NZ In Tranzit

This was a rough and ready poster made for the NZ Tramways Union campaign to stop the savage decimation of what had once been the best bus system in New Zealand -  twenty two years ago! It was 13 years again later after this - about 2003 - before Christchurch bus system fully recovered the title of a quality bus system, back to being the best in New Zealand, years of recovering  from the massive mauling by the right-wing.   And here we are, back again   being screwed by the National Party and its handmaidens in the ECan junta.  National has a clear agenda to recreate Christchurch as a trendy boutique city, but let's be clear - very much the minor player; with massive shifts in wealth from Christchurch to Auckland and Wellington where the wide boys make a faster buck. Public transport investment is hugely distorted in favour of these two cities, despite much of the nations wealth being generated elsewhere. No obvious provision or adequate fun...

First bus off the rank  .... and part of the reason for the rapid rise in Melbourne bus patronage .  Recently retired blogster Melbourne's Peter Parker and friends went for an early morning ride on the very first bus to run in service on the 901 Route, Smartbus, "yellow orbital route, from Melbourne airport in September 26 2010 at  6.30 am. Here photographed by Melbourne on Transit blog at a Doncaster east stop (thanks for the photo). The image of Melbourne is commonly linked to its distinctive tramway system, a system that maintained its status and prestige enough not to drop the term" tram" for the more elusive feel-good phrase "light rail". Trams in Melbourne carry about 182 million passengers per year, mainly in the central area and inner suburbs.  With sixteen commuter rail lines heading into central Melbourne (carrying an even greater number passengers than trams per year) carless people need inner city mobility and trams are well suited...

It is now three years since NZ in Tranzit started. An obscure blog on an obscure subject (for most people)  it has done much better than I ever expected. Page views to-date are just below 112,000 There is a Dalai Lama quotation floating around on Facebook, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito"  (BTW I presume he means " in the room"  :-) Well that sums it up!  Mosquitos can't change the world, they just irritate others. That is about the best one can hope for. And perhaps a lot of buzzin' around helps show "there are options"  - that is to say the great monoliths of ECan, City Council and Metro [or public transport authorities anywhere] - the politicians and planners - don't have all the answers and indeed in the larger world of public transport are often notoriously poorly informed. Up to about four months ago the blog had received about 50,000 page views, with kiwis about just over a third ...

Two buses waiting to get a gap into traffic - on a stretch of road used by multiple routes and hundreds of bus services every week yet blocked by provision of three car park spaces, in an area of  multiple carparks. Photo NZ in Tranzit Yesterday I had a wee bus orgie - went up to Northlands (in a long slow moving queue, barely less congested than a weekday and this at about 2.30pm), did some shopping and waiting for a bus back down along came a Comet. As I sometimes do, I though what the heck, let's just go bussing for an hour or two  and see what is happening out in the world. I ended up doing the Comet to Hornby then Metrostar to Halswell then back to Papanui Road. I  recommend bussing like this as a nice way to do nothing in particular or just need to space out a bit to let your unconscious come to terms with whatever you are not ready to face. Of course it is never entirely a neutral activity for an old buspotter like me, there are always heaps of t...

Local urban bus services should be a national government priority in towns the population of Gore, Southland or larger according to NZ in Tranzit. Photo Wikimedia Commons. Plans to replace some bus routes in Timaru with an Orbital route bus are now well advanced, after suffering setback due the diversion of energies forced by earthquakes further north. It has been announced this service could be launched as soon as January.   The concept of  "circular" route certainly wasn't invented by Metro (ECan),  which also runs the Timaru buses, but was adopted fairly early in the piece,starting in 1999 in Christchurch and has proved a great success, as have similar routes since established elsewhere, even in very large cities. Like trams or trains, the distinctive branded buses, the regularity of services (though obviously not every ten minutes in a smaller city) and the multiple passenger generating facilities served gives "The Orbiter" style routes a definabl...

Saturday 15 September Update;  Top marks to Metro for rebutting any nonsense that it does not advocate signalling buses, and for doing so rapidly too, and for not trying to further fluff this admittedly difficult issue .  The news item linked above -a media statement from Metro the day after the NZ in Tranzit posting below (and title above, less the words now removed "and honesty") above renders much of the "news" aspect of the following item below irrelevant. However the principle that passengers need to flag down buses remain - and I am sure this is so also in the various countries overseas where many readers of this blog live - as does the need to find ways to deal with the issue of sight impaired access to buses. Blind users of Christchurch buses don't need to have the wool pulled over their eyes, but that is what Metro seems to be trying to do. According to a recent article in The Mainland Press   it has been confirmed  "flagging down buses ...

"I have come to realise many of the best bus route options can not be built with current technology and town planning principles."  Bus routes often need to follow arterial routes and can often only access or cross these routes at major intersections with traffic lights and congestion. David Welch argues that many other routes could better by-pass congestion and serve a larger population base more effectively if buses could enter or cross arterial roads by a system requiring a minimal pause in the arterial flow, with this access limited to buses.  The following idea has been sent to the Minister of Transport, Julie Genter who in theory, anyway, should be keen on giving public transport the green light! REHASH - This item first published 9/6/2012 I spend a lot of my life working out possible bus routes.  It is a rather odd habit seeing as I am not a bus planner. Indeed I not even a very logical thinker, which can add considerably to the task. But, as they say, w...

Parramatta Road, Sydney - Wikimedia Commons Yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald announced that the city's master transport plan is looking at a new route structure that will see many passengers having to transfer to make city-to-suburb journeys.  It is a chop and change system that appears similar to that now clearly being implemented in Christchurch, despite great public concern (not that you'd know it from the city newspapers).    In Sydney's case the long term proposal is to serve central city areas with high frequency buses linking at CBD boundary area interchanges to suburban routes. Part of the Sydney problem is there are 1500 buses a morning trying to thread through congested city streets (and of course adding to congestion themselves). To quote the Herald report; "This is how the master plan puts it: "The current radial one-seat bus service network, which attempts to provide single-service bus transport from many ori...