NZ In Tranzit

  Photo Credit;  - www.facebook.com/C1.espresso Apocalypse Now? The much battered and demolished city of Christchurch as photographed from the top of the Alice in Videoland building in which C1 Espresso Cafe is setting up a new cafe. High St. foreground.    Photo Credit;  - www.facebook.com/C1.espresso High Street looking North, Grand Chancellor no more, wall on left is the interior side of the West wall of the Excelsior Hotel!   I am very aware many people I know, particularly over 40, are not on Facebook., so I asked the cafe's permission to show some samples of photos from their Facebook site on this blog, generously they said yes but can you credit our Facebook address. More background also here, on the C1 Espresso Cafe on their original website Much of this area of the central city  is still "red-stickered" - no entry to non-authorised persons, because so many demolitions are still going on. The three highest buildings i...

Quality Belgian* bus manufacturer Van Hool is supplying the electric vehicles (with on-board hybrid diesel power generating facility)  to be used on the four busway corridors being built in the French city of Metz.  Read more about this at Wikipedia (the source of the above photo) or in the "Transport Politic" bold link, in the NEW news link section of NZ in Tranzit.  The new addition is called   Tranzwatching Now [date] and will appear at the top right hand corner of this page.  I get dozens of email alerts a day, this will allow me to flick some I believe most relevant straight to the reader. This is partly included because various other pressures in my life (not least earning a living) and researching a reasonably substantial history book are making it very difficult to maintain blog frequency and freshness.  Not least to put in the long hours of research and information summarising necessary to post out a blogs of at least reasonably intell...

Much debate goes on  in Christchurch about saving (or not) the two Cathedrals - one Anglican an icon of the city centre; one a superb Romanesque Catholic basilica.   Both have been dreadfully munted by the huge earthquakes that tore the centre of Christchurch and (mainly) eastern suburbs apart. But there is a third cathedral , so to speak, which still stands, and indeed stands waiting "to be called.". I am using a fair dollop of artistic license here -  playing on the not uncommon usage of the expression "cathedral" to describe some of the great cavernous concourses or elegant  and ornamental railway stations of the world. Here's few examples, these culled from only a few minutes searching on Google - Antwerp Station ;     St Pancras Station  (or more about same from the New York Times ); Bristol Temple Meads ;   Canary Wharf London   And here's some even more spectacular station buildings (these just for i...

Project legit Graffitti on Grimseys Road QEII Drive cycle underpass I was impressed to read earlier in the year that the large new subdivision to be built east of Redwood, called Highfield would be the first in the country where solar panels and solar (assisted) water heating would be the norm in every house.  According to The Press report retrieved here " All 2200 homes in  Christchurch's  proposed  Highfield subdivision  will be fitted with solar-energy systems, making it New Zealand's biggest solar community. The systems, consisting of both photovoltaic and hot- water panels, would supply about a quarter of a typical home's energy needs, developer Maxim Projects says. When the vast documentation that precedes all major new projects appeared in our local library ( Proposed Plan Change 67 I think is the official title) I naturally thought what are the developers doing about public transport? The City Council has a minimal effort programme ...

 Electric buses in China - Wikimedia Commons The World Health Organisation has added the exhaust from diesel to the World Health Organisation's list of most carcinogenic substances this week.It is now ranked  alongside arsenic, asbestos, formaldehyde, mustard gas and plutonium as a major health hazard. It was reported in the  NZ Herald that although diesel   emissions were previously classed as “probably carcinogenic” WHO agency working group chairman Christopher Portier said definitely yesterday that "diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in humans. The agency said there was also a "positive association" between diesel exhaust and a greater risk of bladder cancer. It noted that large numbers of people were exposed to diesel fumes in everyday life, at work and elsewhere. It reaffirmed an assessment of petrol exhaust as "possibly carcinogenic to humans". I have been driving heavy trade diesel vehicles every working week (th...

Photo of Diesel Units (eventually to become surplus ?) at Britomart Station  in Auckland -  could this be a photo of Christchurch International Airport, Bus and Rail Station  in 2018? - Wikipedia Can National maintain credibility continuing to massively fund public transport infrastructure in Auckland (photo) and Wellington whilst short-changing Christchurch's naive and gullible local bodies?  Or is the Government going to step into the picture with its own trump card?   NZ in Tranzit indulges in some intuitive speculation Commuter rail for Christchurch may be just down the track. That is what NZ in Tranzit is reading between the lines in recent news about rail funding. It now appears fairly likely that the National Government/NZTA or KiwiRail (or all three) are currently scoping out the costs and benefits of up-grading rail in general, and introducing some sort of commuter rail system, for Christchurch as a big infrastructure boost to the earthquake ...