NZ In Tranzit

Taupo and Blenheim - one horse towns.  What the hell! What hornet's nest of small town pride whipped to a lynch mob fury is that crazy wabbit stirring up now? Taupo and Blenheim, two towns in the hinterland of New Zealand, both now over the 20,000 population mark. In former times (before government agencies moved the goal posts) that magic figure allowed a NZ town that size to call itself a "city". Blenheim in the south, in the driest summer-browned patch of Te Wai Pounamu is getting chubby round the middle, like this blogger, on the hugely successful local wine industry; Taupo in the centre of Te Ika a Maui bases itself on the greatest disaster movie of human history, the world's largest recorded at the time volcanic eruption. (Yeah right, movies always overstate!). Lake Taupo, the biggest lake (note to Aussie readers, with water at all times) in Australasia lies in a caldera created by a supervolcanic eruption which occurred approximately 26,5...

Last month I travelled through the Waikato and Bay of Plenty visiting friends or just checking out some places not visited for many years. Needless to say, being single, "car less" by preference and with such a long fondness for buses and the public transport industry, it was also something of a "busman's holiday".  I don't think that expression is in common use any more - for readers under forty years old  it means doing on your holiday what you do for a living.Well, not quite true, but it roughly fits in terms of my active time and consuming interests, my real passions. I have been reading for five or six years about the very concerted effort by Environment Waikato and local councils, Hamilton in particular, to push their public transport ahead and was keen to see it in action. I must say overall I was very impressed by what I saw of the set up in Hamilton, and also its links to surrounding towns. They have obviously taken a leaf (and a nam...

A lovely evocative photo of a Trans Metro EMU riding through the early morning autumn mist, courtesy of the photographer Joseph Christianson and Wikipedia Commons.  The author of this posting suggests it may be many moons before the sun rises on a similar service in the greater Christchurch!! If a commuter rail system ran from Rangiora to Rolleston via the current rail system it would (if achieving the unlikely success of Wellington which has very high public transport usage by comparable world standards) carry one fifth the Wellington total. That is around 2 million passengers a year. I have made a throw away submission the the NZ Transport agency consultation about the overbridge/underpass or whatever is decided for the junction of SH1 (Russley Road) and Memorial Avenue. When I say throw away I mean just filled out the online comment form, from the top of my head, rather than spending several weeks preparing careful arguments and documented source info etc. as has often been ...

Christchurch Bus Exchange denied top quality facilities despite huge funding for Auckland public transport Following on the success of the stylish underground station at Britomart, to which Government agencies contributed $200 million, and the $48 million rebuild of Newmarket Station as an impressive multi-level, multi-track complex  [see previous posting for other photos]   Auckland is a step closer to another classy underground station. Earlier this month the first train ran along the New Lynn trench, soon to be home the $160 million New Lynn underground rail and overhead bus centre. To overcome the long standing problem of the railway line dividing the centre of New Lynn,  in the head of KiwiRail, Jim Bolger's words, "like the Berlin wall", and the prospect of ever increasing traffic delays and congestion at complex rail crossings as Aucklands suburban trains become more regular, it was decided to put the newly double-tracked rail c...

Primary school children coming off rural school bus in Taihape,Te Ika a Maui         NZ in Tranzit 2010) Few people will begrudge the Government of New Zealand subsidising of school bus fares fares for children living in rural areas who have to travel 5,10 or 20km to school each day. Realistically only some country parents at greater distance from rural schools could comfortably afford the fares on an ACT style "user pays" basis, if actual cost per kilometre was included. I'm sure most kiwis want children to have equal access to education and do not mind taxes being used to level the playing field.  This does not come cheap for New Zealand taxpayers.  Pupils qualify if there is no suitable public transport available and they live more than 3.2 kilometres from the nearest school and are under 10 years old, or they live more than 4.8km from schools and are over 10 years old. More than $142m will be spent on schoo...

Metro is currently hoping to establish a bus service to Governors Bay , a pocket of housing at the top of the Lyttelton Harbour, currently only serviced by a school bus, up and down the steep hill road to the nearest city high school. This will involve all residents paying a separate transport rate on the regional council rates, as do most urban areas in Christchurch and adjoining districts already. It is by no means certain it will go ahead, relying upon local agreement. I have driven over that spectacular steep, hairpin road about 900 times in my life, as a "two half day tours a day" city sightseeing bus driver and commentator so it does feel very familiar territory to me. Needless to say I couldn't resist sticking my twitchy rabbity nose into the issue! The spectacular alpine style Dyers Pass Road  linking Governors Bay and the top of Lyttelton Harbour with the city Below I share my submission with the world at large - u...

Let's leave behind the ghosts of yesterdays public transport and move forward!! "It follows that routes need to be designed, or paired (including multiple routes that tendered to operating bus companies as a set) in the first instance to benefit consumers" Last night I caught one of the last Sunday night bus services of the day home along Papanui Road, a major traffic and tourist corridor in Christchurch. If I miss this bus service from the city, around 10pm Sunday night there is an unholy wait of 58 minutes to the next, and absolutely last, service, at 10.58pm. Jesus, Joseph, mother of Mary I get down on my knees and thank the Gods that be that we have a Sunday night service at all. I have scanned enough timetables in the other 120 cities of CANZUS to know many cities, including some much bigger than Christchurch, don't have a Sunday evening service - some indeed have no Sunday services at all (these mainly in the USA). Appreciating w...

QUOTE "Worldwide, sprawl stands as a serious threat to a sustainable future. This is in good part due to the fact that sprawl creates near total dependence on the private car. Between 1980 and 1995, the global fleet of cars, trucks and buses grew 70%, with a third of the increase ocurring in developing countries. The ability of planet earth to absorb astronomical increases in the population of cars and distances they travel, in terms of both fossil fuel supplies they consume and green house gas emissions is worrisome. Only 8% of the world's population presently owns a car. The 700-million motor vehicles worldwide represent just 10% of potential market saturation. The spread of U.S. auto ownership rates (750 vehicles per 1000 residents) to the citizens of Russia, India, and China (where fewer than one in ten own a car) would wreak havoc on the globes finite resources". Robert Cervero (Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California (Berkeley) in  ...

Real Time signage in Auckland had the superior (to Christchurch) capacity to include continuous running messages along the bottom line - here informing passengers of the shuttle service between national and international terminals at Auckland airport; other messages spotted on other screens referred to delays (beside the route number), to fare rises and an event. Such a hugely useful added feature! Often passengers are left in the dark about breakdown, sudden industrial action, etc because it is impossible to contact them at short notice. This real time capacity would seem to offer a unique way to contact many, by simultaneous broadcast to all stops with real time signage of this nature. Possibly even to those only on a specific route. An astute marketing department could also use it to lever up increased patronage for big events the following day or that evening, announcing departure times from key points for special services.  Of course the Auckland ...

There is something especially poignant for me about old buses, adapted for house buses or rusting quietly in some paddock or yard. Although they do not have the glamourous veneer of a steam locomotive, for example, in their lifetime most buses will have carried several million passengers. They are the unsung work-horses that make thousands of other activities possible. From time to time I will pay tribute to this by including photographs of some retired or semi-retired bus I come across. The bus above (I could not detect the make), a former Auckland Regional Authority bus, subsequently a travelling home, is virtually entrenched under a protective iron roof, secreted in the shadows amongst the bushes on a  hillside in the Waitakere forest area west of Auckland. After a lifetime of noise and life I imagine this will be its last rusting place, its only inhabitants now spiders and other insects.

I don't see rail as a very attractive option to car use and unlike Auckland and Wellington I don't see Christchurch forced to make that choice. I have just had eight days in the North Island, a rather crazy and unusual eight days, not so much a holiday as a few nights catching up with a few old friends and family while during the days sussing out the state of public transport around New Zealand. I spent two days in Auckland (first time there since 1976!) and then time in Raglan, Hamilton, Rotorua, Taupo, Taihape, Fielding, Otaki and Wellington. To call it a fact finding tour would be as nonsensical as call a two week flying visit to a handful of very large North American cities a fact finding tour! It was more an impressions tour, some visual images to complement projects I have been reading about for years. Unlike the South Island quite a few chunks of my journey could be conveniently done by rail. For instance I stayed at Bethells Beach (ironically given its proxi...