TRANZWATCH NEWSLINKS

NZ, AUCKLAND Transport Auckland's multi-level Newmarket rail station has won an award in the Urban Design category at the prestigious annual New Zealand Institute of Architects awards ceremony. The station which opened in January 2010 cost $85 million to build and is currently used for about 3,500 commuter movements a day. Auckland Transport Chief Executive Dr David Warburton notes that twenty-eight new and upgraded stations have opened in recent years, including major stations at Newmarket and Grafton. [and New Lynn, at $160 million - ed] A further 15 are likely to be upgraded in a $38.9 million project over the next three years.

NZ,  RAKAIA  A "repentant criminal" builds a bus shelter for a large group of school kids

NZ, AUCKLAND  A new audio information system is being trialled by Auckland Transport on a limited number of trains this week. The system is expected to make a big difference for blind and vision impaired people and has been welcomed by the Royal Society for the Blind. The announcements will let people know what station they are arriving at, what service they are on, including special event trains, and where to change for other services.

CANADA & USA Two very different general views of transit in North America. From Canada and the Toronto Sun, a fairly emotive and aggressive dismissal of all public transport by columnist Ezra Levant with very sloppy figures and no contextual analysis [the comment following by Adam Vaiya offers a more intelligent understanding] ; from the USA and Denver Post a thoughtful, caring, article on work access and transit, referring to its cost in human terms. by columnist Neal Pierce

CANADA, HALIFAX  Construction of a $12 million Metro Transit Bus terminal at the Dartmouth Sportsplex has been delayed yet again because of concerns about storm water drainage and whether the ground in present state will be adequate in all weathers.

CANADA, WINNIPEG  Previous trials of hybrid buses brought very limited fuel savings for Winnipeg Transit, despite a bus price tag almost triple that of conventional buses. Building up the fleet prior to the opening of Southwest Rapid Transit corridor Transit authorities have opted to buy 40 diesel buses.



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Note; this news monitoring section linked here in future will be included in main postings, as above, but on an item by item basis to allow comments specific to that posting

ABOUT TRANSWATCH - A listing of current news and magazine items about public transport in NZ or news seen as having some relevance to the Christchurch or New Zealand type situation. Generally this means, mostly,  news from small to medium cities [100,000 - 1 million population] found in CANZ (Canada, Australia, NZ) - countries and cities that most share demographics relevant to public transport. Also listed, occasional news items from elsewhere, especially news about transit trends and emerging bus and rail technology.  Items selected will typically have appeared elsewhere within the previous three days, in most cases within the the previous 24 hours. Check date of original source if this required for any reason.

Comments or media releases welcome.