Why Supermaxx??
To be effective and make it ‘transport of choice' for Aucklanders, for both commuters and general travel, public transport must be
FAST
- Bus lanes on main roads and motorways
- Priority at traffic lights
- More express buses between transport hubs using motorways
- No deviations from direct routes
- More train services
FREQUENT
- 10 minutes apart for most of the day on primary routes
- Passengers in this day and age do not want to be bound by timetables. They simply want to know that if they miss one bus or train another will be along in 10 minutes maximum. More frequent services at peak times.
- Business people will use frequent and reliable public transport
REGULAR
- Keep to timetable. 10 minutes apart means 10 minutes apart
INTEGRATED -
- Buses and trains on Supermaxx co-ordinated with one easy unlimited travel fare providing the framework. Fast and easy boardings systems and easy transfers from one service to another
FLEXIBLE
- Easy and free interchange between buses and trains
COMFORTABLE
- air conditioned
- modern
- quiet
- fast
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
- electric or hybrid - noiseless and minimal emissions
AFFORDABLE
- Lowest possible cost - must be more economical than private car
ATTRACTIVE
- Quality services marketed effectively to achieve maximum patronage.
PROFITABLE
- It is possible with much reduced subsidy by limiting the extent of routes and capitalising on people's private cars, cycles, and feet.
Moves are being made by ARTA to fulfil some of the above criteria. The Northern Busway is of course a major advance but is not properly integrated. Some progress is being made with bus lanes and priority signals at traffic lights. Much more could be done very quickly to develop these and lower the capital and operating costs as well as providing a vastly better service.
We do not need to wait until 2012 or 2013 to have a city wide integrated transport service!
We do not need ratepayers to pay around $160 million per annum in operating subsidies!
We do not need the travelling public to be paying over $100 per month in many cases for travel!
AT PRESENT THERE IS ENORMOUS WASTE OF RATEPAYERS MONEY THROUGH INEFFICIENT USE OF CAPITAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES. THERE IS ALSO A HUGE EXCESS OF NOISE AND EMISSION POLLUTION, AND CONGESTION.
Example: All Dominion Rd buses (except a few Flyover services) travel down Mt Eden Rd, Esplanade, and View Roads to Dominion Rd. For the sake of a few passengers who use the Esplanade and View Rd stops (all within 5-10 minutes walk of Mt Eden or Dominion Rds) the thousands travelling further down Dominion Road have 4-5 minutes added to their journey.
It wastes time, money, fuel, and causes extra totally unnecessary pollution and inconvenience.
THIS IS PURELY A MANAGEMENT PROBLEM AND CAN BE FIXED WITHIN WEEKS
Supermaxx is the first step, providing a great leap forward in solving Auckland's transport woes.
with vastly better services and greatly reduced costs to both ratepayers and travellers.
COSTS - REVENUE - SUBSIDIES
Total set up costs including 200,000 photo ID Metro and regional Passes, route establishment, train and bus contracts, integrated ticketing etc. 5 million
ANNUAL OPERATING COSTS
Charter of all trains and 600 buses 220 million
Administration costs 10 million
PROJECTED ANNUAL REVENUE if 15% of population use "Supermaxx"
(Currently around 7% commute by public transport)
30 DAY PASSES
5,000 x $90 x 12 months Regional Passes 5.4 million
120,000 Metro adult passes x $60 x 12 months 86.4 million
19,000 Senior Citizens/Student metro passes x $40 x 12 months 9.12 million
2,000 Senior Citizens/Student Regional Passes x $60 x12 months 1.44 million
7 DAY PASSES
1,000 Regional passes x $30 x 52 weeks 1.56 million
5,000 Metro adult passes x $20 x 52 weeks 5.2 million
20,000 student passes x $10 x 40 weeks 8 million
1 DAY PASSES
500 Regional Passes x $8 x 365 days 1.46 million
2000 Metro adult passes x $5 x 365 days 3.65 million
2 HOUR PASSES
5,000 x $2 x 365 days 3.65 million
TOTAL PROJECTED ANNUAL OPERATING COSTS 230 million
TOTAL PROJECTED ANNUAL REVENUE 125.84 million
TOTAL SUBSIDY REQUIRED 104.16 million
ARTA HAVE ALLOCATED AROUND 160 MILLION IN OPERATING SUBSIDIES THIS FINANCIAL YEAR.
SUPERMAXX SUBSIDY SAVINGS APPROXIMATELY $55.84 MILLION PER ANNUM
SUPERMAXX COST RECOVERY REVENUE - FARES TO SUBSIDY 55.58%
THE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY TARGET 50% (Currently around 45%)
INTEGRATED TICKETING
ARTA have signed an integrated ticketing contract with Thales. The capital cost has been reduced from around $80 million to around $47 million (partly if not wholly I believe as a result of an audit of the contract done by the Auditor General at my request earlier this year! I am still waiting for the 1% thank you payment from ARC for saving taxand rate payers $33 million!!). It is still a vastly over costed, over complicated system - even with a $33 million price reduction. In addition to the capital costs annual running costs have been reduced from approximately 6.5 million to 4.5 million.
SUPERMAXX CAPITAL COSTS ARE INCLUDED IN THE 5 MILLION SET UP COSTS ABOVE.
ONGOING ANNUAL OPERATING COSTS ARE INCLUDED IN THE 10 MILLION ABOVE.
Cancelling the Thales contract now would no doubt be very costly - yet much cheaper than continuing to blunder on with the present contract - the sooner the contract is cancelled the less the costs will be!
THROUGH THE NON INTRODUCTION OF SUPERMAXX 3 YEARS AGO ARTA AND THE ARC HAVE COST RATEPAYERS AND TAXPAYERS
** Approximately $155 million in unnecessary taxes for subsidies
** Over $100 million in excessive fares paid by medium to long distance commuters
** $47 million for a grossly bloated integrated ticketing contract
** Ongoing liability for $4.5 million per annum for integrated ticketing expenses
