Greetings to the Wellington light rail email list.
(Seeing this heads-up for the first time? Probably because of contact we made re light rail, urbanism, Lets Get Wellington Moving, Congestion Free Wellington, etc – but email me back if you don’t want to get any more.)
These newsletters appear personally from me, Brent Efford, in my role as the NZ Agent for the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), just as BCC emails and attachments sent from my computer. No hate-spreading Facebook or other so-called ’social’ media involved! The amount of content depends on the time I have for research and writing.
Black and red type is my composition, green is copied.
What is the LRTA?: SEE 6 BELOW!
1 TRAX lunch: this Friday, 26 April
Our regular lunch get-togethers, on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month, at TRAX, Wellington Railway Station, 12.00. It may be a holiday for many, but our next TRAX lunch is still this Friday, 26 April.
2 Canberra’s light rail opening – and Wellington’s shame
After only four years from the go-ahead, Australia’s capital opened the first stage of its light rail network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail_in_Canberra on Easter Monday – with firm promises of more to come – soon. Some links:
Canberra Metro light rail services up and running https://www.railjournal.com/passenger/light-rail/canberra-metro-light-rail-services-up-and-running/
Barr spruiks future lines as Canberra light rail opens https://www.railexpress.com.au/barr-spruiks-future-lines-as-canberra-light-rail-opens/
Canberra's light rail takes its first passengers https://www.canberratimes..com.au/story/6079333/the-moment-we-grow-up-canberra-light-rail-takes-its-first-passengers/?cs=14225
… and so on.
The difference between Australia’s capital city and New Zealand’s is stark as far as public transport is concerned, and rightly an embarrassment on this side of the Tasman. I have visited Canberra only once, in September 2010 (learning of the first Christchurch earthquake on the hotel TV). At that time the idea of light rail for the city was at the same stage as it was in Wellington in about 1990: a gleam in the Green Party’s eye, seeking wider political support.
It took only another five years for the Canberra line to gather enough (mainly Labor) support to get the go-ahead, and four years to build and commission. And that was in a city without an existing electric rail network, complete with stabling and maintenance depot, just needing a city rail link.
Meanwhile Wellington’s light rail potential has been steadily denied and crushed, as has been documented ad nauseam in these newsletters. Rhetorical political support from the current central Government, and a study visit to Canberra light rail by a few progressive councillors, has not been enough to counter the power of ‘roads first’ and the rail haters who dominate the media.
Hope that Lets Get Wellington Moving will produce progress has faded – the release of its result before Easter never happened and it seems fairly certain that ‘roads first’ and ‘no rail extension’ will be its recommendations whenever the report sees the light of day – with maybe a bit of ‘better cycling and walking’ greenwash to keep some in the sustainable transport lobby happy, but doing nothing to get regional commuter traffic off the state highways.
The question of why Wellington has been so backward in its recent public transport planning is difficult to answer, but anti-rail politics in the GWRC and the previous central Government, lack of vision and rail competence on the part of key council officers and consultants, indifference to PT on the part of the peripheral cities of the region, and a business community which seems to have no interest in anything but motorways and parking, have all played a part.
3 New life for Canberra transport as rail line opens
An Australian Financial Review article, normally behind a paywall, just before the new line opened:
Jenny Wiggins
Infrastructure Reporter
Apr 17, 2019 — 4.36pm
The ACT government opened itself to attack when it took the unusual step of releasing its full business case for its proposed light rail project.
Back in 2014, some economists said the proposal, then forecast to cost $783 million with $1.20 of estimated benefits for every $1 invested, was "a poor project". The Grattan Institute, a think tank, said the light rail line would be no better than a rapid bus transit system and would cost more than twice as much.
But when the first stage of Canberra light rail line opens on Easter Saturday, the cost of its design and construction will be within a revised-down budget of $707 million (including contingency costs) – and it will beat Sydney's troubled CBD light rail project, which has been beset by cost blow-outs and long delays, to the start line.
Canberra Transport director-general Emma Thomas credits the decision to make the complete business case publicly available with contributing to the "good result".
"As people were bidding on the project, they could see all of our assumptions and how we’d costed it," Ms Thomas told AFR Weekend.
"What had gone into assessing the business case for the project was fully transparent – not just to the public but particularly for the people who were tendering."
Governments are usually reluctant to release full business cases, which contain a breakdown of estimated costs, because they are wary of being held to account if their forecasts do not stack up.
The Canberra light rail line – the city's first rail network and its biggest infrastructure project to date – has been built as a public-private partnership (PPP) with a consortium that includes CPB Contractors, John Holland and Spanish train manufacturer CAF.
John Holland chief executive Joe Barr said the release of business cases by governments with limited track records in PPPs gave the private sector more confidence. "It shows that the project is ready to go," he said.
Mr Barr said the so-called "availability PPP" model used to build Canberra's light rail line had encouraged all parties to focus on delivering value for money, and that there had been a "pro-active and effective" partnership between the ACT government and the private sector. Monthly payments for operating and maintaining the light rail system will be made "available" to the consortium for 20 years – but only after it starts taking passengers.
Unusually, the light rail has been run mostly by women. Females are in charge of all stages of the project, starting with ACT Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris at the top and including project directors, the head of public transport operations, the head of design and architecture, the head of technical advisory, the head of legal advisory, the head of transaction management and CAF's engineering leader.
Ms Thomas said there was no deliberate policy to hire women, but that having so many females on the team helped the government establish and maintain good relationships.
"When you're creating a city and doing something that's so critical to a city, then people with all skills and talents are needed," she said.
The initial 12 kilometres of light rail running from the northern suburb of Gungahlin into the city centre has had delays – it was scheduled to be finished at the end of last year – and businesses along the route have complained they have lost money while the track was being built.
It also remains to be seen how popular the light rail line will be with Canberrans, many of whom live in the suburbs and drive cars.
But Ms Thomas says the rail line would increase "the economic energy" of Canberra by encouraging the development of new housing and businesses, including hotels and restaurants, along its route. "It's as much a project about urban renewal as it is around transport," she said.
And Transport Canberra's deputy director-general, Duncan Edghill, says the government is not worried about it becoming a white elephant.
"One of the bigger risks we face is not that people won't want to ride the system, but that it will prove to be more popular that we expected," he said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has already committed $200 million in federal funding for the second stage of the line – estimated to cost up to $1.6 billion – if Labor is elected on May 18, even though the business case has not been released.
The population of the ACT is projected to reach between 479,200 and 510,000 people in 2027 and exceed Tasmania's population by the year 2040, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The ACT government says it will keep almost three-quarters of new housing planned for Canberra within the city's existing urban footprint, creating a denser city.
4 Australian light rail update
Canberra isn’t the only place where it is all happening, light-rail-wise. Newcastle NSW opened its new line on 15 February – wire free, using onboard capacitor/battery technology – and existing systems in Adelaide, Gold Coast and Sydney are all actively being extended. Plus, of course, Melbourne has the world’s largest tram system. All of them have lessons for New Zealand.
A rail Express leaflet, attached, summarises the current situation.
5 Letters that never made it
Three recent letters to the Dominion Post which never made it into print – but may as well get a modest second life in this newsletter:
Lower Hutt light rail
The Lower Hutt Mayor’s hand-wringing over the delay to funding a ‘Melling interchange’ (18/4/19) shows just how backward and car-focussed the peripheral cities of the region are. No consideration of future generations and the existential environmental issues that the Dominion Post has been highlighting in its Talk Wellington transport coverage.
In 2000 the Lower Hutt City Council commissioned SKM consultants to design a light rail link from Melling to Waterloo through central Lower Hutt. As part of a regional light rail scheme proposed in 1999, that could have saved Lower Hutt from being just another dreary, pedestrian-unfriendly suburban centre clogged with cars, roundabouts and car parks.
The SKM report was buried with no follow-up and the Mayor now proposes no alternative to continuing the destructive cycle of more roads, more cars, more congestion and more emissions. So 'last-century'!
Brent Efford
NZ Agent, Light Rail Transit Assn
18/4/19
Diverted by magical thinking
Talk Wellington’s recent series on transport is a welcome fresh approach compared to what we have been used to.
Reducing cars and making the central city more people-friendly is an admirable and long-overdue aim.
Unfortunately, they seem unaware of how to go about this.
A southern-Wellington-City-only “mass transit” spine may reduce the number of cars originating from the eastern suburbs, but will be ineffective in discouraging traffic from the north of greater Wellington (where 75% of the population lives), especially once Transmission Gully is opened.
That mass transit system must be light rail which is compatible with and joined to the existing suburban system – which is already quite ‘light rail-like’ – eventually allowing all of the region’s half-million to make a seamless rail journey into and through central Wellington, where 77% of our economy happens.
The article and accompanying “artistic view” indicate that Talk Wellington have made exactly the same mistakes as the discredited Public Transport Spine Study which lay behind the current bustastrophe.
The March issue of the Light Rail Transit Association’s magazine Tramways & Urban Transit tells us that 2019 is likely to see a record number of new light rail systems opening. The rest of the world is leaving us behind, while we are diverted by magical thinking about “trackless trams” (Trackless trams gain favour, April 13) and autonomous cars (Letters, April 13).
Brent Efford
NZ Agent, Light Rail Transit Assn
15/4/19
Use parking land first
As the owner of a ‘character’ home in the Aro Valley, I am naturally a bit apprehensive that the City Council might have its eyes on my property for high-rise apartment development (3 April).
Wellington has one of the highest rates of CBD parking provision in the world. Why not use some of this land, currently storing cars from the outer region because the current incomplete rail system is too inconvenient, for housing first?
All it would take is the integrated regional light rail system proposed in the 1999 Regional Land Transport Strategy. A one-seat rail ride from park+ride lots in Porirua and the Hutt Valley to the Golden Mile and the Regional Hospital would do more to ease congestion than all the ‘more roading’ strategies currently being pushed.
Brent Efford
NZ Agent, Light Rail Transit Assn
3/4/19
6 What is the LRTA?
The Light Rail Transit Association was formed in the UK in 1937 and … “ is the world’s leading organisation concerned with the achievement of better public transport through light rail, tramway and metro systems in towns and cities world–wide.” (http://www.lrta.org/ http://www.lrta.org/).
The Association is a partnership between civil society advocates (such as myself) and professionals within the public transport industry.
The main activities of the LRTA are:
· Information provision and advocacy
· Publication of the monthly light rail industry journal Tramways and Urban Transport; T&UT is available online, by subscription online (via the above website), and also retail in some magazine outlets like Magnetix in Wellington.
· Sponsorship of major UK light rail industry events such as the annual Light Rail Awards and a separate annual industry conference.
Although remaining UK-based, the LRTA has a world-wide reach, including agents in a number of countries. One of its most notable achievements was the provision of information about modern tramways which informed and led to the establishment of light rail in San Diego, opening in 1981 – the first new-generation LRT system in the United States and the progenitor of several dozen new systems now operating there.
Nga mihi,
Brent Efford
NZ Agent, Light Rail Transit Assn