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Image: Toby Morris
Image: Toby Morris

SocietyDecember 13, 2022

Auckland rail closures will waste more than a million hours of commuters’ time in 2023

Image: Toby Morris
Image: Toby Morris

Just how terrible will public transport in our biggest city be next year? Emma Vitz has the data.

Efficient transport at scale is something we’re never been great at in New Zealand. But rather than getting better, our biggest city seems to be getting worse.

Before the pandemic, Auckland’s train system had up to two million passengers per month. In 2022, this has been below one million per month, on average.

But rather than gearing up for a revival of the public transport system now that we are no longer going into lockdowns, Auckland’s trains are headed for a lockdown of their own.

KiwiRail will close large parts of the Auckland rail network between 2023 and 2025. That’s right – for years, the largest public transport system in the country will be limping along at reduced capacity. Millions of trips will be disrupted.

Auckland’s train network is made up of four main lines. In the 12 months up to September 2022, over a third of all trips were taken on the Western line. The Eastern line and Southern line made up 28% and 31% of all trips, respectively. A relatively paltry 5% of train travellers used the Onehunga line.

The Auckland train network. (Image: AT)

After the annual Christmas closure that stretches into mid-January, the Onehunga line will remain closed until late March. Trains will also not run on the Southern line between Ōtāhuhu and Britomart, although Southern line trains will continue to run to and from Britomart using the Eastern line.

From late March to December 2023, the Eastern line will close between Ōtāhuhu and Britomart. That’s 10 months of a major transportation channel being shut down in our biggest city, with more shutdowns to come in 2024 and 2025.

Anyone who has seen the dreaded “Buses replace trains” sign knows that they’re in for a much longer commute. The appeal of trains is that they don’t compete with traffic. It takes 18 minutes to take the train from Sylvia Park to Britomart, regardless of whether it’s peak travelling time or not. Take a bus, and you’re likely to be spending much longer slogging your way through traffic during rush hour.

So how much time will all of this waste?

It’s a fairly simple calculation: how many people would take the train during the time period of the closures, and how much longer would an equivalent bus journey take them? What I’ve done is a rough estimate, but it’s nonetheless illustrative of a city that is about to cut its transportation system off at the knees.

I’ve assumed that in 2023, overall use of the trains would be at two-thirds of pre-pandemic (2019) levels, and that the split between the different train lines is the same as it was in the year up to September 2022. I’ve applied the monthly and weekly seasonal trends we see in train use, with fewer passengers using the trains over the summer, during school holidays, and during weekends.

I’ve also assumed that someone using the Eastern or Southern line who is affected by train closures (i.e. someone who would start from or pass through one of the stations that is closed) would spend, on average, an additional 20 minutes per trip. On the Western line, this is estimated at 25 minutes, while on the Onehunga line it’s estimated to be 15 minutes (due to differences in how long each line is, and how much of it will be closed). This is roughly based on equivalent bus trips across different times of the day.

Anecdotally, Auckland’s bus system appears to already be under stress, with many commuters reporting a higher number of cancellations than usual. This is likely due to labour shortages and drivers being off work because of COVID. Extra demand on the system due to trains being cancelled is likely to exacerbate this, and I might be underestimating how much longer a trip will take.

Putting all of this together, we can estimate how much time will be wasted in 2023 due to rail closures.

Over the course of the year, these rail closures will waste over a million hours of Aucklanders’ time. Just under 650,000 hours wasted are due to the closure of the Eastern line, which services almost a third of all passengers and will be closed for most of the year. The Southern line is also significantly affected, with over 200,000 hours wasted. The Onehunga line services fewer passengers, and contributes about 40,000 hours of wasted time.

Perhaps the most concerning part of all of this is a possible death spiral of public transport in Auckland. If people can’t use trains due to line closures for several years, their transportation habits will change. Instead of using a patchwork system of buses, those who can will turn to private cars. By the time the rail network rebuild finishes in three years’ time, the demand for trains may be significantly lower than before. At that point, it’s difficult to justify any further investment. This spiral continues, as fewer people use a system that isn’t being developed to meet the needs of the city.

Auckland was named the world’s most liveable city in 2021. Since then, Covid cases have gone up, and our ranking has come down. But rather than arguing about how liveable Auckland is, I’m wondering whether it’s a city at all. Without a decent public transport system that can move people to where they need to go, we’re little more than a series of poorly strung together suburbs.

Keep going!
In the US, plastic shopping bags and buing water in plastic 12-packs are still the norm. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty Images)
In the US, plastic shopping bags and buing water in plastic 12-packs are still the norm. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty Images)

SocietyDecember 12, 2022

We aren’t perfect on plastic, but living in the US shows me how far NZ has come

In the US, plastic shopping bags and buing water in plastic 12-packs are still the norm. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty Images)
In the US, plastic shopping bags and buing water in plastic 12-packs are still the norm. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty Images)

Attempting to be more sustainable at this time of year can feel like a losing battle. But at least we’re trying, writes Emma Ricketts.

It’s time to dig out the Christmas decorations, untangle the lights and ignite the barbecue. It’s the season for work parties, family gatherings and dessert stomachs.

It is also the season to be reminded to celebrate sustainably. Every year around this time our feeds are inundated with waste-free ways to wrap presents and reminders to avoid the plastic plate aisle at the supermarket. But as the inevitable stress of this hectic season bears upon us, it is easy to lose the sustainable spirit.

Will it really matter if I buy some disposable plates? It would save me having to wash every one in my kitchen. Between 2019 and 2021 Coca-Cola increased its use of newly made plastic by almost 100,000 metric tons – how can a pack of 12 plates compare?

It’s so much quicker to pick up wrapping paper at the supermarket than rifle through my recycling for something to parcel my presents in. Is it worth the effort, when the US produces more than 3.5 times the plastic waste per capita than OECD countries in Oceania?

Earlier this year, I experienced my own crisis of conscious over these questions.

Living in New Zealand, I took pride in trying to reduce my environmental footprint as much as possible. I took notice of the most common items in my rubbish bin and replaced them with reusable options. I carried my keep cup everywhere. I ate my lunch off plates and cutlery provided by my office. I avoided printing unless it was an absolute necessity.

Then six months ago, I moved to the US and was immediately confronted by that country’s voracious demand for single-use plastic.

Plastic waste is a problem worldwide, and the US is a primary contributor (Photo: Getty Images)

New Zealanders throw away an estimated 159 grams of plastic per day. We are currently one of the top 10 per-capita producers of landfill waste in the world.

Americans, on the other hand, produced approximately 385 grams of plastic waste per day in 2021, according to a report authored by Beyond Plastics and Last Beach Cleanup. During holiday periods, this can increase by up to 25%.

Reading these figures was one thing; but seeing the prevalence of disposable plastic in real life has floored me.

Here in Washington DC I am yet to see a keep cup used in a cafe. While their absence may be partially attributable to the pandemic, a 2019 survey found that 63% of Americans stated they would never use a reusable cup when buying coffee.

The office where I study only offers disposable cups, plates and cutlery for people to use. Takeaway lunch options invariably come in single-use containers. Disposable water bottles are common, particularly at events.

While New Zealand has phased out single-use shopping bags, they’re still readily accessible here. A five-cent fee does little to deter shoppers from using them.

This is not to say that New Zealand is perfect – we have a long way to go. New Zealand’s recycling facilities fall far short of the plastic waste we produce, and an estimated 252,000 tonnes of plastic is dumped in landfills each year. But taking individual steps to reduce my footprint felt far more accessible when I was at home. It felt like I was moving with the current as we all tried to be a little less wasteful; here, it’s like swimming against the tide.

KeepCup founder Abigail Forsyth with her instantly recognisable products. (Photo: Supplied/RNZ)

Holiday season is already underway in the US. Halloween and Thanksgiving are behind us, and Christmas is fast approaching.

I am yet to be confronted with reminders to reduce, reuse and recycle during the festive season. Instead, the holidays seem to provide endless opportunities to market single-use goods.

Halloween, unsurprisingly, is supported enthusiastically by confectionery companies. Chocolates and lollies that usually come wrapped in a single large piece of plastic are made smaller. These are wrapped in several smaller pieces of plastic, which in turn is sold inside a larger piece of plastic. And on top of that – as any New Zealander who’s visited the US knows – the chocolate doesn’t even taste that good.

Then there’s Thanksgiving which, like Christmas, is a time for social gatherings and indulgence. The uptick in cooking leads to longer supermarket lists, and an increase in the packaging that comes with it.

For those opting for convenience, disposable plates, cups and utensils are marketed as vital time-savers. Pre-made food comes in hard-to-recycle plastic and polystyrene containers, some of which would be banned under New Zealand’s latest plastic regulations.

Seeing the amount of single-use plastic used here, it’s easy to question whether there’s any point in New Zealand, whose population is just 1.5% of the United States’, even trying to be more sustainable.

Our government has pledged to phase out many single-use plastic products by 2025, including tableware, straws and PVC packaging. But what difference will that make when Americans are said to use 500 million straws a day?

Once I got over my initial despair, I landed on a more hopeful note.

The problem of plastic pollution can only be solved with teamwork. It may feel like a mammoth, insurmountable task, but we have to start somewhere.

In New Zealand, we already have the messaging down. There is no shortage of reminders to be mindful with shopping, wrapping gifts and preparing food this Christmas.

From what I have witnessed, New Zealand has experienced a cultural shift that has not yet reached the US. Carrying your keep cup and trusty Sistema to buy takeaway coffees and lunches is widely considered a normal thing to do. Most businesses happily oblige.

The ban on single-use plastic shopping bags in 2019 prompted some grumbling, but reusable quickly became the norm.

It is rare to see a fridge in New Zealand filled with disposable bottles of water. Reusable drink bottles come in colours that are way more fun.

We aren’t perfect, but my time away from home has led me to appreciate the progress that New Zealanders have made. I’m looking forward to returning home one day and rediscovering my lower-plastic habits. With Christmas just around the corner, it’s a good time to remember that our achievements matter, and they are something to be proud of.

In the meantime, I’ll keep bringing my own cutlery to the office here in DC – and missing the hand-warming benefits of a coffee in a glass keep cup.

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