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    • We want your zines!
      • 20 Aug 2020
      • Wellington City Libraries News Blog
      • Are you a zinemaker? Or perhaps you got creative during lockdown and made a quaranzine? Here at Wellington City Libraries we have lending zine collections at three of our branches: Newtown, Arapaki on Manners, and He Matapihi Molesworth Library.
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    • Small Team, Big Impact
      • 2 Apr 2020
      • St Vincent de Paul Society Wellington
      • <a class="image-slide-anchor content-fill" > <a class="image-slide-anchor content-fill" > St Vincent de Paul Society Wellington (Vinnies) has adapted its welfare and support services to provide essential service packs to individuals and families struggling throughout the COVID-19 Level 4 lock-down. “We’re ensuring our community has access to essential items which we hope will help give them some peace of mind over this uncertain time, as well as help free-up any extra cash to go towards additional food and bills” says Manager, John Rossbotham. These packs cover three key needs: food support, baby material support and winter goods such as warm clothing, bedding, heating and cookware. A small team of six key staff, including two delivery drivers are continuing to work from the Newtown Welfare and Service Hub to answer incoming calls and distribute packs. “Often people are simply relieved you have answered their call as they struggle to get through to overwhelmed government support lines” says Communications and Marketing Manager, Millie Lambess. “For many single parents and people living on their own, there is comfort in knowing they aren’t alone and have the support of a service like Vinnies throughout the lock-down.” Alongside this practical support, the Vinnies Community Social Worker is continuing to work closely with on-going cases and Vinnies Members are calling isolated elderly to check-in with them each week. “I am concerned at the impact of social isolation and stress on those already experiencing life challenges, including sole parents, those living alone or struggling with mental health. Once people are assured they have support for basic needs, they are verbalising anxiety around their safety, or their family’s safety. Emotional and psychological support is going to be very important the longer this lock down continues, and ability to provide personal human connection will be a priority” says Community Social Worker, Tania Martin. Since the lock-down began, the Newtown centre has seen a 380% increase in people accessing its services, with the majority in need of food. Bulk orders of food and essential items are being purchased on a weekly basis by the Society with fresh produce continuing to come in from Kaibosh and local restaurants such as Where’s Charlie? who donated fresh produce after they closed. With the closure of the main funding source, Vinnies Op Shops and unable to accept drop-off food donations from the public,St Vincent de Paul Society Wellington is calling on the wider community to consider making a cash donation towards the purchase of food bank supplies. Donations can be made vinnies-wellington.org.nz/donate.
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    • Minutes of the March 2020 Meeting
      • 20 Mar 2020
      • Newtown Residents' Association
      • Minutes of the Newtown Residents’ Association meeting 16th March 2020 Present: Rhona Carson (Chair), Steve Cosgrove (Minutes), Leonie Walker, Jane Patterson, Jill Ford, Alison Borbelly, Keith Powell, Tom Law, Don McDonald, Warwick Taylor, Peter Frater, Effie Rankin, Faye Tohbyn, Lyn Morris, Sam Somers, Eileen Brown, Neville Carson, Kevin Lethbridge, Graeme Carroll, Merio Marsters, Marion Leighton. Apologies: Paul Eagle, Dom Shaheen, Steve Dunn, Martin Hanley, Anna Kemble Welch, Jan Gould + Marion Leighton(for lateness)Noted that Paul apologised because MPs have been advised to stay away from community meetings due to Covid-19 risks..  Rhona welcomed everyone to the meeting. Newtown Festival Rhona thanked all the marshalls and other volunteers for helping. The meeting made an enthusiastic  vote of thanks and appreciation to the organisers for another very successful Festival.Sadly there was one violent event later in the evening; this seemed to be the result of a personal conflict between two visitors to Newtown. The Police and Community Patrol were involved. Don asked what the noise policy is, as he worries about how loud the Festival is.  Tom Law outlined the Council policy. Wellington City Council Consultations Parking Policy.  Consultation opened today and will run till April 14th. WCC had a traveling road show on the subject in Newtown Mall this morning. It wasn’t widely advertised and no one at the meeting knew it was going to be there, or attended.Rhona noted that the policy is very high-level at this stage. We recommend that people look at the material on the website.  The questions on the web site are quite general so Newtown-specific concerns would need to be added in narrative form.Some general issues were discussed.We will consider different things we can agree on, such as further communication with WCC to develop a Newtown-specific plan, and sensible Residents’ Parking areas and fees. Planning for Growth The WCC Consultation Team were to have a Newtown Festival stall but cancelled because they were not quite ready to go.  Next consultation meeting is on 26 March at Prefab – Jane and Rhona  interested in going. No one had any further comment: Rhona suggested reading the web page and keeping up-to-date with progress on the development of a proposed spatial plan for the city.District Plan Review – this is beginning at the end of this year or early next. Water Warrick is concerned that water metres are coming back into discussion.  This has resulted in some suggesting we ‘need’ water metres to pay for replacement of aged infrastructure.A number of views were expressed regarding the pros and cons of water metering. COVID-19 Eileen Brown is working for the Council of Trade Unions developing plans and consolidating ideas for “managing the risk and flattening the curve”.The current situation was outlined, along with common narratives being used to describe the situation and management options.  Eileen described then distributed some information.Marion Leighton (Consultant Physician at Wellington Hospital) arrived during this discussion, having been at a hospital meeting on the same topic. She outlined the hospital’s plans for managing an influx of seriously ill patients and also answered questions. Most important thing is to wash hands frequently and thoroughly, cough and sneeze into your elbow or tissues, don’t touch your face, avoid physical contact with others and self-isolate at the first sign of any symptoms. We are in this for the long-term, so make sure you have a reasonable plan. Emergency Management Discussion Neville Carson outlined his background in Civil Defence (previous name for Emergency Management, and introduced “Wellington Conversations” – facilitated conversations on various topics which have been running in Newtown and elsewhere for several months.Neville is organising a meeting to discuss Emergency Management issues on 31 March, 7:30 to 9:30, at Newtown Hall, using a model based on Wellington Conversations. Circus Performers – Steve informed the meeting that on Wednesday evening (18th Mcaarch) in Carrara Park circus performers will be performing with LED Hula hoops. Meeting ended at 8:58
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    • Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
      • 14 Feb 2020
      • The Wellingtonista
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the perfect pick for Summer Shakespeare, traditionally held in the Dell in Wellington’s Botanical Gardens at night in the middle of summer, but then the production moved to the basement theatre at Te Whaea in Newtown, and things pivoted from the usual.
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        • The Dell, Serpentine Way, Wellington Central, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6145, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Waiting for light rail? Let’s build a busway now!
      • 20 Oct 2019
      • Talk Wellington
      • One question on the mind of everyone suffering from Wellington’s transport problems is – when will Let’s Get Wellington Moving actually get us moving? Guest poster Marko Garlick sees a supercharger hiding in plain sight There seem to be lots of abstract projects planned to be delivered, maybe years from now: urban State Highway 1 “improvement” with more tunnels, and a rapid (or maybe just frequent) mass transit line from Lambton through Newtown and to the Airport.  But where will these actually go? And how do we deal with difficult questions about flows around the Basin Reserve? Wellingtonians waiting for new transport infrastructure to be built… Where does mass transit go? For mass transit, there are many things to consider. Is it along the waterfront quays or along Lambton Quay / the Golden Mile? Along Taranaki St or along Cambridge Terrace? Where does it go through the Basin Reserve? Many people are speculating. And the big one: light rail or trackless trams, or both? Mock-up of a route down Taranaki St What about the urban motorway? The LGWM proposal has a pretty good plan to maintain the amenity of the city above. They want to underground the motorway from the Terrace to Mt Vic. A new Te Aro park will be created on top. However people are questioning the need for more lanes created by a new Terrace and a new general traffic Mt Vic tunnel. More lanes in urban motorways creates induced demand. More lanes means make people drive more which kills off any travel savings created by the bigger road. It’s a transport strategy just as smart as trying to lose weight by buying bigger pants! Bigger roads take up valuable space and just fill up with more traffic (looking at you Auckland, thanks for showing us what not to do) This uncertainty is paralysing! Those who are in the “pro-car” camp say they like mass-transit but that must come after their bigger road. Those in the “pro-PT” camp want light rail first and a smaller road. Finger-pointing and party lines are drawn. Tough and costly decisions will have to be made about irreversible projects around the Basin. Once you make a flyover, tunnel or lay down tracks you can’t (quickly) go back. I think we can break out of this inaction and stupor with an interim middle ground: a busway. Case Study: Auckland’s Northern busway The idea for this has come from the success of Auckland’s northern busway. It is a dedicated two-lanes for buses from the northern foot of the Harbour Bridge up SH1 to Constellation Drive with world-class stations and frequent congestion-free services into the city.  It has seen year-on-year double-digit growth numbers over its 11 years in service, and is being extended to Albany and beyond shortly. Eventually tracks will be laid down for a second-harbour crossing for light-rail. Radical incrementalism Initially the busway was just a narrow shoulder each side of the northern motorway. People were sceptical initially but its success was undeniable and has provided the basis for upgrades and extensions. What the Northern busway shows is that doing something now, and building on it, is more practical and politically palatable than trying to justify a massive spend up front. This is applicable to Wellington’s light rail situation. It is relatively low-cost initially, can display almost mass-transit qualities and is more flexible as progress is made towards light-rail. Why a busway? A busway is what Wellington needs now. We cannot wait another 10-15 years for a big decision on the Basin and Mt Vic tunnel. A busway will provide many benefits: It is far cheaper to implement right away and far quicker to implement (I envisage 3 years for the first stage).It also demonstrates demand for mass-transit and will allow us to see whether a certain route is a good idea or not.It also allows for land-use intensification now, providing greater density and amenity to a future light rail line. What will it look like? So what would this look like? I think that the busway should start at the train station, go along the waterfront quays, and then either go along Taranaki St or Cambridge/Kent Terrace. Ideally, it should run in the centre of street with weather protected stops and room for cycleway and signal-priority. Stops should mirror light rail ones, being spaced out for speed and reliability.  Along most of the route the buses could probably hit 60km/h speeds, congestion free, all day. [Ed: just let that sink in. Congestion free. A clear run.] Separate branding would be an excellent addition. The Northern Express (NEX) is what Auckland has; the Wellington Express (WEX) is what we could have. This post is about incrementalism and the key takeaway is something half-done is better than waiting ages for the ‘perfect’ solution. If the busway is barebones at first before getting upgrades then so be it. The mess at the Basin can be avoided by stopping bus priority at the start, then resuming it into Newtown. This is what the Northern Busway does with dedicated lanes ending at the Harbour Bridge, then resuming on Fanshawe St. What the waterfront quays look like now (shudders). Hardly the “walkable city”. A thing of beauty: What a complete Wellington busway could look like The busway can be upgraded over time. Greenspace, cycleways, better stops, a possible underpass on Waterloo Quay to connect to the railway station. Summing up In an ideal world, we can all agree on the light-rail and grade-separation issues at the Basin and they may already have been implemented. But that is not the case. Although there is lots of details to work, the principle of a busway now then future conversion to higher-capacity light-rail is a sound one in my mind. Do you have any ideas why Wellington has not had bus priority – via a busway, or anything else – for so long? What do you think of fast buses in the city centre, and in the suburbs? A version of this post was originally published on TraNZport; see the original here. Image credits Cover image by Smarter TransportSkeleton waiting, original unknownTaranaki mock-up by LGWMAuckland rush hour by Getty imagesAuckland busway by Greater AucklandQuays now, screen grabBusway by AT
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    • Heading South-East
      • 9 Jul 2019
      • Eye of the Fish
      • Given that everyone seems to agree that any new PT route needs to go down to Newtown to visit the Hospital (thereby removing any need for doctors, nurses and staff to have to drive to work) and then possibly the Zoo (as another main attraction) and then cross over to Kilbirnie for the large and growing population there, the Eye of the Fish decided to take a look at what may happen there.
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    • Long Read: Mass Rapid Transit in Wellington
      • 26 Jun 2019
      • Fair Intelligent Transport (FIT) Wellington
      • Posted by Kerry Wood <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > The latest version of ‘trackless tram’ (TT) has been developed by CRRC in China. A trial system has been running in Zhuzhou since 2017, and should be coming onto the market about now. It is of interest in Wellington because of potential cost-savings over light rail, but comes with corresponding problems and is barely commercial at this stage. TT is distinct from BRT but shares some important characteristics. On this page… Key messsages Route and capacity Light Rail BRT Trackless Trams Costs Key messsages The TT feature of interest in Wellington is capacity. It is the highest-capacity BRT-like vehicle on the market, presumably with a much better ride than a bus, and may be able to meet Wellington needs on a two-lane route. Any decision to adopt TT will require careful studies; Wellington has already run into costly problems created by a casual attitude to supposedly minor issues. In a more difficult situation, we must get it right this time: BRT using conventional articulated buses is well-established but an unlikely option for Wellington. High-capacity BRT is generally used in cities having wide streets, unlike Wellington. TT might be an alternative to BRT, if it can offer sufficient capacity, and when ‘the kinks have been ironed out.’ At a time of very rapid change, uncertainties are inevitable and require good management. In this case high-capacity would be a low-risk approach, favouring either light rail or four-lane BRT. Decision-makers need to bear two things in mind: First, light rail becomes cheaper than either BRT or buses at a relatively low ridership. Second, BRT also benefits from a properly segregated route, to minimise congestion, and from diverted underground services to minimise delays. Light rail may well be the lowest-risk option, or even the cheapest option. An independent conclusion comes from Matt L at the Greater Auckland transport blog: I do think that this [TT] technology is promising and definitely worth keeping an eye on, but I’m not convinced that Auckland should be so quick to jump on the bandwagon. Let’s at least wait till at least a handful of cities have successfully rolled this out and ironed out all the kinks… Let’s also wait till there are multiple suppliers with inter-operable systems. Unfortunately, even without the capacity/frequency issues that I think would be an issue for the city centre, I don’t think Auckland can afford to wait. We need to get on fixing transport in this city and so should get on with installing light rail as soon as possible. ↑ Contents Route and capacity The LGWM route has recently been challenged, with proposals for a Mt Victoria tunnel for buses, walkers and cyclists. A tunnel for walkers and cyclists seems sensible, but a new bus tunnel would be a backward step. The existing Bus Tunnel is adequate for serving Hataitai, and a much better MRT route is through Newtown, because of high residential density. Densities are too low for MRT in Hataitai and through to Miramar and the Airport. The Newtown route offers substantially greater residential density, on both sides of the route, as well as potential for future density. Adelaide Rd and Kilbirnie are designated WCC development areas. A Mt Victoria route was proposed in the 2013 Spine Study, apparently to save time, but the real time-savings come from good detail design on the chosen route. Bypassing Wellington Hospital is itself a planning error for MRT: BRT in Brisbane went as far as a stop within the Hospital building. It is not a criticism to recognise that LGWM’s modal demand estimates for 2036 contain serious errors. Ideas and assumptions in transport are changing very quickly, among professionals and through society as a whole. Engineering NZ’s latest Transport Group Conference had the theme ‘Change is in the air.’ Who could have imagined, twelve months ago, that school children would be going on strike to demand action on climate change? Will we really see a third of CBD commuters still travelling by car in 2036, as predicted by LGWM? We don’t know. With so many uncertainties to manage, LGWM might be wise to plan for generous spare capacity on primary public transport routes: rail into Wellington and MRT further south. This might even extend to purchasing delivery options, or more vehicles than needed. If world-wide demand shoots up, small orders for a city like Wellington might take too long. The combination of highly uncertain demand and high-capacity MRT suggests that mass-transit might usefully be over-provided, within reason. Under-providing seems likely to be the greater risk. ↑ Contents Light Rail At this stage, light rail seems to be the only option clearly suited to Wellington and the chosen route. It is also available from multiple suppliers; light rail is well-established and supply-competitive. BRT is also available from multiple suppliers, but TT is only available from CRRC. The example vehicle chosen by FIT is seven-section, similar to the Gold Coast (G-link) vehicle in the photo. It is 63 m long with a capacity of nominally 470 passengers. Shorter vehicles might be best for the early years, reducing costs, but longer vehicles might be cheaper in the long term. The costly parts of a modern tram are the control system and cabs, and operating cost-differences are almost independent of vehicle length. If lack of capacity is a risk, then longer vehicles could usefully be introduced at once. The obvious drawback of light rail is the cost of track and diverting underground services. The usual arrangement is that services running along the light rail route are relocated beside it, and services crossing it are relaid in ducts, so that they can be replaced without disturbing light rail. Large drains are generally an exception because they can be repaired from the inside. ↑ Contents BRT A new route study can be based on the ITDP BRT Standard. In 2017 LGWM’s consultant WSP recommended design to the ITDP ‘Bronze Standard,’ and gave these assumptions: Full separation from general traffic flows (dedicated lanes), except intersections. High priority at traffic signals. Requires integration with surrounding walking, cycling & traffic network. Fully electric vehicles. High frequency 2.0–2.5 min/direction/peak hour (“realistic/normal” operating frequency of BRT on Golden Mile). Less transfers/interchanges for passengers. Maximum Capacity 150+ passengers. Medium potential to attract car users to PT. Modern low floor articulated bus vehicles. Flexible/less physical infrastructure. Generally fixed route, some flexibility (if required). BRT is likely to cost roughly the same as conventional buses. In practice, BRT seems very unlikely to be satisfactory in Wellington, because lack of space in the CBD will require a two-lane route. This might be sufficient with good management, of bus lanes, but can never be enough at stations. BRT stations in Brisbane (scaled from an aerial photograph) are typically about 27 m wide, compared with a street-width of 15.1 m in Wellington’s Manners St, for all purposes. BRT stations need two lanes each way, for buses overtaking buses. Also needed are more bus-berths, dedicated berths for each route (so that passengers know where to wait), and substantial platform width to handle passenger numbers. Some principal CBD junctions may need flyovers, to allow adequate junction time for traffic crossing the busway. WSP (bullet point 5 above) anticipate a reliable maximum time between buses of two or two and a half minutes between buses on the golden mile, only 24–30 bus/hr. The only real alternatives to the golden mile are two lanes on the waterfront or two lanes on the ‘secondary spine’ proposed in the Spine Study, using Featherston and Wakefield Streets southbound, and returning on Jervois Quay. Neither is wide enough, with very poor passenger access and legibility. ↑ Contents Trackless Trams Chinese developer CRRC is now the world’s largest manufacturer of railway rolling-stock (Newman et al. (2019), p 33, The Trackless Tram: is it the transit and city shaping catalyst we have been waiting for?). CRRC’s Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit (‘trackless tram’ or TT) system is now being trialled in Zhuzhou. TT might prove an attractive option, but there are surprising uncertainties here. Detailed information from CRRC is still scarce, and some sources seem very unreliable. Much of what is available is dated 2017, and an apparently official video is remarkably amateur. It is not even clear that CRRC have yet begun to market TT. TT uses digital steering of all six axles to track a pair of painted lines, with supplementary data from GPS and LIDAR. CRRC have paid close attention to ride quality, using high-speed rail technology. The vehicles are battery-powered (in fact condensers), with an anticipated range of 50 km after a ten-minute charge, backed up by an overnight ‘deep recharge’ and a brief top-up at each station (Newman et al. (2019), p 38). CRRC is offering, or planning to offer, vehicles 30 metres long, in three sections, with a five-section option planned. See the photos below. CRRC now has the largest vehicles on offer, with probably the best ride and the most effective batteries and charging systems. Other manufacturers are also in the market, including Alstom, Van Hool and Irizar (Newman et al. (2019), p 34), offering shorter, bus-based vehicles. The route capacity achievable using light rail is about 10,000 passengers an hour in Wellington, which seems a reasonable target for TT. A lower target would be more easily achieved but might risk running into capacity problems. Three-section TT vehicles are 31.6 m long and 2.65 m wide (the standard light rail width). The claimed capacity is 250–300, which seems very high. A standard figure in Europe is a preferred maximum of 4 standing passengers per square metre. Using this figure, and comparing on a floor-area basis (after subtracting two metres at each end, for the drivers’ cabs), gives a TT vehicle capacity of about 220 passengers. A further correction is needed, because TT vehicles have wide wheel-boxes for six axles (like the front wheels of a bus), and the boxing is continued beneath side-facing seats: the seats are set forward from the windows (photo above right). The full vehicle width is only available to passengers around the doors. An estimated width-correction of 300 mm reduces the capacity to 200 passengers, or 330 on a five-section TT, about 50 m long. This is about 70% of the assumed light rail capacity of 470 (FIT example vehicle). An animated video suggests that two TT vehicles can run in convoy only about a metre apart. If such an option becomes practical, TTs might be capable of running together without coupling, matching light rail capacity and eliminating the need for a four lane route. However, stop-length is another consideration. Finding space for platforms longer than about 50 m becomes progressively more difficult, and extremely difficult beyond about 70 m. Two potential TT risks are: A typical modern European tram (Siemens Avenio, 63 m long) weighs nearly three times as much as a full load of passengers, but TT vehicles weigh only about 15% more. The risk here is that long vehicles need adequate ‘buffing strength’ to protect passengers in the event of a crash. The whole vehicle needs to be strong enough to absorb the kinetic energy of the rear end with minimum risk to passengers. TT in New Zealand will need careful checking for compliance with regulations, regardless of whether the system is treated as bus or light rail. In either case, new regulations will be needed, and may need legislation. Wellington would gain a dual advantage from choosing ‘the same as Auckland’: no regulatory costs, and cheaper vehicles and equipment because of repeat orders. In Looking past the hype about trackless trams, Wong (2018) points out that TT is not really revolutionary, and alternatives to light rail have been available for years. However, Wong also challenges TT’s ride quality, which might be unfair, but his paper is still of interest. A guide and manual with application to Trackless Trams, a paper by Peter Newman et al. (2018), develops a new method of assessing public transport, specifically with TT in mind: Traditional transit planning does the transport engineering first and then adds the land use planning as a supplement after finding government funding; the approach being presented here starts with the land development planning and then does the transport engineering after achieving the funding/ financing from the land development potential. [p 6] Four approaches to capital are used: broadly, all-public; mostly public; mostly private; and all-private. While the paper seems very useful (and note the BCR below), explicitly applying it to TT seems doubtful: By integrating higher value into land development within cities, rather than having further land development on the urban fringe, there are significant public and private benefits that vastly outweigh the costs. Some BCR calculations have seen a simple light rail project with a BCR of 1.5 increase to around 7 because of the increased land development. This not only saves public money in infrastructure costs (usually 1.5 times as much as redevelopment) but also provides transport time savings for those living in the [Transit-Oriented Development areas (such as WCC’s plans for Adelaide Rd)] (based on all transport usage). Thus, it is important to ensure land value increases are integrated into the full transit and land system upgrade process. [p 6] Clearly, the model also works with light rail, but perhaps more worrying is this: Towards the end we show that a Trackless Tram is likely to be the new ‘rail’ system for cities as it does all the things light rail does but costs one tenth of it. This low cost makes it possible for entrepreneurial developers to build such systems as it will unlock their developments. [p 14] TT at a tenth of the cost of light rail is implausible. While the four-level model is interesting, other sources suggest that saving 90% of light rail costs is unrealistic. One of Newman’s errors has been picked up by Matt L: The press for the trackless train claims the vehicle can hold 300 people. This seems highly unlikely given the vehicle is only about 30m long. As a comparison, AT say that a 66m light rail vehicle will hold up to 420 people. The interior of the vehicle doesn’t suggest a huge amount of standing space either and a capacity of 180–200 people seems more realistic. But even if it could hold 300 people, it’s not enough, which is why AT are going for higher capacity vehicles. Newman himself notes (Newman et al. (2019), p 39) an Australian estimate of a third of the cost of light rail, which seems a reasonable starting-point; real-world costs must cover more than painting double white lines. Trackless trams, like BRT, look tempting because they seem far more cost-effective than light rail. This has gone on for a long time, and Wong (2018) refers to a 1994 paper, by Henscher and Walters, titled Light rail and bus priority systems: Choice or blind commitment? Perhaps the largest single risk when adopting alternatives to light rail is the simplest. Decision-makers have repeatedly demonstrated how easily they can convince themselves that anything without tracks must be better than light rail. An example is that UCL, in Innovative technologies for light rail and tram: a European reference resource Briefing paper 1 Tyre innovation–rubber tyred trams (a 2015 review of earlier versions of trackless trams), commented: All (BRT) systems installed to date have been more expensive than conventional tramways. At least two of those systems were replaced by light rail. A related blind-commitment temptation is assuming that only light rail needs to disturb underground services. The ignored risk is that underground services can disrupt TT, just as they have always disrupted present-day motor traffic: TT/BRT proponents, including CRRC, claim the benefits of being able to avoid a crash by manually steering around the obstruction. This is as much a disadvantage as an advantage, because the converse is motor vehicles running on TT/BRT ‘tracks.’ Light rail experience in Britain is stoppages when parked cars obstruct the track, and TT/BRT must also address these risks. The light rail photo on page 3 shows a kerb outside the tracks (at right), with prominent ‘TRAM ONLY’ signs painted on the road, to discourage motor vehicles. Light rail has to maintain an exclusive corridor, and effective TT will need to do the same. If TT/BRT is seen as not needing underground services diversion, decision-makers have unwittingly accepted the risk of delays or damage when underground services fail. Motor traffic is frequently delayed in this way, and drivers manage it by travelling at other times or taking an alternative route. Road signs warning of future disruptions are commonplace. Neither management option is available to either TT or BRT, and Wellington has recent experience of the effects. When the Hutt railway line was washed out in 2013, motor traffic also came to a standstill, for several days. Ignoring the need for services diversion for TT/BRT will tend to have the same effect, rarely over days, but even ten minutes can be very disruptive. Wellington decision-makers need to face facts here. Two major studies, the 2011 Bus Review and the 2013 Spine Study, were wiped out by ill-considered cost-savings. Ten years after the problem was first identified, Greater Wellington still has a heavily overloaded bus route and no plans for improvement. This process, of unconsciously working towards a substandard outcome, is well-known; blind commitment is one term, but Wikipedia calls it BRT Creep: BRT creep comprises several types of gradual erosions in service that sometimes affect a bus rapid transit (BRT) system, resulting in a service that is not up to the standards promised by BRT advocates. In its ideal form, BRT aims to combine the capacity and speed of a light rail system with the flexibility, cost and simplicity of a bus system. BRT creep occurs when a system that promises these features instead acts more like a standard, non-rapid bus system… The most extreme versions of BRT creep lead to systems that cannot even truly be recognised as “Bus Rapid Transit”. This is what happens when the bus lobby sidles in and whispers, “we can do exactly the same for half the price.” They do, and they can’t. ↑ Contents Costs Costs for TT vehicles are roughly comparable with light rail; say about $80 million to run a five-minute service. Other cost estimates vary wildly, but real-world costs must cover more than painting double white lines: Road re-grading as needed; TT videos show well-levelled surfaces everywhere. TT vehicles use the same low floor-level as light rail, and will tend to need similar large-radius vertical curves. Heavy-current, high-voltage power at all stops, termini, and especially the depot. Stations, including platforms, shelter, passenger access; ticketing machines and connections at hubs. A depot, with scope for expansion. Motor traffic realignment to make room for TT. Integration with traffic signals for TT priority. Any TT cost-estimates for Wellington will need great care, using data from existing users. Ensuring a dedicated and separated corridor would future-proof TT to support fully autonomous operation when the technology matures: light rail is future-proofed by design. The first light rail line in Montpellier opened in 2001, and in 2008 was carrying 30 million passengers a year. A cost analysis from Marc le Tourneur (2011), Making the case for trams and regional trams, showed that buses and BRT both cost about 45% more than light rail: light rail (actual figures) Investment cost per passenger€ 0.93 Operating cost per passenger€ 0.53 Total€ 1.46 buses (actual figures) Investment cost per passenger€ 0.49 Operating cost per passenger€ 1.61 Total€ 2.12 bus rapid transit (simulated using data from Nantes) Investment cost per passenger€ 0.84 Operating cost per passenger€ 1.27 Total€ 2.11 Montpellier (populaton 290,000) now has four light rail lines, with a total length of 60 km. Data from Transport for London gives equal costs for buses and light rail at about 3200 light rail passengers an hour; a little higher and light rail is cheaper than buses, and a lot cheaper when light rail is running at capacity. One reason is that savings on operations cost are sufficient to pay for greater capital costs. Roughly 70% of operating costs are driver’s wages, for either buses or light rail, but one light rail driver replaces some four to six bus drivers. ↑ Contents
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    • Visit us at the library on the 29th May – Teacher’s Strike Day
      • 28 May 2019
      • Wellington City Libraries News Blog
      • On Wednesday 29th May most schools will be affected by the Teacher’s Strike, so we have put together some events and activities to help keep kids entertained! All our branch libraries will be open (including the brand-new Arapaki!) so come along for some games, storytimes, and of course, lots of books! Branch Libraries which are hosting activities are: Cummings Park Library Pre-school storytime 10:30-11am Come play chess all day! 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Kandallah and Tawa Libraries Will be showing family movies all day, contact Kandallah or Tawa library staff for viewing times. Karori Library Pre-school storytime 10:30 – 11:00 am Big Lego blocks out for play 12:00 – 2:00 pm Fun with Robots 2:00 – 3:00 pm Miramar Library Crafterschool session 3:00 – 4:30 pm Newtown Library Let’s Go Lego 3:30 – 4:30 pm Kilbirnie Library Pre-school storytime 10:30 – 11:00 am Board game fun 3:30 – 5pm All of these are free with no bookings required, just come on in!
      • Accepted from WCL Blog feed by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • tawa
      • miramar
      • newtown
      • karori
      • kilbirnie
      • libraries

    • How FIT’s proposed light rail route has evolved
      • 5 May 2019
      • Fair Intelligent Transport (FIT) Wellington
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > © Olena Ilienko / Adobe Stock “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?” ― attributed to John Maynard Keynes In developing its proposed route for light rail, FIT sought to meet several objectives: maximize ridership travel times compete with private car form part of a rapid transit network promote transit-oriented development mitigate construction phase risk (eg business disruption) Meeting these objectives requires a route with dedicated lanes for light rail and priority over other traffic, including grade separation at busy intersections. Those who wish to will find fault with whatever route is chosen. The challenge is to understand the trade-offs and choose the least compromised option. Here are the principal options FIT considered, with reasons for our preferred option. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Residential density on the rapid transit route Q: Customhouse and Jervois Quays or the Golden Mile? A: The Quays, for the following reasons. There is room on the Golden Mile for light rail or buses, but not both. Where would the buses go? A Golden Mile route would be close to more people, but the maximum speed would be 20 kph between Panama St and Taranaki St and 30 kph elsewhere. The Quays would allow 50 kph. The construction phase along the Golden Mile would be expensive and disruptive. Many underground services would need to be relocated, especially in the Old Bank area. Shopping would be unpleasant. Many shops would be unable to sustain the lost business and close. Light rail on the Quays and buses on the Golden Mile, cutting back to a maximum of about 50 bus/hr, and better priority, will provide a faster more balanced service. Q: Taranaki Street or Kent and Cambridge Terraces? A: Taranaki St, for the following reasons. The intersection of Courtenay Place and Taranaki St offers a better layout for transfers between bus and light rail than the intersection of Courtenay Place and the Terraces. Stops at the station, Frank Kitts Park and Te Aro Park put the whole Golden Mile within a short walk. People arriving at an Embassy Theatre stop from the south would have a longer walk. Taranaki St offers more opportunities for medium density transit-oriented development than the Terraces. FIT has been unable to find a good way to separate north-south light rail from east-west traffic at the Basin Reserve. The best option if a Terraces light rail route is preferred may be to elevate light rail from north of Courtenay Place (with an elevated stop) to south of the Basin, via Sussex St. Would this be consentable? Whichever route light rail takes, FIT recommends relocating SH1 eastbound traffic from Vivian St to Karo Drive, with grade separation between light rail and SH1. Q: Adelaide Road or Wallace and John Streets? A: Adelaide Rd, for the following reasons. Wallace St is narrow and running light rail there would mean closing it to through traffic. The John St section would be slow and getting across the intersection to the hospital would create all sorts of traffic hold-ups. Adelaide Rd offers more opportunities for medium density transit-oriented development than Wallace St. A tunnel through Mt Cook from Taranaki St to Adelaide Rd is a better route alighment than via either the Basin or John St. Q: A Mt Albert tunnel or Constable St? A: A Mt Albert tunnel, for the following reasons. A Constable St route is only practical if you remove a row of houses; it's too narrow to accommodate light rail and other traffic. Running light rail on Crawford Rd to Kilbirnie would be a major engineering challenge. The section between Newtown and the Zoo offers more opportunities for medium density transit-oriented development than Constable St. Q: Cobham Drive or an airport tunnel? A: Cobham Drive, for the following reasons. Miramar town centre is a high growth, high demand destination, ideal for a light rail stop. The airport needs to be the last stop, because people with luggage take longer to get on and off. The schedule recovery time built into the timetable will readily accommodate this. A route under the airport runway would need to split to serve both Miramar town centre and the airport. If the service runs every 10 minutes, this means Miramar and the airport would each get a service every 20 minutes. A direct route to Miramar and the airport delivers a better service to both destinations. FIT understand that tunnelling under a working runway presents engineering challenges but is not a show-stopper.
      • Accepted from Fair Intelligent Transport (FIT) Wellington feed by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • kilbirnie
      • miramar
      • newtown
      • engineering
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    • Towards Tangi-te-Keo
      • 1 May 2016
      • The Wellingtonista
      • Up the back of Newtown — past the hospital, past New Zealand’s first branch library, past the community display-window where the Conscientious Objectors’ memorials absent Pukeahu Park quietly underscore ANZAC celebrations — runs a narrow path marking the spine of Tangi-te-Keo (later Mt Victoria).
      • Accepted from Wellingtonista Blog Feed
      • Tagged as:
      • newtown
      • libraries

    • Newtown Library opens again
      • 30 Aug 2015
      • Sarah Free
      •       After being closed for some weeks, Newtown Library opened again today to a waiting group of enthusiastic library users.
      • Accepted from Sarah Free posts
      • Tagged as:
      • newtown
      • libraries

        • Newtown Library, Constable Street, Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand/Aotearoa


    • Graffiti clean-up day in Newtown
      • 8 Oct 2013
      • Sarah Free
      • My sister, son and I went along for an hour on Saturday to help out with graffiti removal in Newtown. Mayor Celia Wade-Brown was there too, along with a team of council staff. We were given water, scrubbing brushes and scrapers and were asked to help remove the illegally pasted posters on one of the […]
      • Accepted from Sarah Free posts
      • Tagged as:
      • newtown

    • What Riddiford Street could look like
      • 7 Sep 2013
      • Wellington Region Cycleways
      • This is definitely worth drawing attention to. As I said on my post about the Island Bay cycle routes I am of the opinion that there should be separated cycleways up Adelaide Road and up Riddiford Street (amongst many others). At the Sexify Blog they’re much of the same opinion, at least about Riddiford Street. […]
      • Accepted from Wellington Region Cycleways
      • Tagged as:
      • islandbay
      • newtown

        • Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand/Aotearoa


    • Argentina comes to Newtown
      • 20 Aug 2013
      • Wellington City Libraries News Blog
      • A number of Wellington City Libraries’ staff members were not born in New Zealand and have backgrounds that encompass many different countries, languages, and cultures. One of the many cultures we have represented on staff is Argentine. A very cool new display has been put up at Newtown (after spending a month at Miramar and another month at Central) by librarian Axel, who is from Argentina and has been living in Wellington for a few years now. It shows off as much Argentine culture as is possible in a display cabinet, and if you check it out you will learn that Argentina has a LOT going on
      • Accepted from WCL Blog feed
      • Tagged as:
      • miramar
      • newtown

        • Newtown Library, Constable Street, Newtown, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand/Aotearoa


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