frogblog Archive

  • Gareth Hughes

    Transport funding CONsultation - by Gareth Hughes



    A few months ago I wrote a draft submission on the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport funding and encouraged members of the public to send it in. Normally, I generally don’t encourage people to make form submissions on a topic but because the issue of land transport funding is pretty technical I wanted to [...] read more
    October 18, 2011 1:55 pm - 5 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Why won’t National listen to Auckland on CBD rail link? - by Gareth Hughes



    I was astonished that a few weeks back Auckland MPs voted against inviting the Auckland Council to submit on the CBD rail link debate. I can only talk about it now because the report containing my minority report was tabled in Parliament today. The Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee was discussing my petition to [...] read more
    September 8, 2011 4:52 pm - 11 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Round up of transport news - by Gareth Hughes



    I’ve been whipping around the country a lot lately visiting students at Orientation. So I haven’t had a chance to post much. But here’s a bit of a round up of the big transport stories of the last few weeks and my reaction. More funds for rail upgrades in Wellington. The government has announced an [...] read more
    August 2, 2011 6:59 pm - 10 Comments
  • frog

    Cool animated video of Auckland transport - by frog



    There’s a cool video doing the rounds on the blogosphere right now which shows the Auckland public transport network working over a 24 hour period. An animated map of Auckland’s public transport network from Chris McDowall on Vimeo. Watching it really highlights to me how radial the public transport network is. There are a lot of [...] read more
    January 25, 2011 1:53 pm - 20 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Before the holiday season ends send a submission on the Holiday Highway - by Gareth Hughes



    It’s almost Christmas time and I’m sure most of you are ready for a holiday. But before you go, if you live in Auckland, Rodney, Whangarei, or anywhere else and want smart transport decisions please take a few minutes to make a submission on the New Zealand Transport Agency’s latest proposal for the Holiday Highway – [...] read more
    December 22, 2010 1:45 pm - 2 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    New Auckland motorway causes congestion - by Gareth Hughes



    The Herald has carried another story today about how building a motorway has made congestion worse in Auckland, not better. Suprised? The New Zealand Transport Agency has admitted that they seriously under-estimated how much traffic their upgrades of State Highway 16 (SH16) to form the Western Ring Route would create. Motorists are now experiencing delays of up [...] read more
    December 21, 2010 1:10 pm - 47 Comments
  • David Clendon

    How will/should Auckland grow? - by David Clendon



    The question of how Auckland should grow is one that you can expect to hear an increasing amount about over the next year as the Auckland Council develops their spatial plan. The government has already made their position pretty clear – both through the release of their new document “Building Competitive Cities” and through Steven Joyce’s [...] read more
    December 1, 2010 8:30 am - 46 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    New Lynn opens with new hope for Auckland - by Gareth Hughes



    I attended the opening of the New Lynn transport hub last Friday. I always enjoy attending the openings of great transport projects but this one was particularly fun. It wasn’t just a lot of boring speeches but included a troupe of dancing dragons, a Maori kapa haka group performed and Govenor General Anand Satyand, made [...] read more
    September 27, 2010 9:13 am - 6 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Dominion Road and the North-Western Busway - by David Clendon



    Those of you who have read some of my recent blog posts about Dominion Road should be pleased to hear that we saved the busway! After a fiery meeting  Auckland City Council agreed it would be foolish to allow cars with 2 passengers into the busway. This is great news as this is one of the [...] read more
    September 14, 2010 12:04 pm - 4 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Tuakau sits-in to get rail in - by Gareth Hughes



    As the Herald reports, this weekend three communities in the Waikato – Huntly, Tuakau and Te Awamutu, staged sit-ins at their local train station. They were there to show their support for a passenger rail service between Auckland and Hamilton. You can see some footage of the sit-ins here. The sit-ins had huge support with over [...] read more
    September 13, 2010 2:51 pm - 23 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Last chance to get Dominion Road bus/cycle way - by David Clendon



    Just a reminder that the last day for submissions on the redesign of Dominion Road is this Sunday, 29th of August. I’ve commented on this issue before so will be brief.  Auckland City Council is planning to redesign Dominion Road, one of the busier roads in central Auckland. Their plans for redesign currently involve letting [...] read more
    August 26, 2010 4:13 pm - 5 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Trains are cheaper than helicopters - by Gareth Hughes



    Recently Steven Joyce, our Minister of Trucking Transport, claimed it would cost less to fly somebody by helicopter from Hamilton to Auckland than it would to subsidize a commuter rail service between the two cities. Luckily, Hamilton City Councillors quickly responded, pointing out that the actual cost of subsidizing a commuter rail service is hundreds [...] read more
    August 4, 2010 3:50 pm - 24 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Banks’ bus-lane plan utter madness - by David Clendon



    If you’ve been reading the Herald lately you might feel that anything anybody could ever want to say about bus-lanes has been said already. To summarise, right now a lot of people in Auckland are being ticketed for moving into a bus-lane more than 50 meters (the legally allowed maximum) before they need to turn [...] read more
    July 29, 2010 10:53 am - 11 Comments
  • frog

    Auckland gets trams - by frog



    As TVNZ reports, last week the Auckland Regional Council announced that they’re bringing trams back to Auckland. I didn’t have a chance to comment at the time but this is significant news. If you’re familiar with our transport history you’ll know that back in the 1950s Auckland had an extremely high rate of public transport [...] read more
    June 11, 2010 2:33 pm - 39 Comments
  • frog

    Auckland says sustainable transport, National says motorways - by frog



    I hopped along to the launch of the Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy last week. I’ve blogged about the strategy before so won’t say much. Basically it sets a different direction for transport in Auckland than that favoured by the National government. It prioritizes major sustainable transport projects like the CBD rail loop for funding [...] read more
    May 25, 2010 9:00 am - 4 Comments