On a long and windy road to keep Auckland moving

By MATHEW DEARNALEY transport reporter

Auckland's new transport supremo, Australian import Alan Thompson, has hit the ground running.

Or more accurately, cycling, walking, riding trains, buses, ferries - and occasionally resorting to driving.

Mr Thompson is chief executive of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, which started business yesterday and is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport and making recommendations to state-run Transfund on local roading.

The new body was formed at the Government's behest, although under Auckland Regional Council auspices, as a condition of a $1.62 billion boost over 10 years to tackle the region's transport woes.

About 50 council staff have transferred to the authority, and negotiations are continuing with city and district councils to add rail and ferry terminals operator Auckland Regional Transport Network to the fold.

Despite the size of Mr Thompson's task, which he has spent a month assessing in the field as well as from behind a desk, he is remarkably positive and upbeat.

However, tough assignments are nothing new for this former engineer and veteran public servant. As chief of the Australian Capital Territory's urban services department, he led a taskforce to help Canberra communities recover from the bushfires last year that destroyed almost 500 homes and killed four people.

He is already living the ideal multi-faceted transport future for Auckland, finding his way round by bicycle and on foot, as well as public transport.

It is not just for show. Mr Thompson and his partner, Ann, are avid mountain-bikers who have made weekend expeditions to Waiheke Island and Woodhill Forest.

But he says trying out transport modes is part of his job.

"I need to get the feel for what it's like in traffic - on a bike, or in a train or bus."

The couple have bought a house handy to the Orakei railway station, but Mr Thompson also expects to drive to work occasionally, to be able to attend out-of-office meetings as well as to share the frustrations facing Auckland motorists.

Although he sees public transport as vital to reducing peak-flow traffic, he promises to support the completion of important road links.

"It is a strange situation in Auckland in which some of the key linkages appear to have been stalled," he says, recalling the puzzlement of a visiting transport expert over a taxi trip from Auckland Airport that involved wending through quiet suburbs.

"He thought the cabbie was taking him to see his mum."

But Mr Thompson says residents of a region that has experienced spectacular growth over a quarter of a century cannot afford to keep clogging its roads with cars carrying an average 1.2 people each.

"There is no doubt a city this size can do better by giving better choices to people. "Motorways are a good way of getting around in the off-peak, but each lane can only take 2000 cars an hour at most."

He is confident the planned $290 million Northern Busway will be able to carry up to 12,000 people an hour each way, and points to the Sydney rail system's feat of keeping the 2000 Olympic Games humming by carrying up to 50,000 people on each track.

Improving customer service on Auckland's public transport to entice more people out of their cars, through measures ranging from combating vandalism and graffiti to ensuring services run on time, will be an early priority.

Mr Thompson also promises heavy involvement by the transport body in "travel demand management" such as walking schoolbuses and travel plans in which firms will be encouraged to stagger start times to avoid traffic peaks.

Although it will be for politicians to decide whether to introduce "congestion charges" to discourage driving at peak times, Mr Thompson does not think Auckland's traffic woes are severe enough to justify a London-style scheme, which costs motorists $13 a day.

"I can't believe anything like that would be tolerated in Auckland.

"It is something to be worked through in the political process, but our starting position is very much on the carrot rather than enforcement side."

One of the new authority's first big tasks will be to consider a report that consultants are due to complete by April, on whether to electrify the Auckland rail system.

WHAT HE SAYS

Auckland's new transport chief on

* Auckland roads: "Some of the key linkages appear to have been stalled."

* Public transport: "A city this size can do better by giving better choices to people."

* Road tolls during rush hour: "I can't believe anything like that would be tolerated."