Auckland’s Mass Transit Progression

to Light Rail

Auckland - Overview• World’s 3rd most liveable city (Mercer Survey)

• 36% of New Zealand GDP (3.7% growth rate compared

with rest of NZ 3.2%)

• Over the next 30 years, additional 300K employees –

particularly city centre and city fringe

• $10B private sector investment in city centre development

• 43K new vehicles registered per year

Auckland ActivityDevelopment

• Building and construction -

75 private developments

under construction in the city

centre and fringe

• 51 developments proposed

• At least 16 significant new

developments completed

2016.

Cruise Industry

• 3.45m cruise visitors in year

to November 2016, up 12%

from 2015

• Current cruise season - 105

ships with 228K passengers

and contributing over $500m

to the NZ economy.

Airport Precinct

• 33K jobs and contributing $3.5B to

the country’s GDP

• 90K jobs and $5.5B GDP by 2044

• About 71K residents around

airport employment zone –

travelling from north and south

• 85K vehicles a day via 2 state

highways - projected 174K a day

by 2044.

Growth - City CentreCurrent

• 84K workers, 25% of regional

• 56K students

• Over 30K residents

• One in seven Aucklanders now works there

• Constrained access – from isthmus to city

centre and to the major port

• State Highway 1 managing all north traffic

2046 projections

• Approx 156K workers

• Approx 80K students

• Approx 55K residents

Growth - Auckland Airport

• Auckland Airport second

behind Sydney in international

passengers

• December 2016 - 960,681

international arrivals (excluding

transit passengers)

• 9 new airlines started flying into

Auckland Airport in 2016

• 12m passengers in 2016, 24m

by 2025 and 40m by 2044

• Year end 31 December 2016 -

9.3m international arrivals

Auckland Transport - Key Stats• Responsibility for roads, PT

(rail, ferry, bus), Harbourmaster

• 1.6K Staff

• 7.3K kms of roads

• 58 Rail Stations / Ferry Terminals

• 105K Street Lights

• Over 1K buses in operation

• 1.6K bus shelters

• 85m public transport journeys pa

• Around 130 AT owned carparks

• 30 park n rides with 5610 spaces

• Capex $765m

• Opex $1B

• Total Assets $16B

Public Transport

LRT

Bus

Ferry

Commuter rail

Active

Private vehicle

• PT commuting tripled in last

20 years

• Peak trips will increase by

85% by 2041

• Year on year growth in rail

of 18%

• Only realistic option to

accommodate growth

• Usage grown from 40% to 45%

of all trips into the City Centre in

the last year and is forecast to

grow to 70% over next 30 years

• In September 2015, 50% of

visitors were opting to use public

transport instead of driving

• Per capita ferry trips:

– 6m/ year = 4 per person Auckland

– 14m/year = 3 per person Sydney

Public Transport

Intervention urgent for continued growth, service level performance and resilience of network

Addressing the challenge

Stage 1: Optimise existing assets

- Network changes, Public Transport Operating Model, schedules, routes

Stage 2: Extend existing facilities

- Dedicated lanes/routes

- Double deckers

- Electric buses

- Fast ferries

- CRL – network efficiency

- Increasing active modes

Stage 3: Introduce new technology

- Bus automation/platooning

- Driverless vehicles

- LRT

HEAVY RAIL COMMUTER

RAIL

LIGHT RAIL

(EXCLUSIVE ROW)

BU

S O

N H

OV

LIN

E

BU

SWA

Y

LIGHT RAIL

(ON STREET)

CITY CENTRE BUS LANE

BUS IN MIXED TRAFFIC

Source: Adapted from Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual 2nd Edition

Stage 1 - The New Network

• A total redesign of the

entire Auckland bus

network to international

best practice principles

• Optimised for City Centre

bus capacity and efficiency

• Capacity limits on city

centre streets

Stage 2 - Electric buses • AT trialling two electric buses

• Will be used over different routes

and conditions to test

• Range of more than 200 km with

one charge and can be enabled

for fast or overnight charging

• Current bus fleet does the

equivalent distance of >3x

around world every day

Stage 2 - City Rail Link

Stage 2 - City Rail Link

• Rapid mass transit required in Airport to

City Centre corridor before 2024:

- Limited remaining optimisations to

extend capacity

- Strong airport precinct growth

- Capacity needed for future PT demand

- Resilience for incident management

• Potential future stages utilising key

corridor through the central isthmus

and airport to the east

• Auckland needs intervention to enable

its continued growth

Stage 3 - Progression

towards mass transit

Key challenge

How to transition between modes and progress towards implementation of LRT?

Auckland’s challengeStaging

• Right mode for the right time – demand,

capacity and corridor

• No definitive trigger when transition between

modes to occur – multiple variables and

interdependencies

• Mode transition and hierarchy shift in Auckland

context dependent on customer service levels

• Key corridors already hitting levels of over 120

buses/hr

Network Resilience

• Network integration planning to ensure

all modes function together – PT, vehicles,

active

• Providing viable PT options to increase capacity and ensure network is future proofed for potential

introduction of congestion charging

Housing NZ Land Within Station catchments – City to

Airport

Housing NZ Land Within Station catchments – Botany

to Airport• Opportunity to better match

housing and employment

locations to transport

capacity

• Central and local

government land owned

land being optimised for

joint outcomes

Unlocking housing – accessibility

• The Auckland Unitary Plan

(operative in part) enables

higher density development

in station catchments along

both routes

• Mass Transit integral to

urban development

• Presents opportunities for

central and local

government to leverage

outcomes for public benefit

Urban development opportunities

Light Rail – progress to date

2015

Strategic Case approved

Investigation commences

2016/2017

Defining transitional requirements from bus to LRT

2017/18

Land designation/acquisition

Queen Street now Queen Street potential

Thank you