Hard News: This is what we have to work with
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Banks impassioned statement that Brown wanted to divide the city up on race
I do wish our media would call out silly old fossils who confuse the Treaty with "race". Herald obediently repeats the lie.
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I found the Sydney airport link bloody fantastic last time I used it. It was a truly novel experience to be in the center of the city 17 minutes after coming through customs,
Likewise I, in Heathrow to London. Suitcases on trains, no problem. Brilliant. Get off plane, Wheel suitcase thru customs and straight across to train and counter.
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Actually they are both regional
Eh? I was talking about ARC and Ak City in context of the waterfront stadium mention. One is regional and one local, with different responsibilities as set up in the 2002 Local Government Act. Which two Councils are you thinking of?
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If, as been suggested, rail was to go beyond the airport
Well surely, that would come from it and I 'd suggest to Hamilton.
Then Hamilton can foot some of the bill. -
It's got a bloody motorway right through the middle of it.
Which gets locked up twice a day , 5 times a week and then some. One of my jobs was driving around Auckland roads.They just stop all the time, sometimes almost illogically and one accident can stop the southern motorway for an hour.On Fridays everyone starts driving around frantically about 1.00 in the afternoon till about 7.00.
And if you don't hit the motorways early enough the traffic lights lock you in your suburb for a while.
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I find it quite amazing that transport really is the number one issue, and virtually to the exclusion of the others. I mean honestly FFS Auckland's bloody easy to get around, I always think that when I get back home from anywhere, even places that have frikken awesome public transport. It's got a bloody motorway right through the middle of it.
It's one of the obvious points of comparison with other NZ and international cities and it fails in my opinion. Leaving aside the Sydney ferries which are hopelessly inefficient and heavily subsidised, the train and bus system in Sydney is vastly superior to Auckland's because of more and better services including more permanent bus lanes. Melbourne's got pretty good arrangements too though I've not lived there.
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Banks impassioned statement that Brown wanted to divide the city up on race
Not the V8 thing again, I beg you.
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Well surely, that would come from it and I 'd suggest to Hamilton.
Then Hamilton can foot some of the bill.How does rail to the airport help get rail to Hamilton? Don't we already have rail to Hamilton?
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Which two Councils are you thinking of?
ARC and Auckland superdooper City Cuntcil. Sorry, I didn't make it that clear.
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It was a truly novel experience to be in the center of the city 17 minutes after coming through customs, for the princely sum of $6.50. Y
Did you jump the stiles? The access fee to the station is $11.80AUD, with a regular ticket on top of that.
is that it? Honestly?
It isn't. Banks is very much aligned with C&R, who have an agenda that includes selling all Auckland's major assets, reducing rates while increasing user-pays, and scaling back public services. Meanwhile, Brown is aligned with Labour.
The difference between them is night and day.
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How does rail to the airport help get rail to Hamilton?
I was just suggesting joining up to existing but also thought it was only freight to Hamilton at the moment.I imagined rail for tourists heading south, 'tis all.
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I found the Sydney airport link bloody fantastic last time I used it. It was a truly novel experience to be in the center of the city 17 minutes after coming through customs, for the princely sum of $6.50. Yes, I did have to wheel my suitcase along a bit, but it was designed for that.
Me too! I dined out telling people back here how bloody fantastic it was. I did the cab ride into Sydney a few times as an IT journalist, and the train was a far better experience. But, then, that's going into the CBD. People live in suburbs.
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JLM,
I found the Sydney airport link bloody fantastic last time I used it. It was a truly novel experience to be in the center of the city 17 minutes after coming through customs, for the princely sum of $6.50.
$15 airport to Central last month...
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The Heathrow Express was 15 pounds one-way last time I used it and it only got me to the western side of the centre. Not a lot of use for business types I would think.
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George, you're right I got my fares mixed up there. That was another one on the same trip. But the real price doesn't seem that bad to me, I must say. Yeah, it's got an airport 'tax' in it, but so do the cabs.
The difference between them is night and day.
They did an awful job of communicating that. Or Banks did a fantastic job of obscuring it. I don't trust him, don't worry. If it's a choice between Brown and the guy trying desperately to look like Brown, I'll choose Brown.
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sometimes almost illogically and one accident can stop the southern motorway for an hour.
Much like coastal Highway One from Oaro to Kaikoura, yet another truck jack-knifed there this week, blocking the road for hours. The road is so totally not suitable for big trucks, and has a great rail track adjacent largely empty of freight...
gawd help us if they let those new 55 ton road trains use that road... -
BRIGHT Penny
She'll inject life into things. Who said this was boring?
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Jeremy, you and I have a different idea of locked up. For me locked up doesn't mean "moving slowly but steadily". What's the average commute for a car driver? Half an hour? Less? That's pretty quick, really. Naturally people on buses go slower. That needs to improve, but I'm not sure if the cart can travel before the horse.
Basically cars are still a really bloody convenient and quick way to get around Auckland, so people use them and that makes buses less economic (as a business proposition). If you see buses more as a basic service (as I do), then you'd be basically subsidizing them, to really build up their patronage. Buses don't need to take way longer than cars if there's frequent service and enough express services and rush hour bus lanes.
I doubt they can ever be as attractive as a car to anyone who is prepared to spend the money. But that cost steadily rises, and deserves no subsidization.
So I'm not overly concerned about Auckland's public transport, we just need to keep chipping away, as we have been for decades, preferably on all angles, cars, buses, trains, cycleways, transit lanes, and most importantly, encouraging people to live closer to where they work with appropriate residential planning. There's just no transport crisis, and that's why I'm mystified that something as vital as who gets to be the mayor of 30% of all NZers is all coming down to transport. Is the place really that sweet?
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Not the V8 thing again, I beg you.
Hay, Auckland will have to bale out its inner city roads sometime or crash and burn...
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Having said all that, I did almost get wood when both potential mayors promised us both a new bridge and a central city loops. Something good might actually come of having a super city after all. If they're telling the truth, that is.
Edit: Curveball idea for the Banks team. Cycleways could also be ponyways, hint hint.
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Not the V8 thing again, I beg you.
Dude, give me some credit. If I was going to suggest an international racing event for NZ it wouldn't be V8 "Supercars", so named to explicitly exclude all of the faster cars the rest of the world makes. It would be Formula One, and I would certainly be screaming for Ferrari.
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Transport is a key issue partly because people are not clear where the balance of influence in fixing it lies between central and local government - which is the elephant in the room with the whole 'super' city thing.
Dealing with Joyce, English et al over big projects like the cbd rail loop requires skilled advocacy rather than craven toadying or flaky waffling. Although Bob Harvey managed to convince Cullen to go ahead with the major New Lynn rail/town centre development over the long objections of advisors, so steel does not always come from where you'd expect.
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What's the average commute for a car driver? Half an hour? Less
Only if you live in a suburb that has quick access to another one, plenty of people cross all over town for work and then during the day a bunch of them drive all over town in search of the elusive dollar.
Earlybirders do well but they have to go to bed real early.
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I'm sick of going into Auckland offices we're everyone gets to work and has breakfast. Some of them might as well still be in their pyjamas given the trancelike way the first hour of business seems to flow.
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So bad for productivity - and for the economy in other ways. We spend a fortune on travel compared with cities who have good public transport.
Do read that Gordon Campbell interview with Len Brown. It's good, as Russell says. Hope there will be a similar one with Banks so voters can make informed decisions.
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