Why Supermaxx??

To be effective and make it ‘transport of choice' 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 motorway
•                                                                                                                                       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.
• 24 hour services on Primary and secondary routes
• Business people will use fast, 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 loading and unloading systems.

FLEXIBLE

• Easy and free interchange between buses and trains

COMFORTABLE

• air conditioned
  
• modern
• clean
  
• 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 eliminating every unecessary kilometre travelled and maximising patronage.

Moves have been 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 $180 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, 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. Combined with "Minimaxx" (extra cost $2) services door to door public transport, and 24 hour services will be available throughout Auckland from Henderson to Howick and Albany to Papakura for the first time ever. The complete Supercity area from Wellsford to Waiuku is included in the Regional area.   

 

 

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.                                  $10 million

ANNUAL OPERATING COSTS                                                                                                                                          

Charter of all trains and 700 buses                                                    260 million        

Administration costs                                                                          10 million

 

PROJECTED ANNUAL REVENUE if 15% of population use "Supermaxx"                                     

(Currently around 7% commute by public transport)

30 DAY PASSES                                                                                                                      

2,500 x $90 x 12 months  Regional Passes                                          2.7 million           

160,000 Metro adult passes x $60 x 12 months                                   115.2 million                 

10,000 Senior Citizens off peak metro passes x $40 x 12 months           4.8 million

10,000 Child/Student passes x $30 x 12 months                                   3.6 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                                                                                                                    

300 Regional Passes x $10 x 365 days                                                   1.09 million 

2000  Metro adult passes x $5 x 365 days                                               3.65 million

2 HOUR PASSES                                                                                                                 

2,000  x $2 x 365 days                                                                          1.46 million

 

TOTAL PROJECTED ANNUAL OPERATING COSTS                            270 million                               

TOTAL PROJECTED ANNUAL REVENUE                                           147.24 million

TOTAL SUBSIDY REQUIRED                                                             122.76 million

 

ARTA HAVE ALLOCATED AROUND 186 MILLION IN OPERATING SUBSIDIES THIS FINANCIAL YEAR.

SUPERMAXX SUBSIDY SAVINGS APPROXIMATELY $57.24 MILLION PER ANNUM

SUPERMAXX COST RECOVERY REVENUE - FARES TO SUBSIDY       52%               

ARTA CURRENTLY RECEIVE AROUND 46% OF COSTS - WELL BELOW WORLD STANDARD

 IF 20% OF AUCKLANDERS PURCHASE SUPERMAXX PASSES COST RECOVERY IMPROVES TO OVER 60%

 INTEGRATED TICKETING

ARTA have signed an integrated ticketing contract with Thales. The capital cost has been reduced from around $80 million to around $59 million (partly if not wholly I believe as a result of an audit of the contract done by the Auditor General at my request in 2009. (I am still waiting for the 1% thank you payment from ARC for saving tax and rate payers $21 million!!). It is still a vastly over costed, over complicated system - even with a $21 million price reduction. In addition to the  capital costs annual operating costs will be $8 million.

SUPERMAXX CAPITAL COSTS ARE INCLUDED IN THE 10 MILLION DOLLAR 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 4 YEARS AGO ARTA AND THE ARC HAVE COST RATEPAYERS AND TAXPAYERS                         

** Approximately $200 million in unnecessary taxes for subsidies                                            

** Over $100 million in excessive fares paid by medium to long distance commuters                 

** $59 million for a grossly bloated integrated ticketing contract                                               

** Ongoing liability for $8 million per annum for integrated ticketing expenses

  Over 200,000 tons of carbon have been pumped into the atmosphere totally unnecessarily.