Yo Phil, what the fuck is going on?
I have honestly been staggered that no one else has said anything.
Honestly.
As a political Gadfly, I turn up, take a huge bite and I stimulate or annoy other people with my persistent criticism.
BUT
I only turn up when everyone else is refusing to challenge the status quo, especially when that status quo is so counter-productive.
So, here I am again, about to take a bite.
Dear Phil Goff.
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?
Late last week, the final chapters in a corruption and bribery case that has become the largest this country has ever seen, started coming to its conclusion.
And barely anyone noticed.
Matt Nippert is one of this country’s best Business Journalists, and he has focused on the Auckland Transport corruption and bribery scandal unlike any other…
Two jailed, six leave jobs in country’s largest bribery case
Two men were yesterday jailed for their role in the country’s largest bribery case and Auckland Transport revealed six other staff left their jobs after investigations began into the scandal.
The episode has triggered warnings from the Serious Fraud Office that the case has not been completely closed – and that corruption required a toxic culture to grow.
Former Auckland Transport senior manager Murray Noone and Projenz managing director Stephen Borlase were sentenced at the High Court at Auckland to five years and five years six months respectively after being found guilty of bribery and corruption.
Noone’s request for a two-week delay in starting his sentence until his ankle was cut out of a cast put on after surgery was denied. He left the dock for prison hobbling on crutches.
The pair had been found to have engaged in a seven-year corrupt relationship where Projenz would make regular payments to Noone, overall amounting to more than $1m, while the latter was employed at council-owned organisations overseeing contracts awarded to Borlase’s firm.
Barrie George, Noone’s deputy throughout the corrupt relationship, had earlier pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Borlase – mostly in the form of 20 international holidays – and was sentenced last September to 10 months’ home detention.
The Herald can reveal Noone, Borlase and George were not the only casualties of the road maintenance case, with six other Auckland Transport staff departing under a cloud after an internal investigation began in 2013.
Auckland Transport said it could not comment on individual cases, but the departures were due to “trust and confidence issues” and included non-compliance with gift and inducement policies.
…what has been secretly going on behind the scenes at Auckland Transport is corruption and bribery on a scale never seen before, and that cuts deeply when you consider the gridlock Auckland faces daily as they try to use the Auckland transport network…
Long delays for Auckland motorway commuters as ‘March madness’ hits
Auckland’s motorways are crawling as “March madness” begins in earnest.
“March madness” happens each year when when schools, universities and workers are all back on deck and traffic on the region’s motorways hits its peak for the year.
A crash on the North Shore and two truck breakdowns on the southern motorway were contributing to delays as workers and university and school students tried to make their way into the city.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) tweeted about 7am on Wednesday that congestion had begun to build early.
So we have a corrupt ‘Council Controlled Organisation’ while the city faces daily gridlock, which begs the question, how does Auckland Transport manage to avoid any real criticism?
Auckland Transport is a behemoth in Auckland, their power extends in every direction. They cleverly fund inner city pet projects…
Auckland’s Lightpath cycleway fades from the hot pink it was a year ago to a dull pastel
Auckland’s $18 million cycleway has faded from a hot pink to a dull pastel a year after opening.
The Te Ara I Whiti cycleway, which translates as the Lightpath, connects Upper Queen St to Nelson St and was part of the $200 million cycle improvements planned for the city for the next three years.
…to keep vocal hipsters onside and fund bloggers at Transport Blog to ensure punches are always pulled.
Auckland Transport are too powerful, too corrupt, have bought off critics and seem to answer to no one other than their own interests.
All this for a ‘Council Controlled Organisation’.
Auckland Transport (AT) is the council-controlled organisation (CCO) of Auckland Council responsible for transport projects and services. It combined the transport functions of the eight former Auckland local authorities and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) from 1 November 2010.
AT is responsible the region’s transport infrastructure (excluding state highways and railways) and public transport. It designs, builds and maintains roads, ferry wharves, cycleways and walkways; co-ordinates road safety and community transport initiatives; and plans and funds bus, train and ferry services. It is the largest of the council’s organisations, with 1020 staff and annual revenue of $1.36 billion (as of 2010), controlling half of all council rates.
Which brings us back to the Auckland Mayor, Phil Goff.
Phil, mate, what the hell are you doing?
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has wasted no time in his clean up of his council and is being accused of attacking democracy and accountability by those upset at his moves.
On Tuesday Goff announced the council’s two Auckland Transport (AT) board representatives, councillors Mike Lee and Christine Fletcher, would go. And he won’t replace them.
Goff believes removing councillors from AT’s nine member board would actually improve accountability – because having councillors on the board creates too many compromises and conflicts.
…holding bloody Auckland Transport to account isn’t a ‘conflict of interest’.
Fletcher and Lee are head kicking bulldogs. They are the exact sort of people you need on a Board as powerful and as corrupt as Auckland Transport.
We don’t get that kind of Board oversight on any other Council Controlled Organisation because Auckland Transport is just so huge and powerful.
For an entity this powerful we desperately need as much oversight as possible, yet Goff sacks Mike Lee and Christine Fletcher from providing that oversight just as Auckland Transport are involved in the largest corruption case in our country’s history.
What the fuck?
Has there been a secret deal done with the Mayor?
We know that the power brokers of Auckland all come to the Mayor and offer funds to pay for Mayoralty races, Len Brown had a secret group of funders backing him who he refused to ever reveal.
They are the usual vested interests of concrete, building, trucking, banking. Those who want the gravy train to never end always ingratiate themselves to the new Mayor to ensure their interests are looked after which is why it is so incredibly suspicious that Goff did what he did by removing our oversight on Auckland Transport.
In light of the scope, scale and sheer audacity of corruption inside Auckland Transport that Matt Nippert has exposed, it’s time Phil Goff fronted on this issue and explained to us all why he removed our oversight on Auckland Transport and what the hell he intends to replace it with so that Auckland Transport are accountable to us.
As we all sit in traffic for hours on end, we deserve better than this.
Time for an Auckland Commune to throw out this bosses’ bullshit Council.
The fake “hearing” of the ‘Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan’, in the end being recommended by a supposedly “independent” hearing panel in a form that would make an ACT Party candidate proud, that showed me and many others, how damned corrupt our Council is.
They have rewarded the business cliques, the big business lobbyists, the developers and speculators with whatever they desired, and shat on the rest of the Auckland population.
Also do they intend to “grow” the city by another million, so they can rake in more rates, and collaboratively with business, build us a modern day Babel, that they will sell to the serfs as the supposedly ‘most liveable city on earth’.
In short it is endless BS and corruption, dressed up though, so it all looks quite “legal”.
Whew!!! Thank you, I thought that no one was going to talk about this.
Both Lee and Fletcher were on the co-co when this corruption was happening . Why aren’t you having a “dig” at them ?
As I have been saying for a long time, all city, district and regional councils are corrupt, and all bureaucracies are populated with self-serving fuckwits.
Nothing will ever be fixed. But city/district/regional councils will eventually manage to bankrupt the communities they are supposedly serving while ensure absolutely NOTHING is done to prepare for the real future -one of declining energy availability and worsening climate.
The entire country is corrupt from the top down. This same Phil Goff referred to as “Far Goff” by David Lange? This same Phil Goff who signed the country away in a Free Slave Agreement with the largest dictatorship on the planet? Seriously, what did you expect? Accountability? Transparency? These will only come after Far Goff and those treasonous leaders above him have gone to the gallows.
You state the whole country is corrupt from the top down.
I assume you do not include yourself ,so it falls on you to clean the rest of us up and take on the double duty of hangman.
What a guy!
just what one would expect from a Douglas lackey.
Amen to that. A former Douglas lackey, now beholden to the Chinese dictatorship.
Hear Hear!!!
What the Fuck!! AT gets 1 billion of rate payer money, is involved in big corruption, so Phil Goff decides to take off elected council members –
especially two that sound like they are prepared to stand up for transport and for accountability.
Lets face it, it’s either pretty suspicious or pretty stupid and it is certainly not in the rate payers interests.
Not only that but the same bureaucratic faces pop up on these boards – corporate board room whores, who love the sound of their own voices, can’t take a crap without getting friends in Big 5 consultancy to ok at it at cost of millions in fees, and lo and behold so much is spent on consulting or getting friends of friends to do everything (as we see from the corruption case), nothing actually real gets done (apart from arrogantly removing as many ancient trees and public amenity as possible) and demand more money to do as little as possible as slow as possible.
These are career bureaucrats with a plethora of other directorships and chair positions they also seem to fit in (easy to do when you actually don’t do much and you have the same solutions for every organisation), and agenda of privatisation such as Rebstock (need we say more) and lack of empathy or interest in the actual organisation’s function as a public service.
Board of directors for AT
Dr Lester Levy, Chair
Wayne Donnelly, Deputy Chair
Rabin Rabindran
Mark Gilbert
Dame Paula Rebstock
Ernst Zöllner
Lets face it, we are NOT in safe hands with these people! Expect congestion and user pays at every turn and a refusal to create functioning public services at affordable rates and demands for more rates to deliver less services.
Can anyone see Paula Rebstock on public transport? Can anyone see her in Auckland?
Ok so we have the dinosaur careerists leading the clueless! –
Everywhere these types of directors turn up – the organisation seems to have the same problems and the same inability to solve them!
They say it all starts at the top!
IN fact the joke should be, what does a non practising doctor, an automotive specialist, a lawyer, a far right economist and a nobody, got to do with public transport?
Nothing! That’s why we have a public transport crisis!
I guess we can go to the doctor for the smog, use a car instead of public transport, litigate instead of solving the problem, think trickle down is a solution, and get nothing done but communicate it clearly!
Sounds like Auckland Transport in action!
Cars for Cash!
Oh, Paula Rebstock. There we are then. The queen of the government sanctioned foregone conclusion. No surprises here.
In fact how about,
Julie-Anne Genter
Christine Rose
Tracey Martin
Mike Lee
and I’m sure there could be a few other names that could kick some ass and get some action at Auckland Transport. At least these people would have the willpower to do it and actually believe in public transport and health not just making money from it, like the current stone age bureaucrats!
And some live far enough away from CBD to understand the problem not just want amenity for the central suburbs!
“we deserve better than this.”
Well.
No.
Auckland has risen to the level of its incompetence. Or, as the old Greeks would have it ‘Hubris followed by Nemesis’.
And the rest of us would prefer to see a few long-deferred local projects done before Auckland again shows at the head of the hand-out queue.
(That riduculous line of traffic! What were you paying those people to produce?!)
When the Councilllors were dropped from the board, I and ten others (Waiheke Islanders) wrote to the Mayor, asking him to come to a public meeting to explain himself. His reply to me, (9/11/16), would insult the intelligence of an amoeba. The call for a public meeting with the Mayor and Lester Levy has increased with a petition of 1,562 signatories which requests ‘a community meeting Mayor Goff, Auckland Transport and our Local Board representatives as a matter of urgency.’ The petition was presented to the Waiheke Local Board, last Thursday. Today’s (Fairfax) Waiheke Marketplace says, “Each member of the Board said they endorsed the actions undertaken by the protestors.”
par for the course for neo goff… pretend that it didnt happen 90% of time it will go away
Hey Martyn !!! …. relax !!!
Have a relax to this ole song, y’all…
Waylon Jennings – Good Old Boys (Dukes Of Hazard) – YouTube
Video for good old boys you tube▶ 2:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_2ZuR9BTXg
An’ for them Good ole Boys n’ Girls,… here’s the lyrics you can all sing a long to….
Enjoy.
Just the good ol’ boys
Never meanin’ no harm
Beats all you ever saw
Been in trouble with the law
Since the day they was born
Straigh’nin’ the curve
Flat’nin’ the hills
Someday the mountains might get ’em
But the law never will
Makin’ their way
The only way they know how
That’s just a little bit more
Than the law will allow
I’m a good ol’ boy
You know my momma loves me
But she don’t understand
They keep a showin’ my hands
And not my face on TV
One of two things;
1. It’ll only be the small fry that gets caught and punished, while the politicians get away with their criminal activities, or;
2. This is the beginning of National’s empirical corruption coming to an end, finally through investigations and the law.
Why this upset, Phil is simply showing his true colours, he is now one of the club, the old boy’s network.
To be bloody honest and blunt, coming from a place on this planet, where such things are not condoned and cracked down on as soon as they may appear, I remain dismayed at what goes on in New Zealand. It is not only Auckland Council and Auckland Transport that have such issues, it is happening in many other places in this country, including central government.
If only people would bloody well take notice and take some resolute action. In many countries there would be tens of thousands protesting out in the streets about this, see South Korea, see Brazil and other places, just to name a very few.
Actually Martyn – I’ve been ‘blowing the whistle’ about corruption in NZ for years?
The lack of transparency in the spending of public monies on private sector consultants and contractors is the reason why I’ve disputed and refused to pay first Auckland City Council, then Auckland Council rates for the last TEN years.
In my opinion, the more ‘in-depth’ articles on corruption in the roading industry, have been written by NBR journalist Karyn Scherer.
Perhaps you missed them?
On 16 February 2017, I addressed the Auckland Transport Board, and requested that they instruct their CEO to ensure ALL future Auckland Transport awarded contracts, including those valued at less than $50,000 and ALL those sub-contracted, make the following details available for public scrutiny :
* The unique contract number.
* The name of the consultant / contractor.
* A brief description of the scope of the contract.
* Contract start / finish dates.
* The exact dollar value of every contract, including those sub-contracted.
* How the contract was awarded – by direct appointment or public tender.
Because Auckland Transport declined to provide sub-contracted information, I have made a formal complaint to the SFO, alleging criminal negligence against the Board.
Interesting that on the first working day after the Mt Albert by-election,
Auckland Transport announce that they are ‘opening the books’ and will provide information about all Auckland Transport awarded contracts, irrespective of dollar value.
What were my two Mt Albert by-election signs?
‘OPEN THE BOOK$!’
‘SUPERCITV = SUPER RIPOFF!’
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner’.
‘Activists – get things done!’
As a general rule I don’t trust anyone that shaves their sideburns above their ears
Could someone please tell me who is on the Watercare board?
Thanks
Here it is J off their website.
http://www.watercare.co.nz/about-watercare/board-of-directors/Pages/default.aspx
https://at.govt.nz/about-us/our-role-organisation/meetings-minutes/
Meetings & minutes
This page lists the dates of Auckland Transport’s forthcoming board meetings as well as the agenda, minutes and reports for the latest session. The agenda for a board meeting is published within three working days prior to the meeting being held.
Meeting dates and times for 2017
These timings are subject to change.
9am to 2pm: Board only meeting and closed session
2pm: Open session
2017 meeting dates
Thursday 16 February 2017.
Tuesday 28 March 2017.
Tuesday 9 May 2017.
Tuesday 20 June 2017.
Tuesday 1 August 2017.
Tuesday 12 September 2017.
Tuesday 24 October 2017.
Tuesday 5 December 2017.
Venue for all meetings
AMP Building,
Mairangi Room,
Level 17,
29 Customs Street West.
When you have a government, who to put it politely, sails across the wind, not just close to it with it’s constant issues of conflicts of interest, accountability, secret donors, corrupt practices, setting up tax havens, having the use of public money for National Party members own self gain, is it any wonder Auckland Council is corrupt?
Auckland Transport as is Auckland Council is the bastard love child of ACT and National, both party’s of course being personal enrichment schemes set up for the rich and very well connected (donors) to get richer and if you look at the structure of both they were set up to not be accountable or even accessible to rate payers but to be very accountable to business. One could easily argue it was set up to liberate its assets to well connected friends of National and Act like those halcyon days of Roger Douglas in the 80’s.
If as John Key put it in response to the corrupt Saudi sheep deal, Auckland Transports solution to road contracts was “novel” then so be it, that is the new way of doing business in New Zealand, one hand washes the other as they say.
The trouble is when you have the sleazy leadership that this country has at the moment where dishonest, unethical, immoral and by most standards corrupt behaviour is the benchmark then more of this shit will be going on. I am amazed more has not come out in public but then again does anyone actually enforce it?
Corruption only works when its out of sight, no one does anything about it anyway and everyone thinks this is the only way we can do business.
One way to stop this is to put daylight on ALL political donations to clear away those roading contractors, those breweries, those junk food peddlers, those banks and those individuals whose money buys them favours and who thrive in the shadows.
However I somehow doubt whether Lee or Fletcher could have known what dirty deals were being done deep in AT.
“…Auckland Transport as is Auckland Council is the bastard love child of ACT and National ….”
WRONG.
The few of us who opposed this Auckland ‘Supercity – for the 1%’ from Day One (5 September 2006 – the day of the ‘failed Mayoral coup’ against Mike Lee and the Auckland Regional Council) – know that this push for amalgamation was started under Labour.
It was the Labour Government headed by PM Helen Clark who appointed the Royal Commission for Auckland Regional Governance, whose arguably most significant recommendation was for Auckland infrastructure and trading activities to be undertaken by Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
FACT.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner.’
The media loved him and he crossed the floor in favour of the TPPA – he stunk from the start.
[…] The corrupt and bribery wrecked Auckland Transport area spiteful lot. […]
This is just the tip of the iceberg!
The damage done by corruption is trivial compared to what is done through bureaucratic ineptitude.
……but that would be telling
All gets down to intent , though , doesn’t it…. far rather an ‘ inept ‘ bureaucracy that can admit it got it wrong and take measures to rectify a situation smartly than the sort of accepted shitty corrupt practice that permeated local body and central govt under John Key for example…
Perhaps this is all part of the cleansing process we are now seeing after that person of treason abdicated his role and the coming National party collapse at the September general elections…
Never trust a neo liberal no matter what political stripe they say they adhere to – it’ll ALWAYS end in tears when the inevitable lies become exposed.
Next that know-all weirdo Patrick Reynolds will be on the AT Board!
When is Auckland COUNCIL going to follow Auckland Transport’s lead, and make the following details of spending on private sector consultants and contractors available for public scrutiny?
(Given that it’s the LAW (the Public Records Act 2005) and has been the LAW for the last ELEVEN years??)
* The unique contract number.
* The name of the consultant / contractor.
* A brief description of the scope of the contract.
* Contract start / finish dates.
* The EXACT dollar value of EVERY contract (including those sub-contracted).
* How the contract was awarded – by public tender or direct appointment.
(NOTE: Auckland Transport are NOT (yet) releasing details of contracts which have been sub-contracted – which is why I have made a complaint to the Serious Fraud Office against the Board of Auckland Transport for alleged criminal negligence.
WHY? Because of bribes and back-handers that have been revealed in the awarding of sub-contracts from major contracts.
Auckland Transport claim that they don’t hold this ‘sub-contracted’ information.
SIMPLE:
Auckland Transport make it a future condition of ALL contracts that ‘sub-contracted’ details of awarded sub-contracts must also be equally made available for public scrutiny. )
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner.
It is good to see this question being asked on here about this major corruption case involving Auckland Transport and it is worrying that so little is being said by the mainstream media and from the mayor and government, and why there isn’t a full independent inquiry being called – after all this is a major abuse of public money and trust, and as per this statement from the Serious Fraud Office:
“The episode has triggered warnings from the Serious Fraud Office that the case has not been completely closed – and that corruption required a toxic culture to grow.”
Investigation should also be made into the relationship between Auckland Transport and their rail operator Transdev. There has been some questionable goings on with the contract to this huge multi-national transport company being extended a number of times, with occasions in the past without being put out to tender.
The amount of money which is wasted or lost with the way in which Auckland Transport and Transdev are operating the Auckland train system would surprise many and it would be interesting to know just how much money is being on spent on what. Transdev won’t provide break downs of costs – Mike Lee has tried obtaining this before.
Examples of waste and money loss include the hopeless voluntary ticketing system which has been in place since the time of the new AT HOP card being launched, where it is up to the passenger to either tag on with their HOP card or buy a ticket from a machine on the platform. There is only one Train Manager (Guard) per train now who don’t check tickets anymore and there are very few Ticket Inspectors and the amount of fare evasion is rife, which has consequently attracted a considerable number of undesirables onto the trains who ride around for free for entertainment, scratching and vandalising the new electric trains (which results in more cost to ratepayers to repair), robbing passengers, assaulting staff and passengers – much more so than what occurred under the former ticketing system where there were train staff in nearly every carriage collecting fares. There is no incentive for Transdev to ensure that all passengers pay, and pay correctly, as they do not receive the fare revenue. Auckland Transport do not seem to care about the massive fare evasion is occurring which is plain to see for anyone travelling on trains, and even try to downplay how much fare evasion is occurring – while complaining about lack of funding for projects!
To add to the irony, while Auckland Transport spends massive amounts on taxis and has even had to purchase a van to shuttle staff around, they declined a request from the unions representing the bus, train and ferry staff for all staff who operate AT public transport (and AT staff) to be provided with a staff privilege AT HOP card giving staff free travel on all public transport as an incentive to use public transport and help reduce traffic congestion and help reduce the amount of pressure on staff car parking at AT owned depots and facilities. Auckland Transport want the staff to pay but are happy to have masses of general public riding without paying!
Train crews get sent needlessly by taxi all over Auckland every day, even though there are obviously train services which can take staff passenger from point A to point B for free. Taxis run the risk of getting stuck in Auckland’s traffic meaning trains may end up late if the crew are stuck in traffic and make no sense to use for train crews who can use trains to get around. It would be interesting to know just how much Transdev are spending on taxis, which the bill is ultimately being paid for by Auckland Transport and Transdev.
Money is wasted on contracting a considerable number of security guards (mostly new immigrants from India) from private security firm Armourguard, at great expense, who pay minimum wage to the security guards who stand on platforms to just “observe and report” and are supposed to be a deterrent (which they are not) and not allowed to intervene in any conflict situation or help train staff or remove non-fare payers off trains. If Auckland Transport want a deterrent for security purposes, why don’t they employ more Ticket Inspectors and put them out in pairs on trains? The Ticket Inspectors are a very effective deterrent and actually bring in income, whereas security guards do not.
At certain stations around the network, such as Morningside and Papakura station, a contractor came and put up swimming pool fences along the boundary hard up against where there are solid walls of buildings adjoining the boundary. The fences are completely unnecessary and serve no purpose. How much did they cost?
Massive amounts of money are wasted by Auckland Transport on staff uniforms. All staff are supplied with every item of uniform there is despite most staff not using every item. Rather than having a point system where every staff member is entitled to so many uniform points per year and could select what items of uniform they will actually use, Auckland Transport spends thousands on supplying items of uniform which just sit in staff members cupboards.
There are a number of roles within Transdev and probably a number of other Auckland Transport functions, where the roles and need for the staff in them are dubious, particularly the number of supervisory roles where the people in these roles generally sit around doing nothing for a good proportion of the day. There are multiple Train Drivers on ‘cover shifts’ and Train Managers on ‘ASL’ shifts on standby sitting around needlessly at the same time in nearly all depots taking up space in overcrowded lunch rooms and car parks, when there only needs to be one Driver and one Train Manager at home on standby in the morning and in the afternoon instead. Auckland Transport seem happy to waste money like this but won’t pay for more Ticket Inspectors to be employed. A time and motion study needs to be made of all Auckland Transport and Transdev staff roles.
Auckland Transport have a rail department with managers and positions mirroring the same as Transdev Auckland have in their Auckland head office. Transdev Auckland have a similar number of managers and staff in their head office as KiwiRail have in their head office running the entire New Zealand rail system! Begs the question of why does Auckland Transport need Transdev when they could run the Auckland train service themselves or get KiwiRail to run it?
In the past 4 years Auckland Transport have rebranded all of Auckland’s public transport from ‘MAXX’ to their ‘AT’ logo and changed the shade of blue from a lighter shade of blue to a darker blue. This includes all signage on bus train and ferry terminals, road signs, logos and colour schemes on trains and stations, timetables, complete new uniforms for all Auckland Transport staff and Transdev train staff etc.
In the past year Auckland Transport have again decided to change the public transport branding on everything from ‘AT’ to ‘AT Metro’. This is again involving changing all signage and anything branded with ‘AT’ to ‘AT Metro’, most of which has only been just replaced in the past 3 years or less. Three railway stations on the Western line at Avondale, New Lynn and Fruitvale Road were all recently rebranded with different signage to all the other stations on the Auckland rail network – completely unnecessary and now they look different and don’t match all the other stations, creating inconsistency. Do Auckland Transport intend to rebrand all railway stations and bus stations with this new look signage and branding? How much is this going to cost? Why is this necessary when there is nothing wrong with the existing signage and branding used across all of Auckland’s railway and bus stations and ferry terminals.
Auckland Transport have also dictated that all of Auckland’s bus fleet running AT services have to be repainted blue and grey with AT Metro branding. Not only will this make it more difficult for passengers to identify their bus, particularly where there are lots of buses around, it has resulted in the loss of many of Auckland’s long standing distinct bus colour schemes such as those sported by Howick and Eastern with their maroon and cream colour scheme and Birkenhead Transport with their beige and brown color scheme. This has upset a lot of people in the communities affected.
Auckland Transport (and Auckland Council) waste money with their current inefficient set up of having all their operations in various buildings all over the city, some of which are leased buildings or floors not owned by Auckland Council. Despite Auckland Council owning the old Chief Post Office building in Britomart and Auckland Transport being in charge of it, it leases all the space out to other companies not related to the city’s transport system. They could save costs by centralizing all their operations into one area such as around Britomart, or one building such as the old Chief Post Office at Britomart in the central city next to the main bus, train and ferry transport operations, which is a building the Auckland Council owns, rather than e Vodafone building in the expensive Viaduct Harbour – ironically away from the main transport hub at Britomart.
Rather than listen to the residents of Kumeu / Huapai and the surrounding Nor West area and provide a train service using the surplus diesel SA class carriage trains Auckland Transport own (and pay KiwiRail to store in Taumarunui) and use an underutilised railway line which already exists to Huapai, Auckland Transport reject a common sense proposal from the PTUA to run a new crosstown train service between Pukekohe and Huapai using these diesel trains which could be implemented quickly and cheaply, and instead want to needlessly spend hundreds of millions on building a busway to Kumeu – which could be decades away, when residents have said they want a train service rather than buses on congested roads. Auckland Transport then make up excuses about the trains suddenly not meeting fire standards just 2 years after the same trains have been running through the Waitakere tunnel for 12 years previously. They also go on about travel times to the CBD being longer by rail from Huapai, when a lot of people from Kumeu/Huapai don’t travel to the CBD (peak period travel times by rail probably would be quicker and definitely far less stressful than driving on gridlocked roads and motorways) and ignore that the PTUA proposal is for a direct one run crosstown service between Huapai and Pukekohe.
It would also be interesting to know how much Auckland Transport are spending on their street sign contractor who keep replacing street signs with the new green signs when there is nothing wrong with the street signs they are replacing on a near weekly basis, i.e. older blue sign fine one day, gets replaced with new green sign the next. Most people probably don’t notice, but every sign where this happens will be incurring a cost. All costs tally up and have to ultimately be paid by ratepayers.
The same question could be asked about how much it is costing Auckland Transport to replace all the orange colour sodium street lights across the Auckland region with the new (inferior performance) dim white light LED street lights. Same situation as the street signs, where one day a perfectly working sodium street light (which actually lit up the street) is replaced with a new white LED street light. It is not the whole street being converted over, it just seems to be one light here and there every week when the lights being replaced were working fine.
Auckland Transport has become such a massive big bloated organisation with so many contractors and sub-contractors, the ability for wasteful spending to creep in and be allow to grow to the extent as revealed in the recent corruption case, shows that there needs to be a major investigation and review of Auckland Transport and all it’s functions and contractors, to see where public money is being spent and how, and to make Auckland Transport more accountable and answerable to the public and elected representatives.
Great comment.
I agree with what you have written, and my experience with AT have shown it to be incompetent and inefficient. The AT Hop card is a cumbersome, unwieldy system, not helped by different information provided by AT at different times.
The failure to have a fare system that allows only passengers onto the platforms has – as you say – created an opportunity for vandalism and harassment, and a need for security.
Everything about the Public Transport system, seems to be designed from the perspective of the inner city dwelling executive.
Scheduling, fares and the ease of use are almost hostile towards lower income families who live further away from the city centre.
Not to mention the patronising posters and reminders on the trains regarding politeness and courtesy.
heavens to murgatroyd, +1
How do I tag Goff in this?
I have an idea
@phil_goff why don’t you fire remaining board members of @AklTransport, starting with yourself #muppet #nzpol | https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/03/01/for-the-love-of-christ-is-no-one-else-going-to-say-anything-fine-i-will-dear-phil-goff-what-the-hell-are-you-doing/#comment-372389
link: https://twitter.com/sam1bro/status/837483563096268801
Good comments Kelly. Many of the answers to improvement are easy to implement, you have to wonder why they have not already been made!
I also think the contract for HOP to French company Thales should be investigated, which was an expensive muck up. The tenders were not fair and Thales was made to be the preferred tender – the process was not fair or neutral.
“No one” payed any attention because “no one” wants to acknowledge that we even have corruption in NZ, its something we like to associate with ‘foreigners’, especially ‘Indians’, especially students and restaurant workers..and anyone else trying to get by in an unjust world…
We’re still a bit unhappy at admitting we have a racism problem, let alone a class system….
To admit we have ‘corruption’ would be like losing the Rugby World Cup.
We defiantly have a problem in the transport secto! No wonder it is such a problem with all the fraud and corruption and those being caught are probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Auckland Transport boss pleads guilty to corruption charges
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11686368
The former Ministry of Transport manager who defrauded the agency of $726,000 has been jailed for 43 months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11804745
Comments are closed.