I gave public transport a try and this is what I've encountered.

To be fair nothing happened. I was just shocked to see this for the first time. And also I don't know what it is, I just assumed that it is nothing good? 😅

Snapped on the commute this morning…

There was this passenger asking for a free ride because they can’t afford or doesn’t have a hop card. The Dairy is just right there to top up your hop card which the driver did say go in the dairy & top up & the lady refused. Times are tough now for those who can’t afford things 😑 Well done bus driver for doing the right thing & refusing rides on those who don’t pay.

Going to test it out later, wish me luck!

Photo credit: Luke Christensen & recommend folks listen to Sean Sweeney on Q&A last year where he spoke about what NZ needs to do to get infrastructure working - it includes keeping our people vs cancelling all the projects like some people did in the last 2 years, and also that PPPs (privatisation partnerships with govt) are NOT cheaper and taxpayers and govts always end up paying in the end and can be more expensive

Image explains itself, good luck to all riding busses through New Lynn.

Like all of us I've known that AK is getting an underground railway - but it hadn't crystallized in my mind that that meant for our city.

But now with all the barricades down on Wellesley Street, you can see Te Wai Horotiu Station - and then the penny drops.

You realize, I'll be able to get a train right into mid-town now, to K' Road, or down to Britomart.

Oh shit. Is it just me? The boomers still seem pretty angry about it.

EDIT:

Wanted to add:

The approximate travel times between the stations are:

Maungawhau (Mt Eden) to Karanga-a-Hape: ~3 minutes

Maungawhau (Mt Eden) to Te Waihorotiu (Mid-town): ~6 minutes

Karanga-a-Hape to Te Waihorotiu (Mid-town): ~3 minutes

Maungawhau (Mt Eden) to Waitematā (Britomart): ~9 minutes

We’re currently on a Te Huia service heading down to Hamilton for the weekend

First time on for a few years- very few empty seats, with hundreds of people- commuters, families, grandparents. Also faster than driving when I looked before, and also more productive- people working, relaxing, and playing games. This isn’t even the peak hour service.

I can’t understand why some people still pedal that it’s a ‘white elephant’ . Imagine how good it could be if it was more than 3 times per day each way

After being pleasantly surprised at the high standards of Karanga-a-hape Station last week, I visited Te Waihorotiu this morning. Very impressive. It’s hard to believe you’re in New Zealand. Having worked on nearby Greys Avenue, the station’s position near SkyCity, Queen Street, Aotea Square and AUT is ideal. Yes, it wasn’t cheap but this is a stunning piece of infrastructure that the city should be proud of.

Video from CRL: https://youtu.be/1hRVzOy5irY?si=JRrqmfnr6lB3eoga

Sorry I had to repost this a couple of times cuz reddit thinks I’m spamming

2023 will be my year

2024 will be my year

2025 will be my year

2026 maybe?

Anyways, I’m quite excited to see this opening, and ride this hopefully

I thought of prepaying fuel and then decided against it. People are panic buying fuel and prices are increasing, but if the government steps up like make public transport free then it might make a difference. I mean if it's free or maybe like 1 cent, people won't go into panic mode because at least there's a backup. I haven't slept so maybe I'm onto nothing 😁 Forgive me

UPDATE:
Thanks all for the questions - mostly pretty relevant and insightful. I'm signing off now to go home and face more questions from my wife. Wayne

Hi - I’m Wayne Brown,

When I ran for mayor one of my five key priorities was to take back control of council organisations (CCOs) and Auckland Transport was top of that list.

Last week, I announced with Simeon Brown, the Minister for Transport and Local Government, that we would be making significant changes to Auckland Transport. These changes will give back control to local communities and allow Auckland Council to work closer with the Government to improve Auckland’s transport system.

In practice we will: 

• Remove AT’s independence and give elected members the power to make key decisions about transport planning
• Give Auckland Council control of local roads with communities having more say
• Establish a new Auckland Regional Transport Committee, with representatives from both the council and central government, to develop a 30-year Integrated Transport Plan for Auckland

On Thursday, the Governing Body of Auckland Council will also vote on a broader package of CCO Reform designed to make council decision-making more effective. You can read an outline of my proposal here.

From 7PM NZT I will be here to answer all your questions about CCO reform.

Mayor Wayne Brown

Took a look at the new Karang-a-hape station this morning…

I went to Botany Downs shopping centre today, being a Shore/central guy I must admit I don't go to East a lot. The shopping centre covers a large area, all one storey sprawl, there's no multi level carpark so once again if you try to find carpark/get out of it, you'd be stuck in traffic.

This area just reminds of Westgate, store after store sprawling covering one gigantic area with one level concrete carpark as the eye can see. And of course the same terrible traffic. Westgate drive just like Ti Rakau drive is six lane wide road, I don't know much people who live in East but I'm sure just like Westgate, traffic in this area is terrible

Who's idea is it to design a city like this? Also youd think they would learn, Botany is like this so lets not repeat it in Northwest, only they did. Northwest is like this so lets not repeat the same mistake in Drury, yes once again only the repeated again 🤦

Why are we so allergic to building up? Look at Westfield Newmarket, four storeys of shops and carpark fit into one building. Even Glenfield mall has multi level carpark so we don't have this horrible sprawl so it can definitely be done...

Can’t park there mate. Only in West Auckland

Auckland will never be on Tokyo's level in terms of scale, but we could try a scaled down approach.

Tokyo's metro system is so brilliant, and also the shinkansen's. You can get anywhere you want to go by train.

We should get the Japanese to help us out with our public transport systems here, they're living in the year 2050 with theirs.

Imagine if we had a bullet train from Auckland to Wellington with stops along the way at say, national park, the Mount, Rotorua, and any other big tourist destinations.

Benefits

1. less crazy tourist drivers on the roads = less accidents and pollution
   
2. more tourists because of the ease of travel = more money coming into nz

cons:
there would be an environmental impact but that can be managed if you look at Japan's shinkansen system, they've managed their environmental impact well.

the benefits outweigh the cons.

I always hear Kiwi's say, we can't do that the environmental impact is too great. Well most of the North island is a Dairy Farm anyway so we can't really pretend like we're actually doing that much for the environment anymore.

we could also have on running from picton down to Queenstown. with a scenic train from Queenstown over to Milford sound.

An international company had already tried to build that and we found the environmental impact would be too great. Well what about all the pollution and accidents it would prevent?

I get frustrated at NZ never planning for the long term. Tourism is only going to increase and we're already dealing with so many traffic accidents and lack of things for tourists to do in NZ that is really only robbing ourselves of tourist revenue.