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2 hours ago, aardvarkash10 said:

Consider it a proof of concept.

It needs to be faster, on wider spaced rails for sure, terminate in downtown Auckland or close by, and ideally have links to the Bay of Plenty, Auckland Airport, and the North Shore.

Even longer term, medium speed rail to Wellington.  True high speed (TGV, Shinkansen 250-300kph) is too expensive for our population, but a train that could cruise at 150 - 170 kph makes the trip AKL-WLG approximately 4.5 hour passage.  Flying is around 2.5 hours if things go well... 

Problem is it's not going to work and they will use it as "proof" that rail doesn't work. 

3h is far too long, needs to be 45-55min, entirely possible without high-speed rail.

Don't need wider rail spacing, plenty of trains in the world run fast on a narrow gauge like ours.

Do need electrification of the Hamilton to Auckland stretch. 

Do need to put a tunnel under the hill from Pokeno directly north. 

Train needs to run every hour from 5am through to 11pm. This way it gives the flexibility for people to actually use it. Fast stops (2 min max) in: Te Rapa, Ngaruawahia, Huntly, Mercer, Pokeno, then into the AKL region.

 

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They are loking at AK to TGA,had the silver fern back in 2000,left papakura 6.00pm tga by 9.00pm.Looking AK the whangarei.

Agree"Fogg" live near to your work with staggered start/finish times.I am within 13ks of work.Mind you that 13ks in the afternoon about 4.00pm can take an hour.Wouldnt want to travel much further.Why sit in a car/train/bus for 3hrs a day??

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8 hours ago, Fogg said:

 Where I came from nobody in their right mind would live north of London and commute daily through the city to work south. 

Fogg, please. That's a simplistic view at best.  I lived in Basingstoke and commuted to the Oxford street for a while, and had a cousin that lived further south than that and commuted into the city for years. 

The difference is that although it's still a haul it's a feasible exercise because there are regular trains.  They also have the population to make it feasible to run those trains, we don't.  (and that's not even starting on the dificulties Auckland has being on an isthmus let alone decades of 'lets just build more roads').

Also, it's quite easy for one person to live near their workplace, but it doesn't happen very often that both people working live nearby.  My wife walks about 400m to work and that was one of the reasons we moved there. 

My job on the other hand just moved from Mt Roskill to the airport so I now do exactly what you describe as ridiculous.

So I'm about to start riding my bike from the shore to the airport via Greenhithe because there is no way of getting over the bridge.  Still, I'd rather do that than drive.

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The main business driver for a second crossing is the limited life span of the current crossing. Basic metal fatigue and cyclic loading means they need to build another one.

Any hopes of improved travel times and productivity is just that, hopes...

I'm loving you guys saying this should be done, or that should be done. When you see the cost estimates, and plans to fund it, regional fuel taxes, congestion charging or what ever, I think the mood will change sharply. Fully agree we need to be planning inf 50 yrs ahead. Who is bitching about the cost of City Rail Link? I am.... that one project has killed off every other transport upgrade across all of Auckland.

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26 minutes ago, Tamure said:

also, anyone remember the old Mangere bridge? One day they decided to build a new one along with a motorway and then nek minut..  Can someone tell me the precise political process that results in a decision to proceed? Is it constituent driven, planning driven, who signs it off?

Now we have a motorway bridge at mangere and an old bridge used a buffer in case of a shipping mishap buts the new bridge going to do??run trains.?

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2 hours ago, harrytom said:

Now we have a motorway bridge at mangere and an old bridge used a buffer in case of a shipping mishap buts the new bridge going to do??run trains.?

No shipping anymore, apart from the odd fishing boat.

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On 25/03/2021 at 11:58 AM, harrytom said:

Why sit in a car/train/bus for 3hrs a day??

Rather not waste that time, but at least in the train you could read, or snooze, or have a beer. 
Beginning of last year I was spending 1.5h each way. 2 trains and a bike ride at each end. Thank god for home office. 
 

I always felt that the Tron could have been the transport hub of the upper central NI. connections to the main Waikato towns plus rotovegas, tag/mount, Maserati, and at one point  even paeroa and Thames. 
it’s not until you live with a decent train and public transport set up that you realise how truly liberating it is. 

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3 hours ago, DrWatson said:

Rather not waste that time, but at least in the train you could read, or snooze, or have a beer. 
Beginning of last year I was spending 1.5h each way. 2 trains and a bike ride at each end. Thank god for home office. 
 

I always felt that the Tron could have been the transport hub of the upper central NI. connections to the main Waikato towns plus rotovegas, tag/mount, Maserati, and at one point  even paeroa and Thames. 
it’s not until you live with a decent train and public transport set up that you realise how truly liberating it is. 

Used public transport in Sydney,not best but it worked.Ak to the Tron would of been good on Friday as shw1 blocked for hrs at meremere.3 hrs to get back and every car had 1 person in it,no idea how many cars there were but more than train capacity of 300.

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5 hours ago, harrytom said:

Used public transport in Sydney,not best but it worked.Ak to the Tron would of been good on Friday as shw1 blocked for hrs at meremere.3 hrs to get back and every car had 1 person in it,no idea how many cars there were but more than train capacity of 300.

I’m talking about a train capacity of 1200 - every hour or 2000 in rush hour.

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14 hours ago, KM... said:

Chatting to a dude who lets office buildings in the CBD this morning. He reckons there is empty space all over the show and it's only going to decrease due to covid showing how most CBD office wombles can do the same from home and elsewhere. He sees a comparative ghost town there soon. He questioned why all the effort around public transport is based on getting bodies in to and then out of Queen Street.

He has a good point.

As one of those office wombles, working from home has been a lifestyle godsend.
1. I get one to two hours more sleep per day, or if I wake up early I just scroll through sites like this online until I fee like getting up to put the kettle on.
2. I no longer sit in morning and evening rush hour traffic
3. I save a heap of money on petrol and parking.
4. I don't have to listen to idle and not so idle office chatter bollocks
5. I don't have to worry about winter colds and flu that other office wombles cough and splutter throughout the whole building

However, I do find a bit of resistance from some management who are stuck in the old ways, and want "everyone back in the office to build team spirit".  I mean - hand me a bucket while I puke.
 

 

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Drop number 2 off Sunday evening at AK uni and pick up Thursday evening. Often wonder down the through Queen st and surrounding areas and think why would anyone want a business in Downtown, empty buildings some real sh*t apartment conversions,lowlifes with hand out on every corner. Why would(if i was in business)need to go to the cbd when we have lawyers/accounts etc out in the suburbs who are just as capable. Working from home I can see people being more productive without the management wombles interrupting with silly questions. Well the wife seems more productive, and user friendly as not coming home complaining about workmates and their trivial lives. 

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9 minutes ago, harrytom said:

Drop number 2 off Sunday evening at AK uni and pick up Thursday evening. Often wonder down the through Queen st and surrounding areas and think why would anyone want a business in Downtown, empty buildings some real sh*t apartment conversions,lowlifes with hand out on every corner. Why would(if i was in business)need to go to the cbd when we have lawyers/accounts etc out in the suburbs who are just as capable. Working from home I can see people being more productive without the management wombles interrupting with silly questions. Well the wife seems more productive, and user friendly as not coming home complaining about workmates and their trivial lives. 

The small team I manage - their productivity is outstanding when working from home.
You can't eff about - the stats don't lie.
However, it seems old habits die hard with the top brass.  Some just can't get out of old ideals.
It's all about being back in the office for them.
MInd you, we have a few sailors like that, that can't accept new technology 😃

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6 hours ago, KM... said:

I think that should be 'increase around'.

Working from home productivity studies show there are 2 sorts of workers, one is noticeably more productive, the other noticeably less, with seemingly less middle ground than is found in a typical work place environment. I don't have a problem believing that as one of mine when working from home is a machine in getting sh*t done but then I'm the opposite, far too many distracting toys on hand at home so the work environment keeps me on track a little better.

The new home office should be finished later this week, I suspect 2 of my 3 jobs may take a whack but the 3rd will thrive.

But since when does the guy at the top not play golf, go sailing, drink pina coladas 😁

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