Boomer King weaponised our impatience and kills Auckland Transport – now what? 

Auckland Transport stripped back as the council takes on city’s transport responsibilities

Auckland Council will take responsibility for nearly all aspects of the city’s transport system under sweeping governance reforms announced by the Government and Mayor Wayne Brown on Friday.

“It’s a major victory for the people of Auckland,” Brown said at the announcement. “Today signals the end of business as usual for AT (Auckland Transport). Big change is coming.”

The Boomer King has slashed public transport funds and projects and by weaponising our impatience towards road cones, he’s killed off Auckland Transport which is fine and dandy, but at what cost?

Simon Wilson takes a look…

1. 1. 438km of roads were repaired and resealed last year, in the largest road-resurfacing programme since 2017.
   2. Driver satisfaction has increased from 38% to 56%, while travel times over 10km are a minute shorter.
   3. Public transport passenger satisfaction has reached 92%, ahead of the 85% target.
   4. Deaths and serious injuries on the roads were up to 611, against a target of no more than 576. It’s too early to know how the recently introduced higher speed limits contributed to that. Half of the serious crash victims were not in a car, and almost all the crashes were on local roads, not motorways. AT chief executive Dean Kimpton said it wanted more cameras at intersections and more drink-drive testing.
   5. There are now 42 “fast and frequent” bus routes, with 750,000 people living within walking distance of a transport stop for a frequent service.
   6. There are 225 e-buses, with plans to double that next year.
   7. The $50-a-week fare cap has allowed “close to a million free trips”. It was introduced in July 2024 and benefits everyone travelling for more than two stages every day.
   8. Public transport boardings are down: 88.8 million against a target of 94.7 million. Hop card records show this is because, while public transport has 33% more customers, they’re travelling less. WFH is real.
   9. 58 businesses are taking part in the FareShare scheme, which offers subsidised Hop cards for staff. Among those people, public transport use is up 33%. Where the employer signs up for a higher subsidy, it’s 55%.
   10. Yet again, AT has underspent its cycleway budget. This year, it managed only 58%.

…will the disconnect between the public transport travelling users and the bosses ever be met?

It seems not, Simon Wilson again with this point…

The City Rail Link company made an “updates” report to the council’s transport, resilience and infrastructure committee this week. It was working through 26,000 documents, said chief executive Patrick Brockie, and had now certified 51 drivers to take the trains through the tunnels. It was the kind of information that tells you there’s lots going on without really telling you much at all.

Councillor Julie Fairey wasn’t having it. Now that much of the above-ground work around the stations is complete, she wanted to know why the fences and cones and construction stuff haven’t been moved. Give Aucklanders back their streets. Give shopkeepers back their customers.

Brockie said CRL was “in discussion with Auckland Transport” about that.

Mayor Brown was also unimpressed. “Can we not speed that up? Every time I look out the window at Albert St, there’s more work going on. You’re still wrecking businesses there.”

“We’ll definitely look into that,” said Brockie.

The exchange revealed two things. One, that CRL and AT have still not grasped the need to restore normal service to the streets as soon as possible. It was the last meeting of this committee before the election, and you might have thought they’d have turned up with the good news that those fences are about to disappear. But no.

The second revelation was more of a reminder: that after three years of spluttering about all that construction disruption, the mayor has not managed to change how they do it.

Although, when it came time for AT to give its report, it was clear the agency had at least got the cones message. Some 7783 “redundant pieces of temporary traffic management” had been removed from roads in the last three months, AT declared. That’s what they call road cones.

On the downside, though, about a dozen drivers a year apparently succumb to road rage because of the same “temporary traffic management”. This causes about one death and half a dozen serious injuries each year. Not to the roadworkers, but to the drivers themselves, and other road users.

…Drivers dying and getting beaten in Road Rage annually seems like a bad public policy, and despite all Wayne’s bluster, it isnt going to get better…

Meanwhile, KiwiRail revealed that rail closures ahead of the CRL opening next year are going to get worse before they get better. Labour Weekend and a month after Christmas will see full shutdowns as the network is readied for the big event, and there will be many more partial shutdowns, too.

…I honestly believe I will die before the bloody CRL opens!

The real issue with our roads is the stealth privatisation and mass surveillance of the new congestion charges…

Technology ‘creep’ concerns over congestion charging cameras

A congestion charging scheme could let police and spy agencies access the footage recorded by automated number plate recognition, critics of surveillance technology are warning.

They are pushing for changes to a bill before parliament, warning it is too loose to protect personal information.

The scheme – to be launched in Auckland next year – would rely on number plate (ANPR) cameras identifying a vehicle to charge the owner a fee for using busy roads at peak times.

…the vast, vast, vast swathe of Auckland has NO IDEA the roads are about to be privatised.

They are just trying to grind out a living during a cost of living crisis in a gridlocked city AND THEN they will be told they are being charged for that.

The bullshit used to support congestion charges are that when they are adopted it sees a decrease in emissions and traffic, but in every single city they have tried this in they have high density public transport, in Auckland we have shit public transport!

Congestion charges will only cause more poverty and misery because there isn’t any fucking public transport infrastructure.

When Aucklanders get blindsided by this, they will scream for blood and demand to know who did it, so your starting hatred should go to the Boomer King, then National, then ACT, then NZF, then Labour and then the Greens.

The Māori Party were the ONLY ONES who refused to vote for this.

As TDB has warned since the last election, National have embarked upon a massive road privatisation agenda while using pot holes and speed limits to keep you distracted you silly stupid hobbits!

…oh you gloriously silly stupid sleepy Hobbits.

I don’t drive, so I don’t have a dog in this fight,  but oh sweet Jesus your screams when you realise it’s all going down.

Once again, you are being tricked into road privatisation.

Watching the coming shock wave of fury from Aucklanders when they are told how much they will have to pay to sit in gridlock will be beautiful.

TDB will be reminding you all who to blame with your rage the moment Auckland realises what is coming.

Happy Days.

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