And while I agree the issues and upfront costs with ferries are probably substantial, they are such a great way to get work – having just moved into a ferry-served suburb I've…

I'm right at the end of the current SH20 in New Windsor. It's 12 minutes-ish to the airport. Not sure what the…

Not to mention business leaders like Michael Barnett and Alex Swney who are openly in support of the CRL.

Meanwhile, the…

The next project will be the City Rail Link, and it's already bitter and nasty. Steven turned on Auckland Council, and now Gerry is turning on his own…

That will require those with power and resources to change their attitudes and behaviour.

What I have found interesting is the way the whole project has evolved over the decades. For the 40 something years I've lived in Auckland it has always been known that a motorway would run through…

That would have been royally stupid.

Thankfully, NZTA were required to fund Auckland Council/Auckland Transport…

The reply was that because the rail line was so near, it was not…

Someone like Joshua can confirm but I think they're trying to separate motorway from local traffic – or Pt Chev would be full of people taking shortcuts to and from the even-busier motorway.

Confusingly, she shares her name with two unrelated people: a Libertarianz candidate living in the Far North, and a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hughes|board member of the Centre…

I've been watching this development since it began, since I traverse Gt North Rd constantly, and…

It's only 800m to the existing channel coming out of West Park marina, from the tip of Te Atatu Peninsular. At the south end, there's a channel all the way to Te Atatu Bridge,…

Actually no, the section of the designation climbing up from Onehuna is way too steep for normal trains (although electric can manage a…

That's pretty awesome, but I'm not sure it's really practical for a distance of roughly 11km.

Silly me, no, it is an Auckland thing. Keep left? Yeah right!

Don't know the area, but wondered where the kids from around there will gather and play now.

The parkland. I was thinking you meant War Memorial Park, etc — and the various reserves around Oakley Creek at my end.

Alan Wood Reserve of course, also, where the motorway extension is going now, but that was a pretty rough park. I'd…

Yes, worth empahsising that without the Core Rail Link being built first, other network extensions like Mr Roskill or airport or Shore lines won't work.

Goes through the firewood yard next door, doesn't it? Recall someone (you?) writing that already using some of the old designated land for the motorway means houses will need to be demolished to fit rail through now.

You mean the parkland or the motorway?

1) Yes the tunnel goes underneath the waterfall (maybe not directly) and underneath Oakley Creek. Very little impact there.

2) The Avondale-Southdown railway line may actually be needed (or at least the western section of it) a bit earlier than was previously thought. It'd be a pretty…

See what you mean. That's more prominent already than I expected.

And who'd want to give that up now?

The strange thing is how Pak 'n' Save got permission to build a great big supermarket…

A panorama at the south end of the tunnel, and a look from the footbridge at the north end.

Actually Matthew it didn't. I have a copy of the 1955 Master Transport Plan for Metropolitan Auckland and while it has pictures of trams in it, it makes almost…

Wow. I'm sure if you had bus drivers like the ones in the capital that might change – Go Wellington apparently has a "10 strikes" policy for its drivers.

(On the plus side, they're all very nice, but they do tend to run into stuff a…

We have all this water, why aren't we…

Not quite. You can ferry to Devonport or Birkenhead and get an onward bus to Takapuna.

If they were doing it properly they'd provide for a full separated busway, like the Northern Motorway's got. The Western Line deviates a long way from the motorway by the time one gets up through Te Atatu and on into the north-western hinterland, and bus…

We missed out on the sweet bridge at the Pt Chev end, but it's not bad.

Well, I can’t stop pronouncing loftily from afar, so go right ahead yourself.

This is a motorway that has been under construction since the 1970s, and it does play an…

You're assuming, very arrogantly, that Aucklanders do want to continue the automobile-obsessed ways of the past on the basis that the current regime aren't interested in supporting public transport. When…

I'm prepared to accept that there's a rigid policy that the PM must be accompanied when on official engagements (whether I think that's necessary is a different story), but as there's no possibility of the full…

If you could use up all the highway funds so they can't build the Basin Reserve flyover/tunnel scheme in Wellington, that'd be great. According to the National Party / Dom…

Yes, that's how it seemed to me.

to thwart any aggressive penguins

Helen used to go and do things like climbing Mt Kilimanjaro without a DPS escort, and that's practically wandering around in Times Square compared to the inaccessibility of Scott Base. Maybe send a couple down in order…

Yes — I was just reading about that — no connection…

Are you sure? As far as I can tell, the tunnel will go under the creek and waterfall. The creek will be subject to temporary diversion at the southern end, but the part where…

And for trucks bypassing the Northern/Southern motorway from Manukau or Albany, which is good (though at about $4b for the whole route, not cheap). This project at least makes more sense than the provincial RONS projects.

Found a Transportblog post on that. Think there are earlier ones too.

No so much, really. They're already doing that. But it should ease the impact of showstopping congestion or crashes on SH1, by…

The Causeway will be raised by 3m (it has sunk by 2m) and will be widened, including better pedestrian and cyclist facilities.

The whole…

For motorists in the short term, but not for the beautiful Oakley Creek Walkway and waterfall.

Spending all that money widening the NW motorway without adding dedicated buslanes boggles me. Such a wasted opportunity.

Enabling people to buy houses the other side of Albany and drive to wherever they are working, causing traffic levels to increase again until we're back to stopped. (or gas prices go through $5 a litre and they can't afford to…