The council has its next transport committee meeting this morning and there is an interesting report on the agenda from our former admin responding to Phil Tywford’s submission (starts page 15) about building a busway alongside SH16. Long time readers will know that this it has been suggested on this site for some time and with Phil picking up on it, it is starting to get some political buy in as well.
The whole report is a few pages long so I won’t put everything in this post but here is the executive summary.
This report has been prepared to provide the Transport Committee with further information in relation to a proposed Northwest Busway, presented by Labour Party MP Phil Twyford and Dr Chris Harris, at the Committee’s October 2011 meeting.
State Highway 16 (SH16) has since 2006 been included in various strategic transport documents as forming part of the Quality Transit Network (QTN). For bus services operating along motorway corridors, the QTN has been interpreted as requiring bus shoulder lanes. The Albany to Henderson corridor has been identified as a long-term part of the Rapid Transit Network (RTN), suggesting the long-term provision of a grade-separated busway along SH16 between the Lincoln Road interchange and Westgate.
A series of planned upgrades to SH16 over the next decade will significantly extend, widen and improve the network of bus shoulder lanes along the motorway, and on various ramps entering and exiting the motorway. The planned improvements to the QTN in the SH16 corridor will provide significant infrastructure improvements that will enable higher bus operating speeds (although not through interchanges, often the most congested parts of the motorway network). The upgrades have been designed (between Te Atatu and Westgate) to not preclude a busway being constructed on the southern side of the motorway in the longer term, should this be a future
decision.It is proposed in the Auckland Plan that a significant number of additional people will be living and working in the northwest part of Auckland by 2040. Westgate is nominated as an emerging Metropolitan Centre and a major employment hub for the northwest. Potential Greenfield areas at Whenuapai and Kumeu are identified for future urban growth. These will have significant traffic and passenger transport implications beyond what has been previously considered.
Further work by officers is necessary to determine whether changes to land-use patterns in the northwest part of Auckland that are envisaged by the Auckland Plan require a reconsideration of the optimal long-term solution for public transport along the SH16 corridor, as part of the whole public transport network. In particular, this work will seek to confirm whether the proposed bus shoulder lanes, in combination with other infrastructure improvements, will meet long-term travel needs along the corridor, or whether additional infrastructure, such as a busway, could be required.
Personally I think a busway along SH16 is a no brainer, and should have been done at the same time as all the widening that is about to happen. Even more so with all of the extra development that is expected to occur in the area in the future. One thing the report points out is that very few people in the area around SH16 use the rail network, which is most likely because it is simply easier for them to drive at the moment, but it got me thinking about how big the catchment for a busway would be. Stats NZ has a handy mapping tool to look at information so putting together a few area units we can get a rough idea and the map below is roughly the area that I have looked at.
Based on the 2006 census there were about 60,000 people living in the shaded area but the interesting thing is a rough estimate is also given of the population in 2031. This suggests that there will be more than 90,000 people living in the area and I suspect this is probably conservative considering it wouldn’t take into account the council’s current plans. With that kind of population in the area I think it will be critical that a busway is eventually built the length of SH16.
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They should be doing it now. A 70% solution would at least be bus lanes around the interchanges and basic stations at West Gate, Lincoln Rd and Te Atatu. This would enable ‘Express’ buses along the NW that people in these areas could access rather than the current, non peak, hourly buses that take forever to get anywhere.
They should have built it already!
If they are going to expand the motorway anyway, make it for buses! This is how Brisbane got its SE Busway!
I would suggest apron areas so when demand increases you can switch to a feeder and transfer system if required.
A NW busway would be great. Not only for the upper harbour to city corridor, but also the Henderson to Albany corridor which would also use such a busway between Lincoln Rd and Westgate.
What about a ‘reversible’ single lane? Ie, in the morning the city bound buses use the lane and after 12, the West bound buses use the lane. The buses going the opposite way can use the empty motorway.
Controlled barrier arms, similar in priciple to twin / single rail operation I guess, would easily facilitate this.
That would be slightly less effective than shoulder lanes. The real issue in my view isn’t around providing bus priority on the motorway, but rather the route through interchanges and especially how this affects the ability to transfer between services. Without transfer opportunities you could never have the equivalent of the Northern Express, and you’d miss out on a huge level of efficiency gains.
Getting peak express buses down the motorway to town isn’t a problem, but the question is do we want that or a proper two way rapid transit line like the Northern Busway?
Of course it would be great to have a full busway as per the northern but I’m just thinking aloud to see if there are ways that we can economise somehow? How much does each lane cost to build? Is a return lane, against traffic, really necessary? Can we save some of that finite cash?
A single lane busway would cost around 90% of a two lane busway, making the roadway 4m narrower wouldn’t save much at all.
A return lane isn’t necessary if you are just running peak direction only expresses into town, but it is if you want a functional transit line. For example, say you want to catch a bus up Lincoln Rd to get on the Northwestern Express out to Westgate. Where do you get off your bus at Lincoln? Where does the return bus stop to pick you up? Do the buses in both directions get off at every interchange to pull in at some local stop, then get back on again?
If you want to save cash then shoulder lanes would cost almost nothing. If you want a transit line that people can actually use to get around rather than just going downtown in the morning and back in the evening, it’s going to need stations or some some other kind of interchange point.
Firstly, hats off to Mr Twyford. Since his appointment to the post, I’ve seen more discussion on PT from the opposition MoT than in the previous 3yrs by, well, whoever last held the post.
Secondly, its amazing what a bit of noise will do – it didn’t look like a NW Busway on SH16 was going to happen up until Mr Twyford got involved (though I know posters from here and other sites would have made submissions – but thats different from opposition pushing it). In saying that, Jarbury – in his new role – was quoted as saying that including a busway at this stage would be “challenging”. So the horse may have bolted on a fully-fledged busway
Thirdly, let’s hope this is a key event: that the penny has dropped and in future, PT becomes part of the planning process for major new road improvements up-front, not an after thought.
Finally, if a busway (or the begiining of it) got the go ahead, I’d be interested to see the impact on house prices in that shaded area. I want to live within access of a RTN (bus or rail) – or a ferry – so I don’t have to drive to work and back each day. This would open up a whole new part of Auckland to consider buying in.
Putting a proper busway in not just lanes means that if there is an accident, the busway is protected. It also helps keeps cars out of it.
Do it properly the first time!