Here’s our roundup for the week.
Te Wananga
The Council and Auckland Transport have put out a new video on Te Wananga, the new public space being built over the water next to the ferry terminal. Construction is due to be completed by the end of April and the space open to the public in May, though planting will continue through to June and includes returning the large Pohutukawa to the area. The video highlights just how much work has gone into building the structure and making it strong enough to both ‘float’ out over the harbour but also support the weight of all the trees being planted.
In addition, they say the NX1 along with western buses will use the new Lower Albert St bus interchange by the end of April.
We’re rapidly approaching the end of all the downtown works and I’m really looking forward to being able to enjoy it all.
City Rail Link
The CRL team keep reaching new milestones and one at Karangahape is the completion of the station walls for the Beresford Square Entrance. Some of those walls are up to 40m deep. Now that they’re completed they can start work on the floors and digging out the station box. They also shared this image of the station, we’ve seen versions of this before and which is great for understanding what it would look like underground once complete.
They’ve also published a few videos of drone footage of the three construction sites with Mt Eden remaining the largest and most interesting
Some lobbyists don’t like us
We’re one of the subjects of a new research paper titled “Digital social innovation and civic participation: toward responsible and inclusive transport planning” and which looks at how sites like ours have helped improve public participation and empowerment, focusing on how we advocated for the City Rail Link for years.
Perhaps my favourite line from the paper is this:
Some lobbying groups are concerned about how GA feeds too much of critical and technical information to policymakers which reduces leverage for the respective lobbyists
It makes you wonder how many of the decisions that got Auckland to the point it is were made on the back of backroom dealings to further those lobbyists interests rather than being about the evidence and what’s best for Auckland.
Golf Club Zoning
Last week it was reported that the Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club had submitted a private plan change to modify the zoning of the club in order to save money on rates.
A prominent Auckland golf club is looking to rezone its 80 hectare course in a bid to stave off future development.
But not everyone is pleased with the Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club’s proposal.
Under the Auckland Unitary Plan, the Papatoetoe property is zoned for residential mixed housing urban and residential terraced housing and apartments.
However, the club wants to use a private plan change to make it an open space – sport and active recreation zone.
Auckland Council officers agreed in late 2020 to accept the plan change proposal so it could go out for public consultation in November, and submissions closed on December 17.
The change in zoning is also expected to save the club paying a hefty annual rates bill.
According to Auckland Council planner Roger Eccles, the club sees the plan change as a way to support the long-term future of the golf course and bring it into line with the zoning of other golf clubs in the Auckland area.
Of the 19 submissions the council received, 16 were opposed, two were in favour and one was neutral.
Here’s the thing, they have the zoning they do, or at least some of it, because they asked for it. During the Unitary Plan debate, they submitted specifically asking for their land to be zoned residential.
That same land they now want changed back.
Who knows if it will go through but the local board oppose it.
The Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board voted on Tuesday to unanimously oppose the proposal. But despite the board’s decision, the exclusive golf club is still expected to present its case to an independent hearings panel.
….
The board said the club’s zoning had been included in the Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP), which had been the subject of widespread public consultation.
“There were extensive processes during the public consultation for the unitary plan that resulted in the current land zoning. This planning regulatory tool must be recognised as the primary reference and given due weight, rather than be taken lightly to serve private interests.”
The board said there was already a housing shortage in Ōtara and Papatoetoe, which had to be factored in when considering the club’s rezoning proposal.
“The benefits of retaining the current residential zone far outweighs the reasons for the request for a plan change.”
It surprised me that in the summary from council planners about the proposal that they didn’t mention the golf club requested that zoning in the first place.
The golf courses are ideal for more housing with them being entirely within 1.5km of the existing Middlemore Train Station and some parts less than 100m away. Certainly a better place for housing than out the back of Drury.
Middlemore design
Speaking of Middlemore, I came across this recently which shows how Kiwirail plan to get the third main through the station. The Third main will go to the west of the current tracks with the existing northbound platform turned into an island with extended to cater for future 9-car trains. The existing pedestrian overbridge will be extended over the tracks and a new drop off zone to the existing carparking building, which itself will be altered to change how it is accessed.
A future fourth main would likely go on the eastern side and need to take part of Hospital Road and many trees between it and the existing tracks.
They have them, why don’t we?
Wellington has them, Nelson now has two, so why doesn’t Auckland have any of these bike parks scattered around the city?
https://twitter.com/alangraynz/status/1361962881252659201?s=21
The Rainbow Crossing is in
The Rainbow Crossing on Karangahape Rd has now been installed and it looks fantastic. Good work AT
https://twitter.com/johnage/status/1362135510890598400
Make it permanent!
The lockdown earlier this week highlighted that once again it is easy for Auckland Transport to make pedestrian signals automatic, thereby improving things for pedestrians but that normally they just choose to make it difficult. They should make the pedestrian signals permanent. It’s never a great experience to get to a crossing and discover you’ve just missed the pedestrian phase and that had you been there a second earlier you could have triggered the crossing immediately.
To minimise the number of public surfaces you touch in Alert Level 3, we have rolled out automatic pedestrian crossings to over 200 locations across Auckland. This means you won’t need to push the button at a signalled pedestrian crossing if the red pedestrian signal is on. pic.twitter.com/qimM8dBfQZ
— Auckland Transport (@AklTransport) February 15, 2021
Have a good weekend.
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“We’re rapidly approaching the end of all the downtown works and I’m really looking forward to being able to enjoy it all.”
I’m hoping we immediately dig up half of downtown again to drop in light rail from Wynyard up Queen Street
I’m hoping they deal with the Lower Hobson St flyover next.
Maybe it will be better once all the surrounding works are finished, but comparing travel time for leaving from Customs St on NX1 or Lower Albert, it’s much slower leaving from Lower Albert. Having to go around the corner onto Quay St, over the flyover and then onto Fanshawe with no buslanes is not a great solution imo.
Totally, the whole area has been so poorly set up for buses. The fact that Lower ALbert still allows traffic and they let Commercial Bay have underground parking really makes the idea of a proper bus station weak.
Buses will get stuck behind general vehicles, no one obeys the sign turning left for authorised vehicles only.
I don’t even bother trying to get on a bus anywhere in the CBD but walk to Fanshawe/Bradnor lane stop.
Even then the slow light phases there with the huge intersection with Nelson takes a while.
How hard can it be to have full dedicated, 24/7 bus lanes with cameras to give a continuous loop of buses in and out? Fine people $500 or put cameras on the buses.
I live in London, but how have they not given all bus routes full bus lane coverage inside the CBD, it just does not compute
While traffic was probably similar, or event worse on some roads, the actual bus experience in London was far better. Announcements for the route number and next stop (great knowing what came next), tag on once for the capped fare (hugely saving time when exiting bus), modern buses with better arrangements for sitting/standing.
Tell me anywhere in Auckland where AT have set up things well for buses, bikes or pedestrians. Perhaps that is why, at over 80%, we have one of the highest car mode shares in the world.
“Tell me anywhere in Auckland where AT have set up things well for buses, bikes or pedestrians.”
Northern Express Busway
The new public space over the Harbour I will give 15yrs before the Council will close it as all those steel piles will have a serial dose of corrosion as what I seen none have been galvanised .
And the other thing Matt L didn’t mention was the berths for the ferries which are now open for use and that seems to be half done as last Monday the Waiheke service departed from 1 of the new berths and there was no shelter from the weather going from the old to the new and when getting on the ferry exactly the same no shelter from the rain . ;-
and this from CRL this morning ;-
The steelwork you see is almost certainly temporary. Once the concrete is finished assume it’ll be removed.
There is also a lot of steel under the concrete slab with welded brackets holding girders up under the concrete slabs .
And here on Waiheke very soon they are going to close down the new wharf to do repairs to it and that Wharf is not very old and during the winter everyone goes back to the old Wharf . And a lot of the damage is the steel that is attached to the concrete pontoons that the ferries tie up to , and that steel was galvinised .
I don’t know their specific design, so these comments are general. The steel around the piers may well be left in place but provide no structural support as the internal reinforced concrete pier will provide all of the structural support. Alternatively the steel could be a of sufficient thickness that an amount can be lost in corrosion every year and meet the required design life (eg if the design life is 50 years there will be enough steel remaining at the end of 50 years to still adequately support the structure).
Typically in marine environments modern design and construction will use stainless steel to reduce corrosion issues. Galvanised steel is not generally considered suitable.
“A future fourth main would likely go on the eastern side and need to take part of Hospital Road and many trees between it and the existing tracks.”
So the non-Metro lines would be either side of the existing tracks? Seems less than ideal, how does this fit with the other stations
Well that doesn’t say how the metro services would operate, in a 4-track situation they may use the eastern tracks or could use the middle. Also there’s a good chance we’ll need one or more grade separations by then. Wiri is the most likely first followed by Westfield.
We might be able to run all day expresses with four mains.
All lines will be electrified with metro signalling. There’s no ‘metro’ and freight’ lines, each line will be used for what is most logical at the time.
So lots of cross over needed. Maybe better to have the western line as freight only bidirectional of course and cross south bound freight trains across the double tracks at wuri rather than Otahuhu where there are passenger trains from both the southern and Eastern whereas at Wuri they will only have to contend with Southern trains. And no sign of a third platform at Puhinui and it would be easier to not have to worry about another platform at Papatoetoe. Less crossovers less electrified lines that what I think will happen. Plus trains to the container farm will be on the Eastern side so out of the way of main line freight trains as well.
There will be less crossovers in the scenario I’m describing as it gives the signallers the best opportunity to pick the best path for each train to minimise conflicts.
Having the western track as freight would mean Port to Wiri services would have to crossover to the west at Westfield and back to the east a few kms later at Wiri. Makes much more sense for these services to be on the eastern track.
Royce it’s Wiri
As for Puhinui, it’s designed with 4 tracks in mind and it would be pretty easy to add extra platforms in future. Hamilton even suggested it as part of the shovel ready projects last year estimating it to cost $10 million for the platform and a 4th main loop just at the station to allow Waikato services to terminated and dwell without impacting the other three lines.
Yeah Wiri not Wuri got to get that into my brain. Any way I hope there is another platform there but no sign as yet. And Jezza I wrote above that trains to and from the Wiri container yard would use the Eastern two lines while the new Western lines would be for freight trains travelling south. Anyway we will wait and see what is put in place and how it is used. I have got a bit tired of confident posts to this site predicting this and that only to find that it hasn’t happened when a project is finished.
Having the extra platform at Puhinui built now so that Te Huia and other trains can terminate at this station is a no brainer. So, of course it won’t happen and the much needed flexibility in the system will be delayed for years. All for less than the cost of a medium intersection upgrade!
Also I notice there is no signage whatsoever at the Pukekohe Bus station about the new Tuakau, Pokeno bus service provided by the WRC, are AT and the Waikatio Regional Council not talking/cooperating?
“Also I notice there is no signage whatsoever at the Pukekohe Bus station about the new Tuakau, Pokeno bus service provided by the WRC, are AT and the Waikatio Regional Council not talking/cooperating?”
This is the responsibility of the Waikato Regional Council. PS the team at AT that used to co-operate on bus projects like this, was disestablished.
Most logical thing would be to have freight / non-stopping / high speed lines in the centre, and whatever is local ie the stopping trains, on the outside tracks with easy access to platforms either side. Having non-metro lines on the outside of the tracks is just dumb…
I agree.
Note they are third/fourth *mains*. Main lines I.e all electrified, not just freight tracks.
Any train will be able to run on any track in any direction, as best suits operations.
Regarding the Golf Club zoning, I think its a bit misleading to say that they asked for residential zoning previously and are now asking for open space. The AUP submission is asking for THAB on land it was planning to sell off, which it since has. The Plan Change is about the zoning of the remaining land which they are planning to retain as open space. The AUP submission does not relate to the land they have retained for the golf course as the extent was not certain and the last thing they would have wanted would be for land they plan to sell off being subject to the open space zone.
Ah well, still doesn’t change the fact golf courses are one of the most land intensive sport per person playing sitting on prime development land. NO problem with golf, as said can be played on the million other courses or build golf courses out in Drury rather than houses. Anyway, we’ve had a topic on golf here already haha 🙂
agree
They asked for land at 2 Grange to be residential, now they’re wanting that same land not to be.
They wanted zoning so they could make the most possible money from a sale and now they want it changed back to save on rates. Not sure that changes the picture at all.
So next to the hospital opposite and north of the station there are tempory fences and a sign saying Nga Tai Whenua and a lot of earthworks going on. Presumably housing I assume. Probably high rise housing. Anyway between the Hospital and King’s collage on hospital Road.
More annoying high rise housing being built in this city. If we completely build over the golf course with single family and duplex houses we will be able to achieve a lower cost while building the same amount of dwellings. High rise apartment towers go in the City Centre, not here.
The whole concept of zoning is the problem. The council should not be able to adjust the value of land by zoning it, it can lead to all sorts of distortions. Free markets work well, the council should stay the hell out of it.
“High rise apartment towers go in the City Centre, not here.”
Why?
Love the logic. GA is too effective in providing quality research to politicians so should step back a bit to give other lobbyists more of a level playing field. Brilliant!
I am a little disturbed by the revelation re lobbyists.
It feels like it has leaked out, but you know that over lunches and long coffee breaks, there will be account managers and the like very actively dismissing any commentary from a ‘bunch of amateurs’. Been the techo guy sitting in meetings like that.
On the other side of the coin, it is up to AT to not get captured by lobbyist and by default to make public everything unless it really has to be kept confidential for clear and obvious reasons. I know that must be difficult at times as inclination is not to have the public jumping up and down with every proposed change, or when you promise something and it slips months or years and turns out to be much more complex to resolve.
Personally having had to work through complex IT problems, I find more pairs of eyes helps overall. A passionate amateur working in a very narrow field can often come up with a solution that even experienced professionals struggle with.
I am really torn with Te Wananga. Its going to be a really lovely space, but at what opportunity cost!? I cant but think of Central Park in Mangere that doesnt even have a sealed path through to town centre, or Aorere Park where the playground is one swing. Funding of open space is not equitible in Auckland.
It does seem quite a heavy investment for what is essentially a place for office workers to have their lunch
That place has been built with a weird outline shape. Don’t know why didn’t they build a square square.
“Don’t know why didn’t they build a square square”
The construction company had run out of square shapes.
There’s already a square nearby – The new Komititanga Square in front of Britomart. And good on them for being a bit creative and original in doing a different outline.
I was lucky enough to be sounded out for the design of the new Amey Daldy Park and having been to Copenhagen’s Kastellet Park with the different contours as it was, and still partly is an army barracks, I suggested the new park also be done with contours instead of just being the usual flat grass strip. Again I think it’s nice they took that onboard and did it a bit differently from usual.
I believe it funded from the City Centre targeted rate, so if the inner city businesses support it then I don’t think there is really an issue.
Zero opportunity cost.
These works are paid for by the city centre targeted rate, a extra levy on downtown businesses and apartments that was set up for these things in addition to their usual rates.
That fund has a lot of money because there are so many businesses and homes in town.
It’s actually more equitable as normal rates don’t get spent on new infrastructure in the city centre so there is more for other places, yet these things are open to anyone who goes there.
So the opportunity cost is at most another public space somewhere else in the city centre.
The brand new street furniture in Te Komiti tanga has already been scribbled on with associated dirty stains appearing on the also brand new paving. The blobs of black chewing gum are starting to spread although it has a way to go to match K Rd where they are just everywhere.
Go there at night, stop anyone who’se vandalising the benches.
Do you want to live a while longer?
The automatic pedestrian crossing activation would seem to be the lowest hanging fruit AT could pick to make a tiny difference to mode shift.That they activate it on a whim during lockdowns, is just a feelgood measure,”look what we are doing “.Vehicle traffic is greatly reduced during lockdowns anyway,so they probably feel they can do this,without upsetting their main clients,and the peasant pedestrians should just be grateful,that their master has tossed them a few crumbs
I don’t see the logic or benefit in having pedestrian lights automatically activate at all. Many times (most?) the lights would turn green for no one at all to cross, aggravating other road users unnecessarily. Yes, pedestrians need to be given priority, but there’s no point at all giving them priority when they’re not there. If you’re going to aggravate traffic God knows there are many more productive moves that could be taken to support pedestrians than this.
Having said that, as a committed daily pedestrian myself I do get very irritated when I have to wait ages at pedestrian lights. Far better IMO would be a policy that activated the pedestrian phase within (say) ten seconds of the button being pushed. I’d be happy with that – and on average it would probably mean shorter waiting times than a regular cycle would permit on most roads. Win-win for both pedestrians and traffic compared to a regular phase.
Key pedestrian areas should be automatic I think. And when the opportunity comes up, remove the buttons. I’m thinking areas like queen street and k road.
Pedestrians are more numerous there than cars by a long way. Nothing worse than getting to the crossing just as your pause would have been, only for it to be skipped. Agreed though, plenty of cycles are way too long. Shortening them would help a lot
Agree.
(I just think that AT is going to mess up and change every crossing light in the region and make everyone in a vehicle wait for non-existent peds to cross.)
I thin we are talking CBD. Most crossings would have very few phases where no one wanted to cross.
There one randomly on Lunn Ave, Mt Wellington that changes everytime there’s a lockdown.
In Petone in Wellington there are traffic lights with sensor pads for pedestrians. Seems to be too hard for Auckland to make some phone calls
In the UK, ped crossings operate immediately the button is pressed. A timer then ensures that a subsequent ped phase cannot occur within a set period. In NZ, the timer initiates on pressing the button and ensures the initial ped phase cannot occur within a set period. How stupid is that? People get tired of waiting and cross if a gap in the traffic allows, meaning that there may be no-one crossing once the ped phase finally starts.
It depends on the crossing actually. We have some pedestrian crossings that operate immediately at certain times, particularly those near schools at the start and end of the school day.
Otherwise, usually, they work on a fixed cycle. The pedestrian phase runs at a fixed point in the cycle if the button is pushed, if its not pushed the phase is skipped. Same as traffic sensors, if there is no car waiting to turn right a right turn can be skipped, etc. There isn’t any timer as such, you are just waiting for the next pedestrian phase in the cycle.
I don’t know about the rest of NZ, but in Auckland there is no timer or set period per se. You push the button and the crossing runs at the next possible phase. You might not get it immediately, just whenever the next phase is meant to run. It is no different to a driver. You drive up to the line, get detected and you get to go at the next possible phase.
The automatic pedestrian crossings went back to manual in a flick of an eye when the level change was announced.
Come on AT, it is not a big ask. Some crossings such as in K Rd are still surrounded by road works and difficult to access the button. Why the rush to turn it back off? Surely AT isn’t more car friendly than pedestrian friendly!
And the confusing green Link buses have finally got a C and A added to their signs so people can work out which way it is going-especially important outside the Newmarket mall stop where both buses arrive. The problem: people think C means cancelled and people have no idea what A means. Is there no-one at AT who uses public transport and understands basic communication?
Yes prioritizing anything over cars is a HUGE taboo.
I wonder if it will be possible to make that go away even within a generation.
The alternative is prioritisng everything that is not a car over cars.
“Is there no-one at AT who uses public transport and understands basic communication?”
The team that used to manage these things was disestablished during a restructure and the experienced staff who understood these issues, were replaced by a “Customer Experience Division”.
Train stations like Panmure, which is about to have a cycle lane attached to it is a prime example of where proper cycle parking and even scooter parking should be. A big benefit which can be set up quickly.
I reckon these scooters should have a dock, like they do overseas with their city bikes. They could charge at the station automatically. Etc. Stop people from dumping them randomly so much around busy pedestrian areas.
The bike parking should be in a cage / building that you have to use a registered and verified hop card for too + cctv. Stop any old person stealing bikes, and then if they did take one, then the hop card could get de-registered. They’d have to steal another card, or go and try get a new one registered at which point they could be questioned / apprehended for stealing.
Auckland Council is giving confusing and random names to locations across the city. For example, This Te Wananga will likely be confused with Te Wananga ō Aotearoa. Why not name it “Harbour Square” or something like that?
Like how People confuse all of the the Victoria, Albert, Queen, Princes, Hobson, Selwyn, Grey, Golf, Gulf, Beach, Wharf, Lake, River, Ferry, streets and roads? People will cope.
Like how People confuse all of the the Victoria, Albert, Queen, Princes, Hobson, Selwyn, Grey, Golf, Gulf, Beach, Wharf, Lake, River, Ferry, streets and roads? People will cope.”
Haha spot on mate 🙂
I’m still confused.
These all should be renamed. Ever since I moved to Auckland I’ve been totally messed up with all the Queen Streets and High Streets and School Roads and X to X roads and Wharf Lanes.
Also, Wananga is neither confusing or random. It’s a verb meaning “to meet and discuss, deliberate, consider” and is located at a key meeting point for the city’s people and the meeting of sea and land.
Why Te Wananga over Wananga Square or Wananga Park? I don’t like non-standard names. (Also includes The Strand, The Avenue and such.)
The best thing about the dictionary is that it’s open to everyone.
To save confusing it with other meeting places, I call it Crazy Paving.
That crossing is like no rainbow I’ve ever seen but fair enough, fair enough.
Kasr,
L
[ Lictionary Definition ]
Kasr : phrase : unofficial Klingon : Kind And Sincere Regards
*KASR
My main issue with the names is that the translation is often somewhat strange as Te Reo doesn’t translate to English all that well.
The new square by Britomart, Te Komititanga, translates to Committee based on Google Translate. Yet It’s intention is to mean ‘to mix’ or ‘to merge’. So if you wanted an English name to keep the meaning you would probably call it ‘The Junction’.
The other issue would be for international visitors or our numerous new residents who may be having enough trouble learning English let alone needing to learn Te Reo at the same time. For them it would probably be about as easy as telling two places apart that are written in Chinese characters.
What a load of white priveldge nonsense. You know there are other countries around the world right? Ones that English isn’t their official language.
Its called Te Komititanga, it doesn’t need a translation. Te Reo is our official language i’m afraid.
Well said Joe. If people can’t handle the use of te reo, they should bugger off to Australia or some backwards country where their attitudes are acceptable
Maori phonics are much easier and consistent than English. The phonemes and pronunciation are identical to Spanish, for example, which is one of the easiest languages to learn.
English is a mongrel language, literally, that is a bastard to learn. It had no regular verbs and arcane pronunciation with more exceptions than rules. If we are worried about international visitors we should name these places in any language but English.
The New North Rd and Symonds Street consultation is really confusing me. AT clearly intent on taking the community with it with the current sticky note approach to consultation — fair enough.
But the fact that Symonds Street improvements are attached to this share an idea consultation, when they were already consulted to death with relevant stakeholders in the past few years and also with the City Centre Masterplan, makes no sense and seems to just be another brake on progress.
From the original A4E brief: “Auckland Council would lead any consultation on Access for Everyone. Auckland Transport would be responsible for delivery, should a viable funded concept be developed.”
“when they were already consulted to death with relevant stakeholders ”
This is a response to criticism by “concerned citizens” ( and websites like this one ) that AT was not doing enough consulting.
The issue is that the consultation is then disingenuous to some extent. At the moment, they’re not consulting on specific proposals or specific designs, but just the notion of “what should we do here”, when that question has already been answered to death.
I definitely support thorough consultation on specific ideas and proposals, where AT actually tries explaining itself to the community — but in this case, there are no proposals despite the fact that AT should/must work within the parametres of the CCMP and A4E.
Auckland Transport could build bike parking in the CBD. But instead they have gone old-school. They had minimum parking rules (for bikes) shoved into the Auckland Unitary Plan that force anyone who changes activities to waste part of their expensive ground floor real estate on bike parking. We haven’t seen minimum parking rules in the centre of the CBD since the 1980s, but AT and Auckland Council figured they would bring them back and apply them to bikes. Even worse the rules are not even based on surveyed data. They are just made up rates. They must think ground floor areas on Queen Street have no higher value.
How is minimum parking for bikes “old school”? This is just reactionary spin. I suppose I should appreciate the lack of humour attempts in your comment.
It is old school in the central CBD because we removed minimum parking rules for cars back in the 1980s. Then the very same people who claimed there shouldn’t be minimum parking rates for cars in outer suburbs, as that was a rule that required people to provide something they didn’t want, also argued in favour doing exactly that in the CBD.
Now we have this nonsense where if you change an activity, say office to shop, you have to waste part of your prime floor area on bike parking for customers. Net result is people will be reluctant to change activities.
Maybe it would have been better if AT accepted it was their job to provide bike parking.
Bike parks innovation! Shock horror! These have been in Europe for decades, we really are a little backwater
Bikes aren’t that fast compared to walking yet they are priced so high. I don’y ride a bike.
Huh?
Takes me 12 minutes to get to work on my $400 bike and 40 minutes to walk..pretty certain it makes a pedal powered bike 4 times faster than walking.
“They should make the pedestrian signals permanent.”
As a pedsestrian I’ve never really had an issue with pushing the button. I’m happy to wait just like any other mode of transport using the intersection and the only annoyance I find is when the signals are there providing time to a phase nobody is using.
agree
All interesting.
Yes Puhinui should be doing 3rd or fourth platforms being built now.
Wow sure a lot of steel going into that Te Wananga waterfront. Great though.
Why is everyone focusing on Puhinui here? every page about rail here, espeially regional rapid rail, seems to heavily talk about Puhinui (not yet complete) and not any of the other big hubs that we have around Auckland,
Because it is going to be a major hub with the Airport to Botany Line. Has both the eastern and southern lines stopping there and therefore is the best location to terminate regional services until we have the capacity for a regional rail terminus near the city centre
On the 27th of Feb. there was suppose to be 2x special trains going from Swanson to Helensville for their A&P Show , but for some reaso Kiwi Rail is not allowing it to run , why ? .
Is it are they still doing works on the Auckland network , or haven’t they certified the NAL for passenger services . Or is it because there will be a protest at Kumeu at 11am for those wanting commuter rail to return .
Very good to see the platform extensions are being done when they design the new stations now. This is a rolling project that’s benefits wont be realised for many years. Surprising to see such foresight, especially when compared with the roads and cycleways.