Achieving an effective and efficient transport system is central to supporting Auckland’s future.
Auckland is home to a third of all New Zealanders. By 2030, almost 2 million people are expected to live in the city, compared to 3 million people living in the rest of New Zealand. Around 400,000 new homes will be needed to house the projected population growth and all of these new homes will need to have access to the transport network.
Auckland’s transport network is complex, handling the demands of freight, general road traffic, public transport, cycling and walking. To support these demands, investment is needed to maintain the existing network, to operate the network more efficiently and for building new infrastructure. Overall, investment from the 2015–18 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) will be around $4,223 million.
Partnerships are central to providing the best transport solutions. One of the Transport Agency’s goals is to integrate one network with KiwiRail and Auckland Transport for customers, connecting them seamlessly to their destinations, regardless of whether they are walking, cycling, driving, or using public transport. With customers at the forefront of transport investors’ thinking, Auckland’s approach to transport planning is to provide more integrated connectivity, both at an inter-regional and local level.
Keeping land transport networks available for people and freight to get where they want to go easily, reliably and safely is a primary objective of transport investment within and beyond Auckland. Over the 2015–18 NLTP period, local roads will receive $614m and state highways $346m for maintenance and renewals. This is an increase of around $35m for the forecast local road spend over the last three-year period.
The Transport Agency is working with Auckland Transport to agree how the transport network will be maintained and operated to deliver the right level of service to meet the different needs on different parts of the network.
Fast-paced growth and a longstanding driving culture in New Zealand have resulted in severe road congestion being an ongoing issue for Auckland. Increasing road capacity cannot be the only solution to deal with road congestion, particularly in a growing city. More options, such as a strong public transport system, are necessary. With an increase of one million bus boardings from 2013 to 2015, Auckland is responding very well to the availability of public transport, with a 30% increase in patronage over the past 10 years.
Close to $1 billion investment from Auckland Transport and the Transport Agency will be spent on public transport services in the 2015–18 NLTP period, as well as around $176m on public transport improvements. This is expected to result in 88 million passenger trips per year over the next three years, representing a further 21% increase in patronage over the 2015–18 NLTP period.
Existing investment in the public transport network is already contributing to an increase in patronage. The first of Auckland’s new electric trains, co-funded by the Transport Agency and Auckland Council, arrived in mid-August 2013. The new trains contributed to the impressive increase in Auckland’s rail patronage (60% between January 2013 and January 2015).
A ferry service connecting Hobsonville Point and Beach Haven with the Auckland downtown terminal was delivered in 2013 at a cost of $1.2m, increasing the total number of Auckland’s ferry trips by 5% and contributing to an increase of 100,000 monthly ferry boardings. This facility expands the reach of water-based public transport and adds to the city’s multi-modal integrated public transport network. The Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) package of projects is well underway, with the $17.5m Panmure station and bus interchange officially opened in January 2014. This project contributed to the overall increase in bus patronage. As an example, the bus boardings for March 2015 were up by one million compared to those in March 2013.
More significant public transport investments are planned for the 2015–18 NLTP period including the Otahuhu Bus/Train Interchange, Te Atatu Motorway Bus Interchange, AMETI Stage 2A Panmure to Pakuranga Busway, and the public transport component of East West Connections.
Auckland has also been using Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) tools to design and plan a simpler, better-connected bus network that offers more frequent and reliable access to more destinations. PTOM is about creating a collaborative partnership between the public transport operator and Auckland Transport to incentivise improved services to the community. The tendering of these services under new partnering contracts will start soon and roll out through a two-year period to provide improved public transport services for customers and increase patronage.
A key part of all Auckland’s public transport plans is greater integration. The network is designed to enable interchanges between buses, the new electric trains and ferry services. Over the past three years the Transport Agency and Auckland Transport made a significant investment in the development and roll-out of the HOP integrated ticketing scheme. The roll-out has been very successful with over half a million cards issued to date and almost three quarters of public transport patrons using a HOP card. In conjunction, Auckland Transport plans to introduce integrated fares so that travellers can make seamless journeys across public transport modes and services.
Approximately 50 million tonnes of road freight originates in Auckland, 80% of which remains within the Auckland region (1% is moved to the north and the remaining 19% is moved south). It is critical to the region’s economy that the network supports this high freight demand and allows businesses to reliably predict travel times.
The proposed investment being made in the East-West Connections Project will provide more efficient, predictable and safe freight journeys to and from the Onehunga-Penrose area in South Auckland. The area has high volumes of freight traffic, with around 6,000 truck movements a day in Church Street alone. Delays in freight travel can create significant costs that are passed on to freight consumers and producers. Improving this critical transport link will help lift the economic performance of not only Auckland but New Zealand as a whole.
The East-West Connections Project would also improve the movement of freight between road and rail. Providing more timely and predictable road access to and from the rail network will help more freight reach its destination on time. The rail terminals in the Onehunga-Penrose area help load and unload around 4.6 million tonnes of rail freight each year, which is moved between Auckland, the rest of the New Zealand and the world. Much of this rail freight is moved by road for either the first or last leg of its journey, which means that efficient north to south and east to west road connections are vital for moving freight to where it is needed, when it is needed.
Ports also play an important role in New Zealand’s freight economy. Their interconnectivity with the rest of the transport network is vital. Approximately one million containers are moved by Ports of Auckland every year. More than 90% of the sea cargo that comes into Ports of Auckland stays in Auckland.
Across New Zealand around $3.2 billion is expected to be invested in the transport network over the next three years to deliver improved safety outcomes. Most of this expenditure will be directed at infrastructure improvements through the capital works programme, often where safety is one of the outcomes, along with congestion relief and travel time improvements. A proportion of this investment targets specific safety improvements, including high-risk intersections, pedestrian and cycling safety initiatives, speed management and education programmes.
The investment in Auckland regional road improvements could prevent 16 deaths and serious injuries per annum.
To support this investment the Transport Agency will be working with Auckland Transport and NZ Police to focus on a number of safety priorities including high-risk roads and intersections, vulnerable road users - such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists - excessive or inappropriate speeds and alcoholimpaired driving.
Over the 2015-18 NLTP period the Transport Agency and Auckland Transport’s collective focus will be to invest in infrastructure, facilities and programmes of work that provide a safer environment for all road users, in which the chances of someone being seriously injured or killed on the network are drastically reduced. On the state highway network, a key focus will be to provide safer roads and roadsides on identified high-risk routes. The Auckland Region has 35 of the country’s most high-risk intersections. A programme of works is in place to progressively improve the safety of these through a combination of investment to upgrade the intersections, and enhanced enforcement through the use of speed cameras and, in some instances, red light cameras.
Investment in the region’s local road safety programme in the next three years is expected to be around $68m, split between speed management, minor improvements, safety around schools and other targeted safety improvements. In the same period over $4m will be invested in pedestrian safety initiatives, around $8m in cycling safety initiatives and around $1m in motorcyclist safety initiatives.
Cycling in Auckland will be a key contributor to improving travel options in the city and increasing reliability across the transport network. With a focus on liveability and sustainability, Auckland Transport, Auckland Council and the Transport Agency are working together to create a future where anyone can feel comfortable riding a bike.
With a 20% increase in cyclist journeys and a 43% increase in the morning peak cycling count since 2011, cycling has become a transport mode of choice for an increasing number of people in Auckland, whether it is to get to work, to school or to the local shops. In response to this trend and to encourage more people to cycle, the next three years will see a focus on delivering key sections of the Auckland Cycle Network.
The Auckland cycling programme will deliver new infrastructure and improve existing facilities for current and future cyclists. The Urban Cycleways Fund will accelerate the programme and help to deliver safe facilities in the city centre, key corridors to the east and west, as well as integrating cycling facilities with the New Lynn and Glen Innes public transport interchanges.
Significant cycling investment will also be made on the Northern Corridor and the North Western and Waterview Cycleways. New cycling facilities will also be constructed as part of major road projects, including the Te Atatu Road Upgrade and Southern Corridor improvements.
Education and promotional programmes will be progressed further to support any large scale infrastructure programmes. These will encourage more people to cycle more often.
Most of the planned cycleways include high quality shared paths that will also benefit walkers.
The total cycling and walking investment in Auckland in the 2015-18 NLTP period is forecast to be $91m. This includes $28m of the Urban Cycleways Fund.
Over the 2015–18 NLTP period Auckland will see significant investment.
Regionally significant activities that are likely to be considered for construction funding in the years 2018-21 include:
