North Shore Rail Talk

in Motorways Trains by Jon C — September 24, 2010 at 9:07 pm | 2 comments

Comparisons of expanding the North Shore busway and providing rail to the North Shore have been going on behind the scenes.
The last meeting of the Northern Corridor Steering Group heard from a senior transport planner with firm Parsons Brickenhoff on how to cope with busway capacity and discussed issues about adding rail to the mix.
The minutes from the meeting show he told the group that the busway has capacity to handle predicted demand in the foreseeable future but will require additional CBD access.
He suggested this could be through an upgraded Fanshawe Street and / or new access point possibly via Cook Street.
But he said further study was required into preferred options for providing improved bus access into the CBD, taking into account CBD amenity and growth aims, investment into CBD bus infrastructure needed for a wider network and the implications of future rail into the North Shore.

He took them through the issues of rail vs bus.
He said key issues for considering rail into the North Shore were:

• Rail alignment in the CBD and North Shore
• Station spacing and location
• System type: Metro rail vs suburban
• Integration with bus services and park and ride
• Implications for land use and safety issues

NZTA has recommended the group continue to operate as a political sounding board for the new Auckland council and Auckland transport. It has had as members or attendees, representatives from the Auckland, North Shore and Rodney councils, NZTA, ARC, ARTA and KiwiRail. The committee initially was looking at the issues of a further harbour crossing but has since been very involved in issues around the busway.

It was to have been disbanded because of the local government changes.