Subscribe to RSSEden Albert Community Board Raises NorthWestern Busway
The Eden Albert Community Board is calling on ARTA and NZTA to explain its thinking on whether there should be a Busway alongside the Northwestern motorway.
It has asked representatives of both bodies to attend its next meeting at the end of this month to discuss it.
The call came from the board’s Chairperson Christopher Dempsey who says: “NZTA and ARTA need to be asked the question; is $800m of expenditure going to preserve the opportunities for a clearly physically separate busway lane, and how will this be achieved?”
He raised the issue at the board’s March meeting, giving as background that the NZTA, as part of the SH20 works, will be spending $800m upgrading the Northwestern motorway. Part of the reason is because the causeway is sinking, something that naturally enough occurs when you build on mud flats. Another part is to upgrade the connections between the new SH20 and the existing SH16.
“As the price of oil inches on a steady trend, measured over the past few years or so, upwards, questions need to be raised about the extent to which the $800m will provide future proofing for public transport such as trains or buses.
“The success of the Northern Busway, operating separately alongside the Northern Motorway on the North Shore has enabled us to consider the re-configuration of SH16 for a busway. NZTA is providing for bus ‘shoulder’ lanes rather than a separate bus-way as part of the upgrade, but as members of the Board know from experience, when a bus meets an on or off ramp, the bus has to move back into the general traffic flow as the shoulder is blocked by the ramps.
This action obviates the point of having a bus shoulder (to enable buses with a separate lane to avoid traffic congestion).”
Mr Dempsey said that officers have indicated that because there is a train service running out west, there is no need for a busway.
“Clearly they haven’t asked the good folk of Te Atatu peninsula; the nearest train station is some 6 km’s away! There is a large catchment of commuters who currently have no access to good quality public transport, something that the Northwestern Busway would provide.
“The obvious solution is provision of a separate busway that has its own clear lane unencumbered by on or off ramps. NZTA and ARTA need to be asked the question; is $800m of expenditure going to preserve the opportunities for a clearly physically separate busway lane, and how will this be achieved?”
Meanwhile ARTA is moving on its plans for high frequency bus services in Mt Eden Rd as well as Dominion Rd and will be seeking Auckland City Council endorsement this week.
NB: The person moving the motion was originally wrongly identified because of a council clerical error.
EARLIER: Northern Busway a success story
4 Comments
Great news, now we need a few more councils and community boards asking the same question.
@Matt Well said
Good to see that calls for a northwest busway are gaining momentum! While this may not be the highest priority public transport project in Auckland, the fact that NZTA are going to be spending $800 million on this corridor to widen it, with all those gains likely to be lost to induced demand within a few years, it seems insane to not build something that will have lasting benefits - like a busway.
I’m pretty sure he got the idea from a blog about transport in a city called Auckland…