I am aware of someone ‘in the know’ who has said that the Government has gone ahead with the dopey light rail idea on the basis of ‘it’s their philosophy’. The other reason is that (as Heather du Plessis-Allan pointed out), this was Jacinda Ardern’s promise which she made in 2017. Given that she has already broken so many promises, I can’t help but wonder, what in the scheme of things is one more?
No one in their right mind thinks this piece of nonsense will be completed in eleven years time for the eye-watering $15 billion announced on Friday. It will cost far more per kilometre than the 600 million that the total amount represents. As we know from the CRL experience, costs will quite likely double or treble. The upshot of that will be no money for the more important transport projects such as a second harbour crossing, Mill Road in the south and a western busway.
Michael Wood, the Transport Minister, talked total twaddle when interviewed by HDPA on Friday evening. He said the light rail will move 12,000 people an hour in and out of the city – that’s 144,000 people between 6am and 6pm each weekday. I have to admit to being completely unaware that so many people from the areas served by the proposed light rail had the daily need to come into the city. That equates to more than the entire population of Tauranga coming into the CBD every weekday.
That is a full double-decker bus load (100 people) entering the CBD every 2 minutes.
I have googled Auckland Transport and viewed the various bus timetables for the areas around which the tram will serve. Dominion Road gets a bus every 2 to 3 minutes at peak time and every 5 minutes throughout the day. New North Road gets a bus every 2 to 3 minutes at peak and approximately every 15 minutes off peak. Sandringham Road, where it is proposed the tram will run underground, gets a bus every 2 to 3 minutes at peak and approximately every 15 minutes off peak. Mt. Eden Road has a bus every 2 to 3 minutes at peak and every five minutes off peak.
It is proposed the tram will run every five minutes which at peak time is less frequent than the current bus service which serves a greater area. Off peak the bus service in most of the area is as frequent as the tram. I googled the AA travel time and distance calculator to find the shortest distance and fastest time driving from Wynyard Quarter to the airport. It is 28 kms and 30 mins through the Waterview Tunnel. This of course was one of the main drivers (pardon the pun) for building the tunnel.
According to Michael Wood, the tram will halve the travel time which means he’s saying the tram will do the journey in 15 minutes with 18 stops. How is this remotely possible? I was unaware it was a bullet tram.
While it’s probably a bit of an unfair comparison I, via the AA, calculated the driving time from the Wynyard Quarter to the airport via the Sandringham Road shops. The answer was 35 minutes, only 5 minutes more than going via the Waterview tunnel. You can see how this is turning out to be an absolute crock of an idea.
Another Michael who doesn’t deal in reality is Mr Wilson, one of the brilliant stable of Herald journalists. In Saturday’s Canvas, Michael has this gorgeous picture of a tram on Dominion Road in 2030. I must admit it is a very attractive one of a tree-lined street with tram tracks laid on grass. Michael notes the lines run down the middle, with a single lane for cars on either side, plus bike lanes and footpaths and loading zones too.
At this point Michael deviates from reality, i.e. loses the plot. He says there’s car parking on the side streets but nobody much uses it. Nobody needs to drive on Dominion Road anymore (I am trying to keep a straight face while writing this) because those modern trams are so frequent, so cheap (how does he know) and so cool. You can hop on and off when and where you like. Really? There are only 18 stops Michael.
All the retailers are going to join in the tree planting and there will be culinary delights from one end of Dominion Road to the other. I note that in his namesake’s Michelangelo type picture, there’s not a shop to be seen. Michael points out this concept does exist elsewhere and gives numerous examples including Parramatta. Dominion Road is Michael’s preferred option as per his dreamy picture. He wonders at $15 billion whether the other will ever get built. I can agree with him on that.
Back to Michael Wood for whom I have a question. Is this tram designed mainly for his constituents in Mt. Roskill or to get people to the airport? If it is the former it is political and pointless because he’ll get their vote anyway. If it’s primarily to get people to the airport it is equally pointless. SkyBus, currently not operating due to Ardern’s dictatorship, used to take on average 40 minutes from the airport to the city. They also ran a service up the Northern Busway. In the CBD they did hotel pickups and took travellers to the airport bus. How convenient is that? Or for total convenience, you can drive.
The next point of contention is the suggestion of a tax for those along the route who will supposedly benefit from this maniacal rush of blood to the cranium. This is akin to the UK where you pay a licence fee to the BBC even if you don’t watch them. That nonsense is now under review. Not everyone will use the tram so why should they pay? Michael, in a second rush of blood, thinks this will possibly have the scheme in the black! Where, in God’s name, do they find these morons?
According to Michael Wood, this is part of a larger interconnected transport project including another harbour crossing which he says they have brought forward. It, along with Mill Road in the South, should be ahead of this half baked idea.
In conclusion, the current bus service is more frequent at peak times for commuters, SkyBus is a better and more convenient public transport option as is the car as you don’t have to carry luggage to the tram stop. Both will take only slightly longer than the tram which can’t possibly do the journey in 15 to 20 minutes. So whether a commuter or a traveller, I suggest bus or car is a cheaper and preferable answer. Wood and Wilson will read this and say, “but he hasn’t mentioned carbon emissions or climate change.”
No, I haven’t. Covering one dumb topic is exhausting enough, never mind three!
