North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Fast lane for $25b harbour crossing
The plan for a new Waitematā Harbour Crossing, costing up to $25 billion, is being fast-tracked even before a new joint transport agreement between the Government and Auckland Council is inked.
The Government has unveiled five scenarios for an additional crossing over Waitematā Harbour – all would carry light rail from the city centre to the North Shore and beyond.
Construction on the harbour crossing will begin in 2029 – 11 years earlier than expected, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced on Thursday last week.
‘‘It’s time to convert the longawaited dream of a second harbour crossing into a reality,’’ Hipkins said.
In June, the Government will decide on a design from five ‘‘scenarios’’ for additional walking, cycling, road and light-rail links across the harbour.
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown hasn’t favoured either a new harbour crossing or the Government’s light-rail plan and had said the Integrated Transport Plan announced in December might ‘‘challenge’’ both projects. However, the Government said consultation with Aucklanders in recent months had been positive.
‘‘Thousands have had their say and overwhelmingly people want us to get on with an alternative connection. They want it to include light rail, they want it to include safe walking and cycling,’’ Michael Wood, the minister for both transport and Auckland, said. He described the light-rail plan and the harbour crossing as ‘‘incredibly important priorities for the government but actually, and more importantly, for the people of Auckland’’.
Aucklanders will be consulted during the next few months on designs in five scenarios, ranging from new, separate road and light rail tunnels, to a mix of tunnel and new bridge, or bridge-only addition, carrying walking, cycling light rail and road.
In December, Brown and Wood announced a plan under which the Government and the council would agree on a joint conversation on the projects the city needed, including how to incorporate a future relocation of the city’s port.
Brown initially said it would be ‘‘Auckland-led’’ but that wording was soon dropped.
Wood said the mayor had ‘‘quite rightly’’ said as part of the significant future investment, there was a need for good information and good analysis.
‘‘For example, one of the key issues for him would be the impact changes at Ports of Auckland would have on demand for these transport connections,’’ Wood said.
‘‘For this particular project, we have done that work and that analysis, which has revealed that a relatively small amount of traffic on the bridge is linked to Ports of Auckland – it’s the overwhelming growth we see on the North Shore,’’ he said.
During a break in a council meeting later last Thursday, Stuff asked Brown if he would comment. He said: ‘‘No.’’ His office directed Stuff to deputy mayor Desley Simpson, who said of the crossing unveiling: ‘‘I would have done it in six months’ time not six years.’’
Simpson said she was particularly pleased the Government had listened to the council when it said: ‘‘Stop telling us what we should have.’’
‘‘They have given us five options. I think they have got that message . . . I think Aucklanders will have their say.’’
Stuff – which is the media company that publishes this paper – has retained its national leadership position and has the biggest Auckland reach according to the latest Nielsen data.
Stuff reaches nearly 3.4 million Kiwis a month across print and digital, including New Zealand’s number one news website.
Stuff’s print products continue to play an important role in the lives of New Zealanders and provide the biggest print reach in Aotearoa.
Every month 2.6 million Kiwis read a Stuff newspaper or magazine, including two-thirds of the main household shoppers and business decision-makers.
Stuff is also number one in print and digital across the key regions of Waikato, Wellington and Canterbury, in addition to Auckland.
Executive commercial director Matt Headland says
Stuff offers excellent reach and scale for brands wanting to connect with customers across trusted news and entertainment platforms.
‘‘Our wide-ranging mix of digital and print options means we can target and scale to deliver maximum benefit for our advertising partners,’’ he said.
Chief content officer Joanna Norris says Stuff’s team of journalists delivers coverage that is an essential part of the day for Kiwis.
‘‘To win the audience in Tā maki Makaurau, as well as the whole country, is testament to the strength of our Auckland newsroom and their tenacious reporting.
‘‘With NZ’s most loved news site, an extensive range of newspapers and magazines, and more journalists than anyone else across the country, we love that Kiwis value our journalism and turn to us time and time again for world-class news and content.’’
Kiwis are also devouring Stuff’s market-leading magazines for inspiration and escapism. NZ House & Garden keeps the top spot in the life & style category with more than 40% readership reach lead over its nearest news stand competitor. NZ Gardener has blossomed into 2023 with 6% growth on the previous quarter.
Stuff’s newspaper-inserted magazines are also on the up with Saturday’s Your Weekend growing 2% for the quarter, and Sunday increasing by 3%.
‘‘Now more than ever New Zealanders are relishing the chance to sit down and relax with a great magazine, filled with gorgeous imagery and authentic stories of life in Aotearoa,’’ says Head of Life Media Sarah Stuart. ‘‘That’s why magazines remain such a powerful marketing tool for brands.’’
ANALYSIS: In the ongoing daily tribulations of many Auckland public transport users, a move by the biggest ferry operator Fullers360 is food for thought.
Fullers’ Waiheke Island run is a purely commercial service running outside of public transport contracts, and faces huge queues of daytrippers on weekends, with emptier vessels off-peak.
All of that happens in a time of crew shortages which has constrained sailings and increased cancellations.
The company has halved offpeak fares from this week, to try to shift patronage away from the most popular sailings.
Whether it makes a difference remains to be seen, but it is a market-driven approach which Auckland Transport (AT) should be watching closely.
AT’s public transport bus, train and ferry services face the same issue as Fullers’ Waiheke Island run, a persistent driver shortage which has left weekday bus services 2000 trips fewer than a year ago.
Despite a post-pandemic slump in patronage of about 25%, many peak routes are crowded with some leaving passengers behind.
AT’s response to reduced patronage, and the financial squeeze of lower revenue, has been to raise fares by more than 7% for most travellers, starting on April 2 – the same day Fullers halves theirs off-peak.
The lure to travel off-peak with AT is a modest 10% discount, and an initiative flagged earlier in the year to introduce a $29 a week fare cap is still in the backroom.
Auckland Transport is not a business, and public transport is a service, a piece of social and economic infrastructure which needs to be there, even if it loses money – which it does.
Programming new fare structures into the French-run AT HOP ticketing system is not cheap, meaning that chopping and changing fares is costly.
Also AT is running with public money, from both ratepayers and taxpayers, which may be one reason it has been ultraconservative in adding the kinds of discounts common in overseas cities.
But innovation and a little risk-taking in trying to get more people onto public transport more often might be worth trying.
The occasional fare-free promotions lifted patronage on the days they operated, meaning there are things that will attract more people to the public transport with big investment.
Fullers360 is a private business and at the end of each year it needs to show a profit for its owner, and the quest to achieve that means a sharp focus on how to attract business.
With a rail network impaired for most of the year through track rebuilding, and the ongoing driver shortage, AT has some big challenges, but that might be the time to be bolder in trying to build its own ‘‘business’’.
It is hard to know whether this is the ideal time for AT innovation, or the least likely moment to give something a go.
The agency has been spooked by the arrival of mayor Wayne Brown, whose public demands for board director heads to roll led to three departing voluntarily, including the former chairperson.
Brown’s decision not to meet a prospective new chief executive, recruited from the United Kingdom, caused that candidate to withdraw, leaving the agency with a temporary stand-in.
From April, a new fixed-term chief executive Dean Kimpton takes the helm, with a strategic review of the agency high on the agenda.
Whether that accelerates or slows innovation in the short term remains to be seen.
In the meantime, Fullers360 will publicly test the power of big discounts in changing travel patterns.