NZ In Tranzit

Mayor Bob Parker and two executives have gone to San Francisco, Portland Oregon, Seattle and Vancouver to "study" (it is hard to take this word seriously!) amongst other things light rail.  One has to be immediately suspicious of anyone examining a specific mode of transport before they have assessed the over-all needs of a situation, as each mode is going to suit different situations. It reeks faintly of the Mayor of Wesport going to "study" container cranes. Second point -  so obvious I am almost embarrassed to raise it - is that public transport is so clearly linked to city size and density and rises exponentially as cities get bigger.  London at about 8 million people is only twice the population of New Zealand in total but its public transport systems carries over 3 billion people a year. If public transport stats related directly to population pro-rata, one would expect New Zealand transit systems to carry 1.5 billion a year, rather than the 115 millio...

In my ongoing trip to CANZUS (the cities 300,000-1 million metropolitan area - the area defined in the US census as easy commuting distance) in Canada, Australia, NZ and USA, I tried catching the bus, light rail and commuter rail in the cities along the way. It is not uncommon to hear Christchurch people say, in casual conversation, or in letters to The Editor, that we need a commuter rail system from Rangiora or Rolleston. Environment Canterbury commisioned a couple of studies of commuter rail potential for Greater Christchurch, in 2005, and more recently. Both came up nil match in cost effective terms. Rail is tremendously expensive to build and operate. Looking through the data base on "The Transport Politic" [see profile] which is very consistently updated, or the commuter rail listings on the APTA (American Public Transport Association) website, small cities under a million don't even feature. I haven't consistently read all the lengthy strategic plans of CANZ...

The New Zealand Herald 28 Sep 2009

No, its not that dwatted wabit coming out of the closet clutching Judy Garland photographs hopelessly expecting to win a spelling bee. CANZUS is my easy use-name for Canada, Australia, NZ and USA, the "four colonies" as identified by USA neo-con think tank consultant Wendell Cox in a speech to public transport industry folks in Wellington in, I think, 2001. Cox identified these four countries as sharing a common style of city - low density urban sprawl (even the big ones like New York despite the Manhatten skyline image), high levels of private car ownership and a relatively even spread of wealth, at least compared to other former British colonies such as Malawi or South Africa etc. Hard territory to foster public transport use within. Picking up on this similarity across countries, out of curiosity [this is ultimate busspotter territory!!] over the last 18 months I have been trying to build up a picture of public transport in all four countries to see what we might learn....

Like most kiwis I orientate more towards English or European culture. However the USA has given the world something beyond the incredible richness of music born in the south, birthplace of jazz, blues, country, cajun, bluegrass and rock. It is the simple term "transit" to refer to public transport. The term is standard throughout  North America (i.e in Canada too) and has been adopted to some extent in Australia eg NSW State Transit Authority. I find "Public transport" is a clumsy term to use, and reeks of stale old leather seats and lumbering old buses of eras gone by. A very dowdy image. The word "Transit" may have that image overseas, but it's still fresh here. Like modern buses it's quick and easy to use. Incidentally "Tranzit" spelt with a Z is actually also the name of a lower North Island bus company, one of those great family bus firms, spanning several generations, that are still found in the bus industry in a way rarely foun...

Unquestionably the most glaring gap in current eastern and north-eastern suburb bus services is lack of community access to QEII. This is the premier recreation and sporting facility on the eastern side of town, deliberately built in the east (amidst great controversy) in the early 1970s to give residents in this area facilities on par with other parts of Christchurch. Averaged across all attendance at facilities and all events during the year about 19,000 people a week use QEII. This includes an unusually high portion of bus dependent people among regular users (I was told in March 2006, in response to a phone enquiry that 8000 independent children had visited the pool complex the previous month). The complex is also used casually, or for training and courses, by many older people and young mothers with children. Presumably most these QEII users drive there or are dropped off by parents or friends. This facility and events there are currently only directly served by t...

Work has begun on the $90m Manukau Rail Link in New Zealand, the first extension of the Auckland city's 100km rail network since the 1930s. The 2km line will link Manukau and the North Island trunk line at Puhinui, which runs parallel to the motorway that is under construction between State Highways 1 and 20. The project is being funded by rail operator Kiwirail ($50m) and Manukau City Council ($33m) with the remaining costs coming from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. The over-all Ameti project - of which this rail link is part - is expected to cost $1.6 billion, and involves the purchase and removal or demolition of about 329 houses, shops and other buildings, to create new roading, bus, cycle and rail lanes and corridors. The new rail line is part of Project DART – a $600m extension, electrification and upgrade of Auckland's rail network which is scheduled for completion by 2013. Sources various Comment - it is really great to see Canterbury folk have got in be...