NZ is one of the few countries that sold our public transport systems and the nonsense underfunding of our public transport system sees entire rail closures because it’s too hot…
Thousands affected as dozens of Auckland trains cancelled due to hot weather
Thousands of Auckland commuters were affected by train cancellations today due to heat restrictions and tracks reaching more than 40 degrees Celsius.
On the social media platform X, Auckland Transport said that some train services from 1pm to 8pm on eastern, western and southern lines were cancelled.
Train service have returned to normal this evening following the widespread cancellations.
KiwiRail, which manages the tracks, said the city has had high temperatures and heat restrictions in different areas for most of the last three weeks.
Its general manager for metros Jon Knight said heat on the track was not directly related to air temperature and steel rails can get hotter.
…this heat that shuts down underfunded Rail networks is also eroding the ground with huge rainfall…
Discovery of 3m cavity closes part of state highway in Tauranga
Part of State Highway 29A is closed in Tauranga after a large tomo, or cavity, was discovered under the road.
The cavity, which is about three metres deep and filled with water, was discovered on Friday in the left-hand lane heading from Barkes Corner to Oropi Roundabout.
It looked like a small hole from the outside, but the sheer size of the cavity was revealed when NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi crews investigated further, acting regional manager of maintenance and operations Roger Brady said.
“As soon as we saw the size of the tomo we fully closed the road due to the potential safety risk to road users.”
Barely a year after the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, we are seeing what catastrophic climate change looks like in real time as roads develop mass erosion caused by extreme rain dumps caused by climate change.
We don’t have the adaptation capacity because we refuse to tax the polluters more.
You appreciate things are only going to get worse from here on in right?
Despite the climate denial from the Right in NZ, it is real and it is here now.
The $14billion dollar damage of Cyclone Gabrielle and our inability to rebuild highlights how little resilience we have in our underfunded system…
National’s response to all these threats to our roading infrastructure is user pays.
When the Boomer King Wayne Brown is struck dumb by the Government destroying the hopes of public transport infrastructure in our groaning gridlocked city, you know shit just got real.
I kept asking questions to candidates about roading privatisation during the election debate series because the obviousness of where National’s roading platform led to seemed an important issue, but it never caught a wider focus.
Now we not only get the privatisation, but we get the pain of user pays inequality.
It’s all stick, no carrot.
What the petrol tax did was generate revenue from as wide a group as possible to fund infrastructure, National have dumped that in favour of privatisation of roads with tolling and congestion taxes that will burn the poor with no expansion in public transport infrastructure to provide alternatives.
Remember our subsidisation of public transport was supposed to be an emission reducing tactic as well, so by dumping them will not only make gridlock more likely, it will produce more emissions that are feeding the climate change extremes we are watching burn our country this Summer.
So we open the taps on immigration (250 000 in a year) and rather than build the infrastructure for that level of migration, we simply impose user pays as the solution???
Whatever decision is cooked up will be for the benefit of a Right wing donor somewhere.
We are in the age of consequences now and we will choke on our denial.
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Do the massive, nation-ending disconnect of neo-colonial migration levels next… *crickets chirping*
And we thought Labour had a lot of rebuilding to do last time and the time before.
Next time it will be impossible to even know where to start.
And they did fuck all Joy….280 million on Akl light rail and not a mtr of track laid, not even a decision on the route chosen.
148mil on a cycle ‘tack on’ to Harbour bridge, didn’t even get off the drawing board and scrapped.
Polytech merger…currently over 200mil in debt and asking for more money…
Yes Joy, Labour built some wonderful things eh?
Some of the 280 mil involved land purchase so it’s not all down the drain.
Do the coalitions dumping of three waters next. 1.2 billion I believe. Any comment on that? With no real alternative offered apart from “let’s keep all of this with the councils who f*cked it up in the first place
I’m tighty righty at it again…bitch bitch moan moan. Your lot are responsible now dick head, was always your excuse but you’ve always been a hypocrite.
But then again Key took us from 10 billion debt to over 100 billion which makes Labours spending look like chump change!
And what was the debt in 2017 and what is it now Squeaky?
I’m happy with this new Govt, it’s great seeing it dismantle the lefts wet dreams….fucking awesome.
And almost all who voted for this Govt are bloody happy so far too!
(Seen the latest polls?….I don’t believe they mean that much so soon after an election or within 6mths of an election….BUT you lefties would be gloating if they showed a marked downturn…they haven’t, and Labour still losing support lol)
Yes, and look what’s being dumped now?
Not to worry, we won’t own any of it soon.
Tenants in our own country. Now where do I remember that phrase from?
I agree.
The destruction is going to be phenomenal.
Add to all that Willis promoting privately-owned Bluebridge nehicle-only inter-island ferries with her put-on, child-like voice saying “without . spending . a . single .taxpayer’s . dollar” AND, as well, strongly hinting that any Kiwirail ferries will not necessarily be rail equipped.
Same story with health – Key’s government ran down public health and promoted private health, now Luxon’s government are doing similar. & etc. & etc. & etc.
And through it all the planet just keeps on burning and the Nats/ACT/NZF cheer it on….
When will we ever learn?
PS After mumbling Mark Mitchell’s smart-arse comment this morning about “the brain surgeon who put a drone up” during the recent Nelson fires, I hope he doesn’t have to undergo the neurosurgery that he clearly is in need of, any time soon.
The country had a very modern transportation system in the 1920’s. It was starting to fall behind by the 1950’s, and with mass closures of key infrastructure in every decade since then — influenced by the massive international lobbying pressure from the automotive industry and the oil barons — the decrepitude was apparent even in the 1970’s.
That’s not to say that the road network received any great boost as a result; quite far from it. The interprovincial highways were outdated by the 1960s, and the metropolitan motorways were limited and forever behind schedule.
Of course any mention of the disastrous closure of the extensive tramways network and large swaths of the passenger rail network is essentially forbidden by the press barons. Occasionally, they will dish up vile propaganda: claiming that the ignorant little villagers are apparently so inferior they don’t even deserve the same infrastructure they already had a century ago — let alone exciting 1970’s innovations like high speed rail.
Even though the regional fuel tax was time limited and originally set to conclude in 2028, any new transport funding mechanisms (eg congestion charging, rates increases) will likely become baked-in, permanent measures.
And how much of the 11.5 cents will the fuel companies pass on to the consumers at the pump? A short term dip that fluctuates back to where it began.
Pay more, get less.
The new young Turks, with the old Trurk!s are back, with the same old Turk, knowing. User pays, yes you all road users, highway to wherever, built by this what who ever corporation, outside our domain. Welcome, to the brat, side of, uncaring capitalism.
typical nz aversion to forward planning….good luck auck residents it’s gonna be fun fun fun
I find it sad that we have such ignorant humans controlling this country. They might not be fascists, but they are neo liberal scum. Like all cults, and adherents of cults, they are blind to reality, and with a prime minister who believes in some dead beat dad ghost in the sky; we are sure just lemmings, waddling our way to oblivious annihilation. It is incredible how much they harte progress that they will make sure we return to the 1950s, when we concreted out cities, removed our tramways, and ignored the climate science. Whether you are a socialist, or just a parent, or even a tax avoiding Sanitarium, the end of the world should be something we attempt to avoid, especially with Gaza and Ukraine and many other more terrifying realities on this planet.
But we knew these three weasels would be bad for us, and we still voted for them. We are stupid, but then democracy is hardly democratic is it?
The best to understand,these corporate children, are goin to fuck it up.