An artist's impression of a proposed transport system for Auckland called Sky Cabs. Photo / Supplied
An artist's impression of a proposed transport system for Auckland called Sky Cabs. Photo / Supplied
Opinion
COMMENT
The only thing progressing on the proposal for light rail to the airport is the cost. It was to cost $1.5 billion. Without a single spike being driven, some estimates are at $10b.
We should not be surprised.
Professor Bent Flyvbjerg's study of 44 urban rail schemes found onaverage rail construction cost blew out 44 per cent and ridership was half what officials predicted. Urban rail schemes almost always take longer to build, have higher fares and need bigger subsidies than projected.
The City Rail Link tunnel is following the pattern. It is safe to predict that light rail, a fancy name for trams, will also cost far more than the first prediction.
No one has yet explained how trams can go up Dominion Rd without causing massive traffic congestion and bankrupting the local businesses.
When I was Minister of Transport it was clear that while rail has a role, light rail is no answer. Auckland's arterial roads are just too narrow to fit in trams. We need a different solution.
There is a better system than light rail. A revolutionary transport solution that is environmentally friendly, less polluting, carries more people faster and can be built for a third of the cost of light rail. A scheme that can be extended to provide fast public transport for all of Auckland including the North Shore. A transport alternative with fares cheaper than buses or rail and without the need for continuing ratepayer subsidies.
The benefits go on. It is a New Zealand invention. It uses New Zealand technology. We already own the patents.
If we built this alternative it would become in itself a tourist attraction just as San Francisco's cable cars are to that city. It would be the way to see Auckland.
I am referring to "Sky Cabs". It is the concept of an elevated two-way track that can be built alongside arterial roads. Sky Cabs do not require new corridors or tunnels. Unlike monorails, which are noisy trains on rails, Sky Cabs are light, electric driven, very quiet, eight-seater cabs with capacity for another eight passengers standing.
Sky Cabs can pass each other going the other way on two-directional monobeams. Image / Supplied
When picking up passengers, the cabs pull off the track at the station. This makes Sky Cabs an on-demand service. As there are always cabs at the station, you just get into your cab and off you go. Cabs do not have to halt whenever the cab in front is stopped, as trains do. The elevated Sky Cab track can carry a cab every six seconds. As there are multiple cabs, the total capacity is greater than a light rail alternative.
No waiting for a bus or train. No stopping at traffic lights. No stopping other traffic. A Sky Cab from the CBD to the airport will take just 24 minutes, which is much faster than any light rail train or private car.
Sky Cabs are so light they can be "tacked" on the central truss of the harbour bridge. The bridge could hold two Sky Cab tracks. This is the equivalent of another 16 lanes on the bridge.
Engineers and universities have examined Sky Cabs and declared the concept sound.
It is because politicians do not believe New Zealand can create an innovative solution. Civil servants think if Sky Cabs work, General Motors would have invented it. If a Chinese company was proposing Sky Cabs, ministers would be saying "where do we sign?"
The Government is spending $30 million on the business case for light rail. No matter how much they spend, the proposal will never make sense.
Why not scrap the business case studies? We know we need public transport.
Richard Prebble. File photo / Stephen Parker
Why build a light rail just to the airport when, for half the money, we could have a city-wide Sky Cabs network that would go a long way to resolving Auckland's traffic congestion?
Let us stop advocating last-century technology.
Let us demand all of Auckland has a world-leading public transport system, a network of Sky Cabs across the city and harbours.
• Richard Prebble was Minister of Transport from 1984-1987
