Subscribe to RSSPakuranga Busway May Be Sooner
Timeframes for the Ameti transport project - especially plans for a Pakuranga busway, are likely to be brought forward.
Auckland Transport CEO David Warburton said this was a good example of how the new Auckland Transport model could best work as a “one (transport) network approach” including involving NZTA (instead of working through the old cluster of local bodies and transport -related bodies).
“I suspect different timeframes will come through, once we have done the math,” he said at today’s Auckland Transport board meeting.
This came after a presentation about the project. The board was told the locals were enthusiastic about the busway during a recent open day but concerned at talk of a six-year timeframe.
Auckland Transport chair Mark Ford said he was very enthusiastic about the busway plan and that this south-east area of Auckland was “badly disenfranchised” when it came to public transport.
Central bus lane concept | Auckland Transport
The project was driven by the old Auckland City Council, Manukau council and ARTA and conceived in 2005 after the failed John Banks- promoted Eastern Transport Corridor scheme - although project organisers insist this is a “completely different animal.”
Auckland Transport council-appointed director Mike Lee said he too supported the busway concept but noted that he has been “singularly unimpressed” with progress so far on the project from his observations from a distance.
“We have to move on it now. The consultants have made enough out of it in the last six years and it’s now time to do something tangible,” he told the meeting.
The meeting also heard that NZTA also shared frustration with the slow timeframe for the project and was keen to see it progressed.
In 2009 Ameti was divided into 6 packages of work:
- Panmure Corridor (construct 2011-2019)
- Sylvia Park bus lanes (construct 2011-2012)
- Pakuranga interim provements (construct 2011)
- Pakuranga, Ti Rakau & Reeves (construct 2015-2021)
- Transport modelling (2010-2014+)
- Mt Wellington area investigations (designation 2012-2015)
1 Comments
Sounds good - certainly true. I love what they have shown and proposed now, but the design certainly seems to be worth 6 months of work, not 6 years. It seems to me like the project just drifted without anyone to champion it.