Weekly Review No.73
This week, New art takes over Hamilton Transport Centre, MOTAT gets fresh tracks and scammers target Wellington’s Cable Car.
UPDATED 5:13 pm 14/03/2025 - Corrected incorrect information from external news provider.
Welcome to the Weekly Review, this week has been another week full of Transport News, and we have wrapped it up for you to digest below.
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The main Desert Rd detour, State Highway 49, was down to one lane last weekend and will be this weekend to allow KiwiRail to undertake “urgent maintenance” on the Tangiwai Rail Crossing.
As the Coalition Government tries to contain the costs of its replacement ferry proposal it is already potentially up to almost $800 million in the red over cancelling the previous iRex project.
As noted by @patrickreynolds on BlueSky the below article is incorrect with ratepayer PT subsidies in 2024 costing $260m, not $750m.
We apologise for the inaccurate data we shared.
Ratepayer subsidies for Auckland’s bus, train and ferry services have risen from $510 million to nearly $750 million over five years.
Ferry Holdings Limited was registered with the NZ Companies Office on Wednesday with Chris Mackenzie, Heather Simpson and Greg Lowe listed as directors.
Due to the Pasifika Festival causing increased pedestrian numbers near the tracks over the weekend, MOTAT did not operate the Western Springs Tramway and instead ran a tram replacement bus.
A Dunedin woman is disappointed, but "not surprised", by the number of tour bus operators parking dangerously and then taking tourists down to the closed Tunnel Beach track.
KiwiRail shared photos of the recently completed mural by artist KORYU, the mural is part of the South Dunedin Street Art Trail and was painted on a wall at KiwiRail’s Hillside Workshop.
NZTA shared a photo of the progress of the new State Highway 22 roundabout, which will connect to the also under construction Paerātā train station, the roundabout is due to be completed by the end of 2025.
The government will narrow down the shipyards vying to build the new Cook Strait ferries by the end of the month, but will only confirm a contract will be signed sometime "this year".
A compromise over closing the Judds Rd rail crossing in Masterton means new safety issues will be funnelled towards the High St intersection instead, community advocates say.
Lobbying is under way to establish an electric public transport bus between Queenstown and Wānaka.
The rollout of the transport agency's national ticketing system continues to hit snags with Timaru and Temuka pushed out to the middle of the year.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is considering making the Hewletts Rd/State Highway 2 bus lane T3, allowing any vehicle with three or more passengers to use it.
City Rail Link shared a preview of some of the art panels inside Te Waihorotiu Station which were designed by tamariki around the country.
The Palmerston North & Ashhurst bus network changes came into action on Monday, But a technical issue has arisen with real-time tracking, causing issues with the Transit app, Google and Apple maps, Connect are advising passengers to use the timetables on their website.
A new artwork was installed at the Hamilton Transport Centre, the artwork was designed by local artist Mana Pounamu and has been installed above the Anglesea Street entrance to the Transport Centre.
It’s been 30 years since the Matawhero Railway Station was relocated to the East Coast Museum of Technology, and recently the station platform has been fully asphalted.
The platform being asphalted has enabled better accessibility for those attending the museum.
AT says it is restarting a critical advertising tender process because of the need for modifications. It’s also revealed that it earlier accidentally released commercially sensitive sales information to participants.
Te Huia rail service has been a hit for weekend day trips to Auckland to the extent that plans are underway to add a Sunday service between Hamilton and the super city.
A Christchurch beach community fed up with “noisy” buses idling in a residential street feels even more “hopeless” after local council came up with a proposal to improve the situation.
From our Friends at Greater Auckland: It appears that Auckland Transport is finally set to improve Auckland’s busiest non-frequent bus route, the 120.
Ports on either side of Cook Strait were reluctant to work with KiwiRail after their experience with the failed mega-ferry project.
Shaun Baker from Multimodal Adventures shared photos of the nearly fully paved Tyler Street, which will connect with the Waitematā (Britomart) Station plaza that is currently under construction.
From Monday 24 March there will be lane changes on Tī Rākau Drive between Burswood Drive (east) and Te Koha Road to allow for Eastern Busway construction along Tī Rākau Drive.
Citylink Whangārei have relocated their offices to Vine Street, the office can be found in the Vine Street Carpark, near the exit.
City Rail Link released a video showcasing some of CRL's junior artists who submitted their artwork to be featured at the Victoria Street entrance to Te Waihorotiu Station.
The controversial closure of Mount Maunganui’s Links Ave will remain but its closure times will be reduced, the Links Ave cul-de-sac is formed by two bus lanes between Solway Place and Concord Ave.
Shaun Baker from Multimodal Adventures shared images of the Beresford Square entrance to Karanga-a-Hape Station which has recently seen the installation of bollards on the plaza in front of the entrance building.
Peter Bisley has used the latest census, and transport network data, to show the walking and cycling potential to stations along Auckland's Western Line.
Captain Iain MacLeod & Katherine Rich have been appointed to the Ferry Holdings Board, Minister for Rail Winston Peters announced.
A suite of transport projects were approved at Hamilton City Council’s Infrastructure & Transport Committee meeting, the projects are low cost & simple improvements to existing footpaths, bus shelters, cycle ways and intersections.
Auckland Transport shared photos of the Rā Hihi (flyover) being constructed above Reeves Road and across Tī Rākau Drive, Construction on Rā Hihi has just hit the one year mark after work started in March 2024.
Onewa Road, one of the busiest routes in Auckland, is set to become “more productive”, with plans to introduce bus boosters and queue detection technology to help ease congestion.
Fares on Marlborough’s publicly funded buses will rise this July for the first time since the service started twenty years ago, Council’s Assets and Services Committee approved a 20 per cent increase that will take effect 1 July.
City Rail Link shared some side-by-side images of Karanga-a-Hape Station's construction progress compared to the completed station's renders.
Would you pay $11.6 million to live above a train station? You might if you saw the penthouse on offer in the $450m Symphony Centre, currently under construction in Auckland’s CBD.
Work to replace the S-Bend on the Western Springs Tramway is now complete and trams have completed a test run on the new tracks, work has now shifted to the Motions Rd crossing.
With the change in seasons, Bay of Islands Vintage Railway will shortly move into their Autumn schedule.
March - Trains will run 6 days with 3 trains a day
April/May - Trains will run 5 days with 2 trains a day
The mayor of the community where a young girl died after being struck by a train says she will do everything she can to prevent it from happening again.
City Rail Link announced that their testing programme is 'tracking well' and test trains have hit line speed of 70km/h.
Eastern Busway crews have constructed a temporary accessway and piling platform for the new busway bridge and cycleway beside Tī Rākau Drive Bridge near Burswood.
City Rail Link is currently undertaking train recovery testing as part of the over 9,000 separate tests to be completed before CRL opens in 2026.
During a test, a functional train pushes and pulls an inoperative train up and downhill in a number of tests to verify the recovery works.
A scam email pretending to be NZTA has been sent out to people from what appears to be the Wellington Cable Car (WCC) email address, WCC are investigating the issue and are asking people to ignore and delete the email.