Auckland's biggest transport fail isn't the damaged harbour bridge
Tuesday, 22 September 2020
OPINION: Auckland is in the grip of its worst-ever transport infrastructure fail and guess what – it’s not the partial, temporary closure of its harbour bridge.
The bridge is at half capacity after a freakish gust of wind tipped a truck into the structure. It could be back to 75 per cent normal within a week, but won’t be fully sorted for several more.
The chaos due to the partial loss of one of two harbour crossings has been enough to prompt widespread calls to accelerate a perhaps $10 billion plan to build a transit tunnel under the harbour.
At the same time, Auckland’s biggest investment in public transport is crippled for six months due to a maintenance fail, and after a flurry on the day it was announced, has vanished from the headlines.
**READ MORE:
* Auckland rail disruption: 'Handful' of tracks under close safety watch
* Auckland's Southern train line to close for weeks, just as Eastern line reopens
* Fresh calls for extra Auckland harbour crossing as bridge damage shows city's vulnerability
**
The region’s rail network is undergoing rolling closures while workers urgently upgrade parts of track that have suffered extensive damage. Some trains are running at half speed and others are not running at all.
Could it simply be that the bridge is generating the noise because it involves cars and those who believe they have no alternative but to drive them, while the rail repairs involve people who choose not to drive, or can’t?
Over the past 15 years, about $1.5 billion has been spent upgrading Auckland’s once-endangered rail network into something more befitting of a first-world city.
A further $4.5 billion is being spent now leading to the opening in 2024 of an underground rail loop, the City Rail Link, the biggest single public transport investment in the country’s history.
Trips taken on rail should have hit 22 million this year, before Covid-19 and the rail shutdown.
At the same time as motoring interests fume about jammed motorways, the rail investment is limping –trains are running at a mere 40kmh and less frequently than normal.
A report commissioned by track owner KiwiRail and commuter train owner Auckland Transport (AT) and obtained by Stuff, pointed the finger at historic sub-world-class maintenance in a time of traffic growth.
There’s an urgent programme to replace about 25 per cent of the rails, fix and upgrade others, and keep a close eye on known weak spots, one of which failed disruptively before planned repairs could be done.
Commuters on the Eastern line lost all train services for four weeks and work has now shifted to the southern line, with the first of three four-weeks closures also shutting the Onehunga line.
Then it goes west, and over Christmas the entire network will close for four weeks when major future-focussed upgrades will also be done by a crew of up to 500 from around the country.
New electric trains – $132 million worth – should have been progressively entering service by now to cope with projected patronage growth, but part of the full fleet will remain parked up until perhaps February.
By the time the rolling complete shutdowns of sections of the Southern line are only half-way through, Auckland’s Harbour Bridge should be fully repaired and tales of horror disruption mere barbecue banter.
The half-speed trains, the bus replacement services, the lost revenue and patronage growth will just be transport wallpaper, while the debate about the timing of a cross-harbour tunnel continues.