Auckland to find out later this year whether it gets a light rail system

Thursday, 9 June 2016

An artist's impression of a light rail system on Auckland's Queen Street.

Auckland transport officials hope to know within a few months whether the city will get a light rail transport system.

A report due around August is expected to confirm that Auckland needs a mass transit system to tackle worsening congestion in its central suburbs., and that it's likely to be light rail.

It's now quicker to catch the bus from the North Shore than it is to drive, and officials say improved public transport will encourage yet more Aucklanders out of their cars.

Auckland's bus network is close to capacity on main arterial routes such as Dominion Road and Mt Eden Road.

Symonds St in the central city where many of the routes converge already carries 140 buses an hour, Auckland Transport's chief strategy officer Peter Clark said.

The proportion of people travelling into the city centre by public transport has risen sharply since 2001.

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'Even with double decker buses we will need around 184 buses an hour down Symonds St in the next 10 years.

'Everyone's accepted there is a problem.'

Transport authorities have been working for the past four years on how to address the issue, Clark said.

'Out of that… we really strongly believed that light rail was the best way of solving the bus congestion on those routes which were not served by the rail network.'

However in the meantime Auckland Council signed its first ever transport agreement with the government to prioritise spending on transport projects over the next 30 years.

The accord, known as the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP), is due to deliver its final report in three months.

It's expected ATAP will confirm Auckland needs a mass transit solution, what type of system it will be, and when it will be constructed, Clark said.

Light rail is expensive.

The initial route proposed from the city centre down Dominion Road will cost about $1 billion, and Auckland Transport is also looking at routes on Sandringham, Mt Eden and Manukau Roads.

It's considered different options, including extending traditional bus rapid transit such as the Northern Busway, and a surface system using technology which enables the buses to run within a few centimetres of each other.

But building more busways would require an underground bus station and tunnels in the city centre and cost between $5b and $9bn, Clark said.

It's also looked at systems such as in Rouen, France, where optically guided buses follow a line painted on the road.

However there are suggestions the technology is not working well and may be pulled out, Clark said.

In addition it would require a lot of strengthening of the roads, which would have to be done for light rail anyway.

The final decision for Auckland will hinge on light rail, 'or is there some surface bus-based mass transit solution that would be able to provide the same capacity and service levels as light rail, and the jury's still out there', he said.

'We haven't found anything yet.'

One thing officials do know is that when public transport is improved passengers use it, Clark said.

In 2005 just 5000 people caught the bus from the North Shore into the city in the morning peak. By 2015 that number had reached 10,500.

The Northern Busway was now the most efficient way to get into the city.

While a car trip from Albany in the mornings can take up to 65 minutes, the bus will take 30 minutes, Clark said.

LIGHT RAIL FACTS AND FIGURES

- Auckland's population will hit 1.6m in July

- Half of the 80,000 people who come into the CBD each day now use public transport

- Light rail can carry 18,000 people an hour, compared with 2500 people on a bus.