Latest news with #AucklandTransport
1News
3 days ago
- 1News
No trains running in Auckland, Wellington over King's Birthday
Trains in Auckland and Wellington won't run across King's Birthday weekend with infrastructure works leaving buses to pick up the slack. The metropolitan centres are both upgrading their networks, warning passengers to expect delays. In Wellington, Metlink says all trains will stop running between Saturday and Monday, as works to repair bridges, replace tracks, and upgrade level crossings take place. Services in Auckland have paused from Friday, with Auckland Transport confirming their return on Monday, as crews upgrade the network. Both cities are using rail replacement buses to support those needing to travel. ADVERTISEMENT In Auckland there have already been weeks of shutdowns in January and April. Further rail closures are also planned for Matariki weekend, and for two weeks during school holidays in July. All trains will be shut over Matariki weekend, between June 20-23. A partial closure has also been scheduled for the winter school holidays between June 28 and July 13.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
No trains running in Auckland, Wellington over King's Birthday
Photo: Auckland Transport Trains in Auckland and Wellington won't run across King's Birthday weekend with infrastructure works leaving buses to pick up the slack. The metropolitan centres are both upgrading their networks, warning passengers to expect delays. In Wellington, Metlink says all trains will stop running between Saturday and Monday, as works to repair bridges, replace tracks, and upgrade level crossings take place. Services in Auckland have paused from Friday, with Auckland Transport confirming their return on Monday, as crews upgrade the network. Both cities are using rail replacement buses to support those needing to travel. In Auckland there have already been weeks of shutdowns in January and April. Further rail closures are also planned for Matariki weekend, and for two weeks during school holidays in July. All trains will be shut over Matariki weekend, between 20-23 June. A partial closure has also been scheduled for the winter school holidays between 28 June and 13 July. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Smith & Caughey's closure a body-blow to Queen St retail
The 145-year-old department store was the oldest and last survivor of a cohort of Queen St department stores like John Courts and Milne & Choyce, with George Courts on Karangahape Rd and the Farmers on Hobson St. Once household names, these became victims of the commercial mayhem of the 1980s. But Smith & Caughey's, a prudently managed family business, carried on. Its stately Victorian building with its art-deco frontage has housed a grand emporium of goods from around the world, and its Christmas window displays have been the delight of children to this day. It's been a survivor of Auckland's golden age, when Auckland was envied across the country, and Aucklanders used to actually boast about their city. Last year, Smith and Caughey's narrowly survived a near-death experience only by closing its Newmarket store and retrenching the Queen St operation. Some of the reasons were outlined by its chairman, Tony Caughey: a major decline in foot traffic on Queen St meaning a 40% decline in revenue; the after-effects of Covid, crime and safety issues; national economic downturn; online shopping, designer brands like Gucci choosing to open their own stores; and competition from malls like Westfield Newmarket with their lavish free parking. But many of these factors are in play in Australian cities too, where department stores like David Jones and Myer are still very much in business. So what's different about Auckland? Here, city centre foot traffic continues to decline, down 3.8% from last year, with shop vacancies nearly 10%. Heart of the City's Viv Beck points to the compounding damage done to retail by Auckland Transport's removal of parking and loading zones, and increased parking charges, extended to 24 hours. It's an inconvenient truth for some, but Smith & Caughey's closure announcement puts it bluntly: 'The city centre has also faced significant disruption and change in the form of ongoing roadworks and the slow progress of CRL, causing traffic congestion. Similarly, perceived safety issues, a large decline in foot traffic on Queen St, and an increase in parking costs have all continued to impact the economic position of the business.' In recent years, at enormous expense and disruption, for reasons vaguely related to 'climate', the council reduced Queen St to two narrow lanes now dominated by mainly empty buses and a cycleway, the enlarged footpaths the home of beggars and rough sleepers. Now, even driving to and on Queen St is a mission. Indeed, from Wakefield St to the Civic Theatre, where two years or so ago, Auckland Transport set up what critics call a 'revenue trap', $20 million of fines have been issued to unwitting drivers. Though the council's 'City Centre Master Plan' promises an 'accessible, inclusive and prosperous city centre', its 'transformational moves' do the opposite; blockading and progressively hollowing out the city's retail heart. The Wellesley St West 'bus improvements' project, immediately adjacent to Smith & Caughey's, has been dug up for a year now, with no end in sight. Even more depressing, its objective is to permanently block access to Queen St for private vehicles. 'Master Plan' zealots, seemingly indifferent to the damage caused, are now intent on extending this blockade, what they call the Queen St 'AVO' (authorised vehicle only) from Mayoral Drive to Victoria St. This is part of an Orwellian 'A4E' (Access for Everyone) plan, intended to turn Queen St into a 'ZEA' (Zero Emissions Area), 'low-traffic neighbourhood'. The City Rail Link, originally meant to enhance the quality of life in Auckland, is now seen almost desperately as a lifesaver. Unfortunately, its disruptive construction has taken more than double the time originally planned, costing at least three times what was stated in its business case. But the official assumption, almost an article of faith, is that once the CRL is opened, thousands of people will come flooding into the city. That might well have been the case when construction began in 2016, but now why would they? Moreover, public transport is chronically failing in Auckland, with overall patronage since the 2019 peak down 11%, with rail patronage down 35%. Given challenging economic conditions, the council and AT should have done everything possible to keep Queen St retail. Instead, it did the opposite. Sadly, Smith & Caughey's, finally overcome by the odds, is in many ways the victim of the city for which it was for 145 years a stylish icon. Things have to change.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
AT brings on new camera cars to manage city parking, avoid anarchy
Auckland motorists who park without paying may want to think twice, now the city has a full fleet of parking enforcement vehicles that can catch you out in a split second. The cars, which have advanced plate recognition cameras, digitally "chalk" the wheels of vehicles and assess whether they're parked illegally or not. AT has raked up $3.8 million dollars in fines in the year to April alone. RNZ took a ride with an enforcement officer as they digitally marked cars on the most ticketed street in town. The car was part of AT's fleet of 23 customised vehicles that have been rolled out across the city, to operate alongside regular street parking officers. It was fitted with cameras that could pick up licence plates in mere milliseconds. Auckland Transport officer Natalie, whose surname RNZ has agreed not to use at the risk of her facing abuse, explained how the vehicle worked. "This vehicle goes around taking videos and still images of vehicles parked on the road," she said. "It will generate a hit for the processes to infringe on the vehicle if they're either overstaying maximum authorised time, or, pretty much committing an offence." Natalie said she got a mixed response while driving around town. Some people block their licence plate. Some people would stand in front of it or just put something to block it. You'll get people running to their cars." One of AT's new camera cars on the hunt for illegal parking. Photo: Nick Monro RNZ rode with AT down Princes Street near the University of Auckland, the most ticketed street in the city, racking up 5199 tickets issued between 1 January and 9 April, almost $294,000. Not all of the marked cars would generate tickets. First, video of the offending vehicle goes back to AT headquarters to be checked whether or not an infringement had been committed. During the trip, the car scanned 608 plates on Princes Street alone. Of those, 47, or just under eight percent, were pinged for potential illegal parking. AT's group manager of parking services John Strawbridge said the new cars had made a big difference. "It has enabled our officers to obviously cover more geographic ground but also to do it in a safe manner," he said. He said there were simple ways to avoid getting ticketed. "Make sure you read the signs. Read the signs which might have a time limit on it, two hours or whatever it maybe," Strawbridge said. "Have a contingency in your mind that 'Jeez if I'm going to park for over this time I maybe shouldn't park in that particular spot'." He also encouraged motorists to use the AT app or the parking meter to extend their time if needed. "We don't want to give you tickets, but also we've got a responsibility in terms of equity for other drivers that may be looking for a carpark," he said. "If we didn't manage parking, then it'd be anarchy out there. No one would move and no one would be able to find a park." RNZ spoke with motorists on Princes Street about their experience parking in the city. "I've received multiple tickets," one woman said "Now I just pay $20 to park for about five hours, and move my car for the last two. "I tend to avoid coming to town, so as to not deal with the parking situation," another person said. Chief executive of the Central City Business Association, Viv Beck, said infringements should only be issued for the right reasons. "It is fair to say that enforcement does play an important role in turning over parking, for example, so that time frames are observed and you haven't got someone sitting for long periods and hogging a park, so I think there is a role to play," she said. "Where it's an issue, and where we have a concern is when it's used as a revenue generator, that does not take account of the reasonable needs of the businesses and their customers and or suppliers." Beck said it posed a challenge for businesses when it came to servicing and loading. "We did go through a period where people were being fined for that, and in fact that vehicle will be picking up who are forced with having no other options but to park close to where they need to go," she said. "If people don't have options and they have a job to do, that's pretty difficult for businesses and suppliers trying to operate here, and we do have concern where if planning hasn't provided sufficient serving and loading space, pretty unfair, pretty unreasonable actually to be fining people." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Scoop
As Cities Across The World Adopt Safer Speeds, Auckland Is Alone In Abandoning Them
Press Release – Pippa Coom An international road safety expert based in Auckland condemns the city's move to raise speed limits across over a thousand residential streets, town centres, and major public transport hubs. 'No other city in the world is ignoring the evidence and changing speed limits like this, let alone spending millions of dollars to make streets deliberately more dangerous and less efficient,' says Lennart Nout, director of Mobycon Pacific and international expert on street design. 'Auckland Transport's rush to reverse safe speeds at this scale is unprecedented in a global setting. It goes against not only many of Auckland's own plans and policies, but against international trends and the huge body of evidence confirming the benefits of reduced speed limits on residential streets.' Mr Nout joins a growing alliance of leading road safety experts and transport advocates who are calling on Auckland's Mayor to urgently intervene and halt any further speed limit reversals. This will prevent Auckland Transport wasting millions of dollars on making Auckland's streets less safe, less healthy, and less efficient. In addition over 400 people have signed an open letter to the Minister and Auckland Transport to let Aucklanders keep safe speeds. Speaking on behalf of the group, Pippa Coom, All Aboard Aotearoa adviser and former Auckland Councillor, says 'Auckland's leaders have a responsibility to urgently call a halt on the speed raises. This will allow time for a full assessment of the safety implications and impact on communities, and will give Auckland Transport the opportunity to apply the safer NZTA-approved approach used by other cities to keep their people safe.' 'For months, we have been alerting AT's Board and CEO to multiple red flags that show their approach to the Speed Rule makes no sense. With incoherent and incomprehensible signage now appearing on our streets, everyone can see an urgent halt is needed before it is too late. Only today a sign has been installed upside down amid a mix of contradictory speed limits around a school in the suburb of Pt Chevalier.' [see photos attached] 'There is no doubt that AT's actions will lead to increased road trauma, as the safer speeds currently being removed were forecast to avoid 564 Deaths and Serious Injuries (DSI) over 10 years. Other cities have found a pragmatic and sensible approach to the Speed Rule – what's Auckland Transport's excuse?' says Ms Coom. 'By rushing through reversions to higher speeds in our neighbourhoods, around our schools, transport hubs and town centres, AT's leadership and their traffic engineers are directly contravening their statutory responsibilities and ethical duty to maintain a safe transport network and to reduce risks,' says Greater Auckland's Connor Sharp. 'Instead, AT is creating a Kafkaesque road safety nightmare.' 'Moreover, this is very publicly sabotaging major new investment in City Rail Link, public transport and cycling infrastructure, by raising speeds in large swathes of Meadowbank, Maungawhau, Pt Chevalier, Avondale, Homai, Te Atatū South and elsewhere [as covered in detail here by Greater Auckland]. This will produce worse urban environments with deadly consequences,' says Mr Sharp. Mr Nout notes that Auckland is completely alone in its policy of raising speed limits. 'No other city in the world is actively working on making vehicle traffic go faster, specifically targeting residential streets. Quite the opposite: cities around the world, like Paris, London and Toronto are choosing to calm traffic, not just to reduce injuries and deaths, but to create healthier, more pleasant neighbourhoods. These cities are finding that there are no downsides to reducing the speed limit. Traffic flows just as well, quality of life improves and more people choose to walk and ride. In London for example, on the streets in areas where the speed limit was reduced, the number of deaths and serious injuries dropped by a staggering 34%. That makes these measures extremely cost-effective.' 'The current trajectory is not just dangerous, it's internationally embarrassing. A swift and sensible solution is needed before our city becomes a global laughing stock,' says Ms Coom. 'Those who are responsible for Auckland's roads must step away from this sorry path, which will harm people who live here and people who visit here. We call on the Mayor, AT and the Minister to take immediate restorative action to keep our streets safe and welcoming for all.'
