I wish I could get as excited as the Greens about 19th Century technology

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Russel is excited…

Screen Shot 2014-04-27 at 9.15.26 am

…I want to celebrate electric rail finally coming to Auckland, but gaining 19th Century technology in the 21st Century only highlights our terribly underfunded flaws.

Public transport in Auckland is a joke, wasting money on actors doing wank like this…

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…doesn’t help. When there are 133 staff at Auckland Transport who are currently paid OVER $100 000 per year and 48 staff who are paid over $150 000 per year I’ll save the celebrations until I see some actual vision.

Where there was no vision was the decision to close down Hillside so that these trains couldn’t be built here.

Don’t get me wrong, I refuse to drive and only catch public transport, I am all too aware of the crap public transport system we have in Auckland and desperately want the issue to be taken seriously and the Greens and Labour have been champions of this and all power to them, but finally getting electric trains in 2014 isn’t a moment to celebrate, it’s a moment of deep embarrassment.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Electricity is hardly ground breaking is it? If this is what we are reliant on for good news for public transport, we are going backwards.

UPDATE: And they can’t even get the launch right

29 COMMENTS

  1. Auckland gains electric railways – country loses a major stake in electricity assets.

    Most of last year and earlier this year, our household received an offer numerous times from Genesis to subscribe to a fixed rate plan for two years where the cost per unit is higher than it currently is. Presented with such an offer is a clear sign where electricity prices are heading, just as many suspected with asset sales.

    Catching up with the 19th century sounds about right for the direction this country is taking many.

    • Is this why our power bills have increased?

      What’s wrong with solar – that would have been innovative!

  2. Admittedly the technology rolled out here has been around in other countries for many years, and New Zealand is only catching up, in a humble manner. The rail network improvements and electrification do not come cheaply, but they are the step needed to prepare Auckland for the future. More investment must be put into better rail services, but also in bus and possibly even tramway or other alternative public transport means.

    We had the right wingers, and many in media expressing great contempt and ridicule about what Labour recently announced in transport policy, which was admittedly disappointing. Getting trucks travel in certain lanes only, which would only apply for small stretches of motorways or highways in the country, that can only be a petty policy with little significance. Abolishing registration or other charges for caravans may be of interest to travelers or those living in such vehicles, but that hardly is a big throw.

    So I expect that Labour will announce some real policies eventually, as to how public transport will be improved and promoted, and how the “roads of national significance” this government wants to build will be reviewed, where justified and possible.

    The main challenge though remains to be, to convince the wider public, who are in their vast majority still so determined to drive individual motor vehicles, that such transport cannot be the sustainable and affordable type for the future. Most New Zealanders live in larger and medium to smaller centres, that is metropolitan cities, other cities and larger towns.

    Most certainly transport in the main centres, that is Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin, Hamilton and Palmerston North, possibly also Tauranga, Nelson and the likes, should be public transport, reaching into suburbs and catering for wider sections of the population.

    That will cost, and we will all have to contribute to that. Motor vehicles should be made less attractive to use in the centres, and actually only be used by most for weekend and other extended travel at certain times. Sharing vehicles should be encouraged, and also should it be made attractive, and intensely promoted, that people take up cycling, as that activity has a lot of health benefits.

    In urban areas walking and public transport and cycling should become the normal mode of travel, and New Zealanders need to change. Holidays may in future rather be traveled in by way of affordable rental cars, rather than have every person own their own vehicle.

    I see major difficulties in changing attitudes and lifestyles, but there is no alternative, as using bio-fuels as alternatives to fossil fuel for motorised transport is still not feasible on a global scale. Too much land- and possibly seascapes, which are presently used to grow crops and food, they will then have to be used to grow bio-fuels. That means higher food costs and scarcer food resources for the world populations.

    Still now, most have their heads stuck firmly in the sand though.

    It will not be a “vote winner” to bring the change that is needed, so education and information is essential, and that must be done on a wider scale. I am afraid this government has NO interest in that, as Simon Bridges, Gerry Brownlee, John Key and others have made aboundantly clear. They are persons with fossil brains, addicted to fossil fuel lifestyles.

    • Changing attitudes towards using private transport will be a hard task in a built environment designed for private transport. Motor transport money has had a destructive influence on our range of options.

      Cities can house and service the needs of large groups but the design of such cannot be left to the private developer. A greater responsibility to design population centres so private transport is not a necessary nor desirable component, with solutions lying in smaller centres and integrated workplaces. Food supply has to be local and sustainable. Low energy use by design.

      Without those basics we head for chaos with fragile systems and increasingly complex and expensive resource hungry mitigation which is unsustainable.

      Economics using the current Business as usual to one side. The present use of resources is unsustainable.

      Why is our immigration quota rising. What design is behind that and who is driving it. More consumers need housing, supply of needs and compete with existing population for resources across the board.

      We should be encouraging population reduction here and worldwide.

      Population is a large part of the problem.

      • “Why is our immigration quota rising. What design is behind that and who is driving it. More consumers need housing, supply of needs and compete with existing population for resources across the board.”

        Because this country is sadly run by second and third rate “economists” and politicians, who have nothing much of in the way of economic science sophistication. They do not want to try and think and work harder, and deliver better outcomes for all, and create a smart economy with more productivity and value added production and services. That is beyond them to do and achieve. Hence they try to achieve “growth” by simply continuing to increase the population, which is really dumb, as you suggest. They also just try to produce more milk, logs, raw fish, fruit, coal, oil, and what else they can easily dig out and harvest.

        Population growth will increase demand on needed local resources and infrastructure. Yes for some time it may produce good growth, but down the end, we will have more needing health care, education, retirement pensions, also water, food and so forth. The land mass will not grow, so to achieve higher output, they will push for more intensification, and that means, New Zealand will be turned into yet another over populated, more polluted, more stressed exploited and damaged country and society.

        Problem is, the ones in charge do not give a damn, as they will always be the ones on top, and can afford to simply book a one way ticket and buy a nice property on the Gold Coast, on the Bahamas, on Bermuda, in Hawaii, California or any other nice spot, they may dream of.

        The common folk are mostly too busy struggling and surviving, and never quite get the full picture. They will be manipulated to believe the trickle down crap and that they need growth and more growth, so they will compete with each other, slave, sleep, eat and shit, and do little else, which keeps the whole machinery running, until it will totally crap out.

    • There is a wider problem too, what about high speed rail throughout New Zealand? Take most of the developed nations, and they have a high speed rail network for freight and passenger traffic. Sad that post-Vogel, National thinks very little of rail and spends most of it’s money on roads. Sir Julius Vogel should be turning in his grave right now over how undervalued rail is in New Zealand these days.

      • Given NZ’s topography and population density (e.g. long distances through rough terrain in the central North Island and north-east South Island), HSR throughout NZ would be unlikely to be as effective as electrified regular rail for freight transport and air for long-distance passenger transport.

        However, the economics of faster (not true 250 km/h+ HSR, but say 150-160 km/h) rail for passenger transport are favorable in the Auckland-Hamilton-Tauranga ‘golden triangle’. This region has the population, growth prospects and traffic issues that lend it to faster rail, and the existing rail corridors can be adapted at relatively low cost for faster rail through double/triple tracking (to separate fast passenger and slower freight services as necessary, as well as to allow unfettered bidirectional running), straightening and electrification.

        (True HSR, as well as a wider track gauge, would also require much more extensive earthworks and expensive remediation of pinch points, e.g. boring another Kaimai Tunnel)

        As with any ambitious infrastructure project, it would require politicians with courage to sell the benefits, especially to the many people who can’t see past the end of their car bonnets and their friends in the media.

        • I however agree 100% with your thoughts about Sir Julius Vogel. Politicians with his vision, especially regarding the potential of rail, and thin on the ground now.

  3. AT – is so out of touch with the rest of Auckland it’s a joke.

    They moewed the lawn of an elderly guy around the corner the other day, and left all the grass in such a state, slimy and all over the place – not to mention the oil spill from the lawn mower. So in essence he can’t walk out his front gate on his walker.

    We now know what they ment by doing a “bad job”, making it so if you can’t mow the council verg, they will make it as dangerious as possable for elderly and the young.

    AT = Auckland Trickiest.

  4. Yes, these high salaries that some at AT get, they must be reviewed, as we must get back to a society of more equality, and where all, the manager and the worker doing the manual work at the front-line, and driving trains, selling tickets and cleaning the stations, streets, trains and buses, get a wage or salary that is decent and sufficient to live reasonably well off.

    As for AT and their stupid planning and management, I am still waiting for new day tickets and other discounted tickets to replace the ones, which they completely abolished late last year. Now many poorer folk (and tourists) that used to be able to travel by buying ‘BusAbout’ and “Discovery Day” tickets have to buy normal fare tickets and pay the full normal fare for each trip. Only AT card holders that travel regularly get some modest discounts.

    It seems they are all out to rip people off, and thus discourage people from using public transport. If they want more people taking up public transport, they must review the whole ticketing system, and give more incentives to use the damned trains and buses.

    Simply hoping that congestion will get so bad that people give up using their cars is poor planning in my eyes.

    And use some of those high salaries to fund sensible stuff, not some silly dancers or actors jumping around for such special events. Pay the ordinary worker a bit more, and put some more into the infrastructure, thanks. And by the way, how many of AT staff actually use the trains and buses regularly themselves?

    • Bear in mind that Auckland Transport as an organisation is essentially run from Wellington. Auckland Council has far less control over the governance of AT (the name Council Controlled Organisation is a sick joke) than it should – this is the way Rodney Hide set up the Super City.

      This is of course not to excuse At’s failings, rather to point out that the Auckland Council has far less control over the governance of AT than it should. One of the first transport-related priorities for the next government should be to increase the local autonomy of AT. Maybe then we will see genuine pressure to reduce salaries at the top and spend the money at the transport coalface, where it is desperately needed.

  5. Sure, electric rail might have been 19th Century technology, but it’ll also be 21st Century technology too.
    Our real problem is that our cities are too spread out and designed for cars. Not only is our car-centric society short sighted and illogical, it also stimulates a culture of individualism. This creates a feedback loop where we have roads all over the place, but they all lead to stupidville

    • Fatty, can’t agree more. Auto-centric development was a path deliberately chosen by National when they took power in 1949, and encouraged ever since to the point it has become ingrained. Witness Herald motoring editor (editor! their motoring editor spews this bile!) Matt Greenop’s recent rant as a classic piece of selfish, sense-of-entitlement auto-mania.
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=11243625

      However, I believe that average Aucklanders (especially those who have experienced the convenience of world-class public transport in overseas cities) are changing their attitudes. It will take politicians with courage and media with intelligence to capture the new zeitgeist. Driving the transport and land-use changes Auckland desperately needs against the troglodytes in politics (principally in the National Party and C&R) and their media stooges will not be easy.

  6. Went to the Blues Waratahs match on Friday night. Waited for a bit after the game to let the crowd move off the Kingsland platform. But no, 45 mins after the game finished there were still thousands queued up and down Sandringham Rd. Some train had shat its pants because of a signal failure and was unable to be moved. What was worse was the response from disinterested Auckland transport workers. Their communication was dire internally and externally and could they have cared less? No.

    News just in. Electrification is going to do nothing for train reliability in Auckland. In fact I’m sure it will be worse. The future of public transport looks bleak in the short and medium term.

  7. Remember Martyn, 19th century technology may not be the coolest, but at least the Greens have their head in the 21st century. On the other hand National, ACT and the Conservatives have gone back to policies that were part of pre-Victorian England – the war on the poor and increasing the prison population.

  8. Martyn, electric trains in New Zealand is a fundamental part of a New Zealand mitigating climate change. Electric rail systems need expanding, not being slagged off.

    • Andrew – if you think finally getting around to implementing 19th Century technology into 21st Century Auckland is a success and not a massive reminder of the utter failure of leadership that it really is, you are delusional.

      • But that’s Auckland, innit?

        Wellington’s had grubby old electric trains for at least sixty years, and a parallel roading system to pick up passengers from rail stations if the trains can’t be run (eg Wahine storm). Needs upgrading on the Kapiti Coast lines, but it struggles along.

        Auckland? A few ferries and a far too small bridge and they collapsed exhausted by the pace of implementation. Too busy sprawling to actually plan.

        ‘What’s good for Auckland is good for the rest of the country’. Yeah, right.

  9. So, I’m reading the comments and trying to see if I’m the first one to ask this obvious question, but if you don’t like electric trains, Martyn, what are you suggesting as an alternative?

    • David – As someone who refuses to drive and catchs public transport every day, I love electric trains, I am suggesting however that their implementation so late in coming is no cause for jubilation. It’s like a patient needs a liver transplant and you turn up 7 hours after they’ve died with a plaster and wanting a big cheer for managing that.

      Even with the bloody rail loop built, traffic congestion will be worse than it is now. If this timid bullshit is your cup of tea, go right ahead and sip it.

  10. Elsewhere on The Daily Blog Keith Locke says “This century the Auckland talk got serious, with the Greens providing the political spearhead in Parliament” – the fact that the Greens actually got something done where none of the other political parties had, when they hadn’t even been part of a government and were an even smaller party than they are now, is pretty impressive. I call that punching above your weight.

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