Chief Executive of Auckland Transport Dean Kimpton. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Chief Executive of Auckland Transport Dean Kimpton. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Opinion by Dean Kimpton
Dean Kimpton is the Chief Executive of Auckland Transport.
THREE KEY FACTS:
Auckland’s congestion will cost $2.6 billion annually by 2026, with March being the busiest month.
The City Rail Link aims to reduce congestion, enabling up to 24,000 passengers per hour per direction.
Auckland Transport targets 95 million public transport trips this year, with significant investments in infrastructure.
Aucklanders tell us their main transport bugbear is congestion.
We get it, and like you we see it on the roads and public transport services. And it costs – Auckland’s traffic congestion problem will cost us $2.6 billion a year by 2026. We readily see the impacts in March which is consistently our busiest time of year. No doubt you have noticed a longer wait on your commute, or you’re standing on the bus. With everyone back to work, university and school we experience the sheer number of people travelling at the same time, getting where they need to be. Our busiest days on public transport this year have all been this month, with some days more than 385,000 trips being taken.
As Auckland grows, so does our need to move more people and goods more easily.
Some interesting numbers. This year we are targeting over 95 million trips on public transport. We travel some 16 billion kilometres on our roads each year. We also measure average journey times on main roads at peak hours. At the moment it averages at 23 to 24 minutes over 10km, but varies significantly across Auckland. Our target is no more than 20 minutes for that 10km journey – but that is deeply challenging as Auckland grows, and we are constrained for road space.
I will cover public transport and the City Rail Link shortly. But other investments include smarter, more dynamic use of our roads. This is all about maximising and making the most of what we already have. Initiatives that use AI to enhance traffic management, increasing the use of transit and bus lanes, to give greater control over who can work in the road space especially in peak travel times, and time of use charging or demand management. All these, and more, add up to new ways to use our finite road space, and, funding better and minimising disruption wherever we can.
Changing how roads are used at different times of the day is a big part of moving more people around in our existing road space, rather than building more roads.
In the urban environment, 30% of our land area is already used for transport. Auckland has limited funding and even less space, so we need to leverage fully what we have. Walking and biking also remain critical elements of our overall network.
CRL is New Zealand’s largest transport project.
That brings us to the City Rail Link (CRL), New Zealand’s largest transport project. And it is a big key in addressing the congestion challenge we have.
The rail network will then be capable of carrying up to 24,000 passengers per hour in each direction through the city centre, with the ability to further increase capacity as more people use it to move around. That equals less congestion giving us great public transport service and making the roads available for those who truly need them.
City Rail Link Ltd is close to finishing the construction. Twin train tunnels up to 42 metres below the city, connect downtown’s Waitematā Station (Britomart) with the Western Line at the new Maungawhau Station (formerly Mt Eden). This link will make it easier for people to move around Auckland and to get into the city centre thanks to two brand new underground stations – Te Waihorotiu Station, with entrances near the Sky Tower and Aotea Centre, as well as Karanga-a-Hape Station on Karangahape Rd.
Auckland city bus passengers. Photo / Michael Craig
CRL benefits the whole rail network by getting rid of the dead end at Waitematā Station (Britomart). Trains will be able to travel through Britomart, increasing the capacity of the whole rail network, improving resilience and enabling a new configuration of Auckland’s train lines with additional routes and connections to more places.
City Rail Link Ltd is now in the final stretch of its work – focusing on testing, commissioning and integrating thousands of individual new systems with the existing network and testing trains through the tunnels.
Auckland Transport and KiwiRail are responsible for opening and operating this new part of the rail network.
International experience shows these final phases of a complex new railway project are the most challenging, with a number of potential scenarios to plan for.
There’s a lot of work happening across the whole transport network to be ready to open City Rail Link. AT, CRL Ltd and KiwiRail are working together to complete the Rail Network Rebuild and upgrade projects, test and integrate new CRL systems, update technology essential for rail operations and complete a lot of work related to providing a great customer service. For example, driver recruitment and training, planning the detail of new train operations then updating timetables and maps, adding 23 new electric trains to our fleet and completing safety tests and certifications.
One of the most important things that must happen before opening to the public, are large numbers of practice runs across the entire rail network of the new, more frequent services, on rail lines operating completely differently to how the Eastern, Western and Southern lines do today. Opening City Rail Link, means constant rehearsals, essential to ensure passengers have reliable journeys and a great experience from day one.
With that in mind, trains will be more reliable and run every five to eight minutes at peak across much of the network. Journey times will be cut, for example by up to 25 minutes from Henderson. The number of people within a 30-minute train ride of the city centre will double.
A key ingredient in making all this happen is our frequent transport network. This is growing too, with over 40 frequent bus routes now serving Aucklanders with buses running at least every 15 minutes from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week. Over 1.5 million people have used new ways to pay, by tagging on to a bus, train or ferry with a credit card or smart device since it launched in November. More Aucklanders now have more choices to get around the city. And while we are focused on using roads differently, getting ready for CRL next year is something all of AT is gearing up for.
In 2026, when CRL opens, a range of rail, bus, road and city centre transport improvements will come together making it easier to connect to friends and family, places to eat and drink, go out to music, theatre and sports, as well as get to work.
This will benefit all Aucklanders.
City Rail Link, other public transport projects like Eastern Busway, and roading improvements will work together to make it easier for people, freight, and those walking and cycling to move around our region.
Currently, our rail and bus services speak a different language. Rail uses a 20-minute frequency, and most buses use 15 minutes. When City Rail Link opens there’ll be more trains each hour, due to an increased 15-minute frequency between 7am and 7pm, seven days a week. Ahead of City Rail Link we’ll change the bus timetables so they connect seamlessly with trains.
That will mean passengers won’t have to worry about the timetable when connecting between bus and rail any more, because you’ll be able to show up and not wait long.
City Rail Link and the other transport projects across the region will give Aucklanders more choice – leaving our roads a bit more freed up for those who need to drive.
This will enable what matters most to Aucklanders: a convenient, well-connected, accessible transport system that will help people enjoy our region now and into the future.
We expect to see the benefit of all these investments turn up in reduced congestion, meaning we all get some of our day back and contribute to a positive, growing Auckland economy.
