stations on the rail network
- Cross-overs at all stations between Papakura and Swanson
- Third Main from Westfield to Papakura
Now there is a sixth step in my REP, that is remove level crossings on the rail network between Papakura and Swanson. However I have placed step over a 15 year program due to the resources and planning required to grade separate some of our level crossings.
Now the above still stands and will be “advocated” for where possible. However since then (as things do) other things come along and crop us – such as the accompanying posts: TO BETTER (AUCKLAND’S) TRANSPORT, ELECTRICS NEARLY THERE, and a post by another blog on existing infrastructure; THE VIRTUES OF INVESTING IN TRANSPORTATION. And especially in light of remarks from Councillor Mike Lee – Chairman of the Council Transport Committee which were:
But council transport chairman and veteran electrification campaigner Mike Lee believes the new trains will not be enough to boost flagging patronage unless they are supported by general service improvements, notably far better punctuality and extended weekend timetables, without prohibitive fare rises.
“I would not bank on electric trains in themselves fixing chronic underlying human management problems,” he said.
Although he was preparing to pop champagne corks last year in expectation of overtaking Wellington’s annual rail patronage of 11.3 million passenger trips, he is bitterly disappointed by a fall from a record 10.98 million trips in Auckland for the 12 months to April – a figure boosted by the 2011 Rugby World Cup – to little over 10 million by November
I thought it might be time to go ‘all-encompassing’ in the Rail Efficiency Program to build a strong proposal to submit to Council and Auckland Transport so that the flagging rail patronage is reversed and going where it should be – UP – again.
So here I go in giving it a shot in outlining the ‘All-Encompassing – Rail Efficiency Program (AE-REP):
THE TEN STEP – All-ENCOMPASSING RAIL EFFICIENCY PROGRAM (TO BE COMPLETED BY 2018 (PRIORITY ONE IN MY AUCKLAND PLAN SUBMISSION) (with additions as of 2013))
- New or rebuilt cross overs at major stations (basically all stations that act as Fare Boundary stations on the rail network)
- Westfield Junction Flyover
- Relocation or adding of new stations on the rail network (Adding Walters Road Station while closing Te Mahia Station being one idea) (extra feeder bus, kiss-and ride, and park-and-ride facilities would be helpful as well for major stations as a starter (plus a select few others like Walters Road Station))
- Cross-overs at all stations between Papakura and Swanson
- Third Main from Westfield to Papakura
- Manukau-South Rail Link
- Electrification to Pukekohe
- Grade Separation of Rail Level Crossings (although this would be a 15-year program)
- Introduction of (modified) full Zonal Fares
- Stepping frequencies all lines to 15 minute frequencies at the absolute minimum between 6am – 9pm on all lines (between Papakura and Swanson) – 7 days a week with 30 min frequencies for Onehunga on weekends, then slipping back to 20-30 frequencies outside those hours. As for Pukekohe frequency could be stepped up to every 30 minutes initially Monday to Friday and hourly on Weekends. Now this is all Pre-CRL due to the restraints at Britomart, however once the CRL is opened you can move to the maximum the new signalling can handle which is 12-Trains Per Hour (every 5 mins).
Now that 10-step program does not include what is already happening on the existing network (or what will be happening in the case of the City Rail Link) but does build strongly upon it:
- Electrification of the Rail Network allowing Auckland to run the faster electric trains
- With the new electrics (EMU‘s), capacity is increased from larger and more rolling stock running more frequently
- The City Rail Link opens up this latent capacity on the Rail Network and in-part removes the Newmarket pinch-point. The CRL turns Britomart into a through-station and through-stations have larger capacity than a dead-end station such as the current Britomart layout
- The Third Main which seems to be now slowly under-construction from Westfield to hopefully Homai (and extended to Papakura eventually). The third main gives freight trains a dedicated track to run on in a congested piece of network keeping the freighters out of the road of passenger trains – especially in the peak times
I have left some more human “resource” elements out of the AE-REP as that is for a separate debate and for that debate to happen in the Auckland Council Transport Committee – not the blogs!
However the 10-step AE-REP does draw inspiration from the THE VIRTUES OF INVESTING IN TRANSPORTATION piece in the fact that if you don’t get the current infrastructure investment right, it becomes a rotting and collapsing foundation for any heavy-scale new capital infrastructure investment you place on top of it (try placing a house on a layer of cake and see what happens after a period of time).
So as I originally said in August, I will expand on the (now) 10-step AE-REP over the next few months to flesh out the ideas behind the Program.
The All-Encompassing – Rail Efficiency Program by Ben Ross; How to get Better Resilience out of the Rail Network
BEN ROSS : AUCKLAND
Shining The Light – To a Better Papakura (OUR home)
AND
To a Better Auckland – (OUR City)
Auckland 2013: YOUR CITY – YOUR CALL
Electrics Nearly There
Light at End of Tunnel for Auckland Rail?
The Herald ran an article this morning on the Auckland Rail Electrification Project coming into its final stretches:
From the NZH:
$1.1b electric rail upgrade on track
5:30 AM Thursday Jan 3, 2013Last big summer shut-down puts finishing touches to network, and new trains are on target for April next year.
Auckland’s $1.14 billion rail electrification project is chugging into the home straight, ready for the arrival in September of the first of 57 zippier and quieter trains.
KiwiRail is using its last big summer shutdown of the region’s rail network to rearrange tracks at Britomart and two other locations before spinning the final segments of an electrical web which by August will cover about 85km of lines from central Auckland to Papakura in the south and Swanson in the northwest.
It is enlarging the “throat” between Britomart’s approach tunnel and the underground station’s five platforms for extra train crossover points to be installed in a four-week shutdown of the eastern and Newmarket lines, and has been laying new bypass tracks at Otahuhu and Papakura during a two-week region-wide closure to minimise conflicts between freight and increased passenger services on an electrified network.
The state-owned company has also been taking advantage of the shutdown since Christmas, during which buses have replaced trains, to string electric lines on masts already erected between Papakura and Otahuhu on the southern line.
You can read the rest of the article over at the Herald site.
However while the EMU’s are nearly here it is these two particular comments I want to focus on that caught my attention:
From the same article:
Mayor Len Brown says the arrival of the trains will be “a huge step on the path towards the kind of integrated transport system an international city like Auckland needs”.
He believes the electric units – which will have greater acceleration and braking power than the existing diesel fleet – will make rail patronage “rocket” and create even more pressure for a 3.5km underground rail extension from Britomart to Mt Eden.
Followed by this from Councillor Mike Lee:
But council transport chairman and veteran electrification campaigner Mike Lee believes the new trains will not be enough to boost flagging patronage unless they are supported by general service improvements, notably far better punctuality and extended weekend timetables, without prohibitive fare rises.
“I would not bank on electric trains in themselves fixing chronic underlying human management problems,” he said.
Although he was preparing to pop champagne corks last year in expectation of overtaking Wellington’s annual rail patronage of 11.3 million passenger trips, he is bitterly disappointed by a fall from a record 10.98 million trips in Auckland for the 12 months to April – a figure boosted by the 2011 Rugby World Cup – to little over 10 million by November.
That would be correct from the Councillor; looking at the 2012 rail patronage statistics from August you can see a levelling off of rail patronage growth before a noticeable drop start occurring in the last quarter of 2012 – to the point one could say it is ‘back sliding.’ I can go into a thesis on the back-sliding of the rail patronage but that would be extremely counter-productive to the situation and rather not needed! However again, Councillor Lee has the point with rail patronage – especially the parts in bold.
And I agree with Councillor Mike Lee’s assessment on the EMU’s not being the magic bullet for our rail ills before us. Sure they might go a small distance for the rail system but not the patronage rocket as the mayor might expect.
There is still a lot more work to be done on the existing rail infrastructure (commentary being covered in the Rail Efficiency Program series) and on the operation side (timetables, service runs, integration with bus services, fares, etc.). These improvements need to be done before the CRL if we plan to reinstall any confidence back into the Auckland public with our rail network , otherwise the CRL will suffer the same confidence crisis as the existing infrastructure does now.
My previous post: TO BETTER (AUCKLAND’S) TRANSPORT had a brief recap on the Rail Efficiency Program and an embed from America on the value of investing in “current” infrastructure before going head first into new infrastructure. I recommend strongly reading the “The Virtues of Investing in Transportation” By LAURA D’ANDREA TYSON as it is a very good example on what we should be doing first before embarking on Mayoral Flights of Fancy… (the idea is not to make The Rail Fallacy come true)
While I have my Regional Public Transport Plan hearing in front of Auckland Transport next month, I might get a bit proactive now and restart lobbying the Rail Efficiency Program before the elections kick in in September/October.
Seems I will have my work cut out this year – that is for sure.
So light at the end of the tunnel? Yes but not quite a close as the mayor might think – just yet
BEN ROSS : AUCKLAND
Shining The Light – To a Better Papakura (OUR home)
AND
To a Better Auckland – (OUR City)
Auckland 2013: YOUR CITY – YOUR CALL
Advancement in Rail
Pukekohe Electrification Builds Steam,
While
City Rail Link is Safe
Okay the subtitle for this post – Pukekohe Electrification Builds Steam is a nice play on words seeming the trains will be electrics, not steam engines.
Puns aside I managed to attend the back-end of the Transport Committee today after attending the first part of the Papakura Local Board meeting this morning. As I walked into the Transport Committee meeting this morning I must have just come into a pile of excitement and some Auckland Transport “moments” as there was quite a pitched debate going on. Now with the AT moment – I shall cover that in another post but for the moment let’s talk Pukekohe.
It has been mentioned since I reported on the November Transport Committee that steam is building (all hail the English language) to get the rail line from Papakura (where the current electrification will end) to Pukekohe electrified, as well as building two new stations at Drury and Paerata – both complete with bus bays and Park and Ride facilities. Now the cost of this project stands at $102m and has a Benefit Cost Ratio of 2.1. So for every dollar put in, you get $2.10 in investment return. Now for more on the actual project, please read the agenda below AND the case for Pukekohe Electrification also below.
Now apart from Councillor Casey’s sidetrack into the V8s in which depending on class of train, you can move between 284-700 passengers per train between Papakura to Pukekohe (answering that question of hers) the Transport Committee has thrown their full weight behind the Electrification and Station building project which (as Councillor Fletcher put it) an exciting moment for those in Counties (and in part South) Auckland. Now of course at $102m, Auckland Transport and the Council Strategy and Finance Committee (who oversee all things money within Council) are going to have to err rearrange budgets and finances to get the project within the current (oh I hate this saying – thanks Ruth Richardson) 2012-2022 Long Term Plan Fiscal Envelope. That is unless a special request is done to lug the project in there and seek extra money from the ratepayers – a move not wise as it creates precedent and makes the LTP a redundant exercise.
So Council and AT are going to have to have a long conversation on all things money as something from the budget is going to have to be dropped or put back. Nasty I know but hey, even Rebekka and I have to do it to our budget and finances at home when a capital project comes up outside the standard project – something else in that budget is just going to have to be put back.
However the wheels of progress are turning and fail the Governing Body doing a total back-flip, we should see the electrification extended to Pukekohe by 2018. Exciting times ahead
Oh any chance of squeezing in the $4m Manukau South (Rail) Link to be included with this project – just asking.
As for the City Rail Link
Ladies and gentlemen, I can safely say and be personally reassured that the City Rail Link is safe on the Council side of things (Central Government is something else) and that the project will advance from the Council side – although what exact time frame won’t actually be known until around 2014 when the new Council is installed and up and running. Now this is of course we do not get a total flip-out on Council and have every single new Councillor anti-rail.
However conversations I have had has given me this personal reassurance that the CRL will advance – subject to Central Government funding of course and that this project is supported by the majority of the Centre Left and Centre Right despite rumblings in the media and social media.
I am pleased ideology is being put behind in a particular case and that pragmatism and forward vision is rather in play instead. And whoever did release that draft report which curtailed the CRL has probably done more harm than good out of the exercise, so I am not particularly impressed and neither are others.
So we go forward and work continues on this multi-billion dollar mega project. Yes there are questions and work still be needing to be answered and done – but at least come hell or high-water this critical project continues to advance.
I give a nod and thanks to a particular individual for giving me that reassurance – for that I am thankful for (and I believe the city would be as well).
Agenda for Transport Committee – December 2012
Pukekohe Electrification Case
Pukekohe Electrification Ctd
Pukekohe Electrification Case Took Some Legs and Ran
After the news of Auckland Transport releasing the business case for extending the electrification all the way to Pukekohe, so that ALL Auckland Metro Rail services will be covered by the new EMU’s (replacing the existing diesel fleet), the entire concept has seem to grown legs and gone for a run on its own steam (excuse the pun).
From Auckland Now:
Electric trains could reach Pukekohe
SARAH HARVEY
Electric trains could run to Pukekohe if Auckland Council approves a $102 million upgrade to electrify the line past Papakura.
The electrification of Auckland’s train system is already well underway and an Auckland Transport spokesman said today they were “looking at options” to extend the project to Pukekohe.
“This would see trains running from Pukekohe to Britomart every 20 minutes at peak times and every 30 minutes at other times.”
The extra stretch is expected to cost $102.3m including buying two trains, creating park and ride facilities, new stations at Paerata and Drury and a major station upgrade at Pukekohe. Three bridges would be raised and the lowered.
Almost $19m has already been set aside in Auckland Transport’s long term plan for the project, which is expected to save $2m a year by having electric rather than diesel engines.
Mayor Len Brown welcomed an investigation, saying it would mean people in Franklin would be able to make full use of the rail network along with the rest of Auckland.
“This would mean quieter, faster and more efficient trains all the way to Pukekohe.”
Brown said Pukekohe was a key centre for residential and business growth, and there would be a rapidly growing need to move people to and from homes and jobs.
The area’s population is predicted to more than treble in the next 30 years to close to 80,000.
Franklin Local Board chairman Andy Baker said electrification was something the board and community had advocated for for a long time.
“We are extremely pleased that the investigation is happening now as it makes sense to do the work while we have contractors and systems in place to build Auckland’s electric rail network. ”
The first electric train is due to arrive in Auckland from Spain in the third quarter of 2013 and will undergo significant testing before going into public service in 2014.
And so it seems Auckland, especially South and Counties Auckland are all abuzz with the real possibility that by 2016, electric trains could be running from Pukekohe all the way to Britomart and Swanson (out west).
In saying that we in South and Counties Auckland must also not lose sight in all this excitement on the Manukau South Rail Link which would allow EMU’s to run Pukekohe to Manukau direct services, giving easy and fast access for South and Counties Auckland to their major service and employment hub – Manukau City Centre.
Exciting times ahead for this part of Auckland in regards to rail and efficient, accessible public transport.
You can see the Auckland Transport Business Case for Electrification to Pukekohe at my PUKEKOHE ELECTRIFICATION CASE post.
Pukekohe Electrification Case
Pukekohe to be Electrified by 2016?
Last week I had posted on the progress of the Manukau South Link and Electrification to Pukekohe (WHEELS OF PROGRESS TURNING CTD). Yesterday I had gotten wind and later a hold of a the business case study for extending the Auckland Electrification Project all the way to Pukekohe – the southern most station on the Auckland Metro Rail Network. This business case will be presented to the Auckland Transport Board meeting on the 20th of November in the open session of the meeting. Just out of curiosity I do not see the Manukau South Link sitting in that agenda – time for an email?
Anyhow, below is the business case with workings and drawings for the options available when extending the electrification to Pukekohe:
I have not gone through the full document on the electrification to Pukekohe as of yet, but will endeavour to do so over the weekend and write-up commentary next week!
However now we at least have something to see and work on in regards of the potential $102m electrification extension project, which can include two brand new rail stations complete with Park and Ride facilities.
Exciting times ahead in this department – that is for sure!
Talking Southern Auckland 