Dooming the Onehunga Line to Failure
Sometimes you do have to wonder whether there’s a conspiracy out there to doom Auckland’s rail system to fail. The decision to only have a two track tunnel into Britomart will create enormous heachaces over the next 10-20 years until the city gets its act together and build the CBD rail loop.…
2 Comments The Hated Pedestrian
Today Leila and I ventured out to Wairau Park, on Auckland’s North Shore, to get a TV cabinet. We’ve been in our new place now for about five weeks, but up until now the TV has lived on a cardboard box and the DVD player has been on the kitchen bench!…
Why Peak Oil Matters
Somewhat continuing the theme of Friday’s post, it can feel difficult to be a “peak oil believer” at the moment. The narrow-minded retorts of “oil was $147 a barrel in July 2008, now it’s barely a third of that – pah!”…
The REAL Cost of Cars
Now if I’m being honest here, I will admit that public transport advocates do get hammered a bit on the whole “economics of transport” debate. The roads lobby constantly states how through petrol taxes trucks and cars pay their way, yet at the same time rail and buses simply can’t fund themselves and require massive subsidies.…
A Super City it is
Well it has now been somewhat confirmed: Auckland most definitely is becoming a super city. The government’s response to the Royal Commission’s findings doesn’t change that fact, but does change a few other things quite interestingly. A brief summary of the changes are shown below: The big changes from the original Royal Commission report is the 20-30 local boards rather than the 6 local councils, and the fact that Maori seats won’t be specifically allocated in what’s now proposed.…
Victoria Park Tunnel Fast-Tracked
Auckland’s most expensive roading project (to date) will begin construction in January next year, rather than in November next year, according to the Ministry of Transport. Just to show I’m not completely single-minded in my “roads sucks (except for buses), rail’s great” ideology, I do actually generally support the Victoria Park Tunnel project.…
Waterview Connection Reconsidered
A couple of months ago the Waterview Connectio tunnel was somehow re-costed at around a billion dollars more than what it was expected to cost previously. So just under $2 billion went up to just under $3 billion, due to financing costs being included for the first time (why weren’t they included before I wonder?),…
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