In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen fantastic growth on this frequent bus route which connects Westgate with the city centre, carrying more than 275,000 passengers so far. “In recent months we’ve also seen more people using buses in all parts of West Auckland than before Covid-19. In the Westgate/Massey area patronage is about 25% higher and in T ..read more

It’s Friday again. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week on Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt covered at the government looking into a long tunnel for Wellington. On Wednesday we ran a post from Oscar Sims on some lessons from Texas. AT’s Refreshed Branding Auckland Transport recently updated their brand guidelines, and while I assume this is largely for internal consumption, it’s interesting to see that it’s been published on their website. One of the documents includes what the new branding would look like implemented across various use cases. While most of ..read more

This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. Casey Chapman Ross Photography Austin feels like a city on the move. The skyline is filled with construction cranes topping out new highrise developments, the bars and restaurants are overflowing, and the city is full of young people, many of whom are working in Austin’s large high-tech sector or studying at its world-class university. I had the privilege of attending and speaking a month ago at ‘YIMBYtown’, the ..read more

Yesterday it was revealed that Transport Minister had asked Waka Kotahi to look at the options for a long tunnel through Wellington. State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy. The Long Tunnel option aligns strong ..read more

Welcome back to another Friday. Here’s some articles that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Wednesday Matt looked at the latest with the Airport to Botany project. On Thursday Matt covered the revelation that Auckland Transport have to subsidise towing illegally parked cars. Hold the Front Page: Supreme Court Finding on East-West Link Yesterday the Supreme Court of New Zealand sent the East-West Link back to the Board of Inquiry for “reconsideration”. In short, the Supreme Court has ruled 4-1 in favour of Royal Forest and Bird’s right to appeal against the orig ..read more

Hopefully finally over his obsession with raised crossings, the Herald’s Bernard Orsman has found something to actually be outraged at. Auckland ratepayers are subsidising the cost of towing, storing and releasing cars across the city to the tune of $15 million over five years. Under a quirk in the law, Auckland Transport (AT) is prohibited from charging storage and release fees and is limited to charging vehicle owners a standard tow fee of $53.60 – when the average tow cost billed to AT for standard hours is $99. In a typical month, AT tows about 1200 vehicles from clearways and bus lanes o ..read more

One of the few public transport projects the current government have said they support is the Airport to Botany project (A2B) and it’s one we haven’t covered in a while so worth looking at where things are at. A business case for the project was completed in 2021 before being confirmed by the boards of both Waka Kotahi and Auckland Transport and like the Eastern busway it will connect to, includes some big roading components too. The key features of the A2B recommended option are: An 18 km rapid transit route connecting the Airport and its employment areas with two major urban centres (Manuk ..read more

It’s Friday again and here are some articles that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday we ran a post for April Fools that the government were banning walking. It seems it struck a nerve and is already our most viewed post – by a large margin. On Wednesday Patrick looked at how the City Centre continues to be successful. On Thursday Matt looked at how mad March was for public transport. GPS Submissions Submissions on the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport closed this week and already we’re seeing some strong opposition to it. The Post reported tha ..read more

March is now over and so too is March Madness – though public transport will likely stay busy at least until school holidays in a few weeks. So how did PT perform in March …. pretty well it turned out. Just prior to March I wrote about how average weekday trips exceeded 330k for the first time since the pandemic, reaching 91% of pre-pandemic levels for the same time period. That trend continued and in the final week of February, when Universities were back, usage soared to over 360k before settling back down to around 355k and it’s held at level throughout March. That keeps us sitting at aroun ..read more

Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Council’s City Centre Advisory Panel. On the back of the latest Infometrics data release, the Council through its economist Gary Blick has been publishing a whole lot of great numbers: For the second year in a row, Auckland’s high-achieving city centre has outpaced New Zealand in both GDP and employment growth. GDP in the city centre grew by 9.2 per cent in the year to March 2023, reaching $30.4 billion, according to the latest Auckland City Centre Overview by Infometrics. That growth rate was well ahead of New Zealand as a whole, which increased by 2.8 ..read more