Category: Local Governance

  • Level Crossing Safety Analysis: Judds Road Crossing, Masterton

    Due to the Wairarapa Level Crossing Upgrade Programme being conducted by Kiwirail, some level crossings in the Wairarapa District must be closed. One of those proposed for closure is at Judds Road in Masterton. There are two key safety issues to be addressed at Judds Road Level Crossing and others like it. Using the above…

  • Level Crossing Upgrade Programme For Wairarapa Line

    Kiwirail and Waka Kotahi are working on a programme of level crossing upgrades in the Wairarapa at the present time. At the time of writing this post some difficulty was experienced in determining actually which Government policy announcement covers the level crossing upgrade programme but it appears to date from the announcement of the Wellington…

  • Significant Level Crossing Safety Risks At Waingawa Logging Hub / Waingawa Industrial Park

    Waingawa is a station at 85 km on the Wairarapa Line, 9 km north of Carterton and within Carterton District. The site was formerly known for the Waingawa Freezing Works, which had its own industrial sidings. There was a platform and station building for passenger use. It is likely that this would have included some…

  • Government Announces New Trains For Lower North Island

    An article in Stuff’s Wellington newspaper, The Post, announced today that the government’s 2023 budget will including funding for 18 hybrid trains for the Kapiti and Wairarapa line services in the lower North Island. These trains run on the Wairarapa Line from Wellington to Masterton (excluding the Wellington commuter network) (The Wairarapa Connection services) and…

  • Auckland Light Rail Has Never Been About The Airport.

    Newsroom has just published a pair of articles by Mike Lee, an Auckland Councillor of quite some longstanding. He was on the Council from 2010 to 2019 and was re-elected in the local government elections last year. Before that he was a member of the Auckland Regional Council from 1992 to 2010, the last six…

  • Report Into Telephone Road Level Crossing Options Ignores Grade Separation

    The saga of the Telephone Road level crossing at Puketaha and at 11.08 km track distance from Frankton on the East Coast Main Trunk Railway is continuing since Waka Kotahi produced its conclusion on 14th March that the crossing should be closed. As part of that process, WK attached a report produced for them by…

  • Christchurch Public Transport Plan Disappointing, Underwhelming

    On Friday 10th March, the government’s Minister of Transport visited Christchurch to announce that $78 million would be invested into a “revamp” of the Christchurch bus network. This revamp consists of adding extra buses and bus priority measures to just five of the city’s existing bus routes. These are named as the No.1 bus from…

  • Reversal Needed of 1989 Local Government Reforms [3]

    Well this series has wandered all over the place, and this definitely will be the last part. Today’s local government issue of note is of course the 3 Waters proposals. 3 Waters is one of those things you think councils should regard as their core business, but the real problem with it is the value…

  • “Greater Christchurch Partnership” Is A Sham For Public Transport

    In 2017, the Labour Party campaigned for the general election on a platform of offering to spend $100 million on public transport in the city, which included the investigation of commuter rail. The lofty and noble ideas have since become bogged down in local government politics as Christchurch City Council has simply rehashed its long…