NZ In Tranzit

NZ in Tranzit - opinion There has been great controversy in the last week after two separate bus drivers emmployed by NZ Bus in Auckland ordered veiled women off their bus. Extra-ordinary and bizarre. I hardly think that bus drivers should be dictating how people dress! However I too work in a customer interface position and find it repulsive to serve persons with full face veils, bandanas, or masks so that it is impossible to see most or all of their face. We live in a community based on democracy - this is not just a formal system of voting, free speech etc it is a spiritual ethos of all people being equal, open and honest with each other. It is said  90% of communication is conveyed by subtle body and facial movements. The inter-face (literally) between humans is the very basis of that whole system. There can be no community of equals if there is no facial expressions to communicate. A secondary factor is offences by a hooded person are possible without any pos...

Environment Canterbury Metro is reviewing Timaru bus services, which currently consist of four city centre-suburban routes. A proposal is that these be replaced by two city suburban through routes and an Orbital style service. Metro is inviting public feedback on these proposals and has produced a booklet with maps. Comment Without knowing Timaru well enough to comment on the specific routes, this blogster believes every town and city between 10,000 and 30,000 should have at least one orbital sort of route, operating at least six days a week, serving as many as possible major employment centres, main retail hubs, secondary and tertiary instituitions, hospitals and recreation facilities, long distance bus or or train terminal, and accessible (with 500 metres walking distance) of at least 80% of the population. And such services not by random chance but by specific Government policy with funding and expertise to back and monitor the policy! Sharing the national public trans...

NZ in Tranzit in Auckland and Christchurch - rage against our inept machine! A special Board of Enquiry has given the "Waterview Connection" in Auckland the green light. This is a motorway link connecting the southern and northwestern motorways (map here).   The Watervew connection a 4.5 km section of motorway includes twin 2.5 km tunnels to be bored under Mount Albert. The Waterview Connection will need the purchase and in most cases demolition of an estimated 205 houses, many already purchased by the crown The proposal also include  bus lanes and some bus priority measures in some sectors, presumably as a proportion of the total project,  costing in real terms many tens of millions. Comment;  Last year the Minister of Transport opened the new Mangere Bridge extension in Auckland, including bus lanes calculated by NZ in Tranzit to cost $46 million. Also back in November 2009  NZ Transport Agency cut the Government funding contribution to a mode...

Tranzwatching bus tech and marketing  An incentive to use off peak transit, after or before the rush hours, is going to be trialled in Singapore. Bus patrons will get credit points for using transit, one for each peak hour journey, three for each off peak journey - and consequently get added chances in regular special lotteries according to this article in The Economist blog

  Tranzwatching in Auckland, Te Ika a Maui, New Zealand Auckland Transport has moved to reduce buses in Queen Street and central Auckland areas by creating three Link routes as part of an expanded but simplified network. The city Link will replace the free City Circuit bus, which carries 2200 passengers a day. The new service will be free until Christmas and then free for Hop card users and 50c for others.  Speaking of the new Link routes to the NZ Herald,  Auckland councillor Wayne Walker predicted there would be a quantum leap in bus patronage. "People like to use circular routes. They are incredibly easy to understand," he said. The buses will have distinctive colours for each route, red, amber and green and will be new Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro200 buses coming straight from Kiwi Bus Builders assembly plant near Tauranga. ADL have issued a media statement saying the bus emissions are 90% cleaner than existing diesel buses operating in Queen Street, m...

Tranzwatching in Wellington, Te Ika a Maui, New Zealand KiwiRail, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Government have put together funding and plans in a strategy for the continuing upgrade of Wellington Metro rail network . The package commits the Government to $88.4 million worth of upgrades to the network, and Greater Wellington to spend $80m upgrading the Ganz Mavag trains. Greater Wellington chairwoman Fran Wilde said signing the document came after a tough negotiation process, and gave the region certainty moving into the future

Approaching Marshlands Road heading westwards [The Palms out of sight on right hand side of road]   - a rare opportunity may exist to widen New Brighton Road by four or five metres and create a bus transfer station (mostly on sunny side of road) in a location that EVERY northeastern bus route can use. Also a "queue jumper lane" taking most buses straight through intersection shown ahead, no queueing no stopping, most trips. ("Somewhere , under the rainbow ....") Photo NZ in Tranzit Among the more bizarre facets of Council/Ecan policy has been only to build bus lanes where they do not to make too much significant difference! Some of this - the "no-no" politics of dragging bus lanes through built up suburban retail areas, such as Victoria Street, Merivale, Papanui, is understandable. But why did the bus lanes coming in along from New Brighton Road, stop back at Ajax Street corner, leaving buses to queue amongst cars to get across the Marshland Road/North Pa...