Auckland: Governance and Transport

Royal Commission on Auckland Governance

Here is some good news! There is a Royal Commission on Auckland Governance currently underway to "...investigate, and make recommendations on, local and regional government arrangements for the Auckland region in the future."

Anyone who thinks they have a view on this owes it to themselves to make a submission. I'll certainly be making one.

Auckland Public Transport

Since shifting to Auckland recently, I've been soaking up anything and everything about MAXX and the operators who provide the service. I am particularly curious as I spent most of 6 months last year car-less and using the services of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The TTC sets a very high standard for MAXX to meet, I have to say.

It is clear that there has been a huge amount of progress on the public transport front in Auckland in recent years. It is also clear (to me) that the multiple private contractors providing service across the city result in poorly integrated infrastructure, services and ticketing. It costs a relative bomb to get from the North Shore to Sylvia Park and back (for example). For a family of four, MAXX would cost more than double and take more than twice as long as the same trip in the family car.

It's seems obvious to me that a single regional transport authority that actually owns the services and everything related to them would be a much more efficient way to go. It would be able to react to meet customer demand, invest in creating demand in new areas and rapidly allocate resources where they were needed.....whether or not they were at that point in time profitable. One flat fare could be charged for the whole city - to go anywhere. Where this is done, usage of public transport is far higher than Auckland.

MAXX Niggle

I note that MAXX's new web site no longer includes the discussion forums that had previously been a popular way for people interested in MAXX services to swap stories about the service. The forums were removed without any consultation and notice they were disappearing amounted to a single day: "....from tomorrow....". (In case it is removed, it said: "Also please note that from tomorrow the MAXX website public forum will be closed. The reason for this is that in the redesign of the homepage of the MAXX website the focus is on providing you with "how to use public transport" information. All other items have also been removed from the MAXX homepage.")

As one who used those forums to gauge sentiment among users of the MAXX services, I'm very sorry to see them go. I have a server here at home and I'm looking at setting up public transit forums on it so people who want to can maintain the discussion.

The MAXX move at the very least indicates MAXX saw no value in the forums and the customer discussions that took place there. At worst, it could be seen as an example of a petulant bureaucracy reacting to public criticism by cutting it off rather than listening and - even better - addressing it.