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FIT (Fair Intelligent Transport) Wellington is a group of professionals who support a change in transport priorities so the private motor vehicle no longer dominates our cities. Our vision is modern, vibrant, amenity-rich cities designed around the needs of people, not cars. FIT has made a number of submissions to Let’s Get Wellington Moving covering its mass rapid transit proposals.
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FIT supports the Auckland Light Rail project. Our submission considers only the project’s investment logic and value for money. We do not have a view on the route options the project is assessing.
FIT supports the project reviewing its preferred option, tunnelled light rail. In FIT’s view, Autonomous Light Metro — self-driving light rail vehicles running on a fully segregated corridor — potentially offers Auckland better whole-of-life value for money for its proposed mass rapid transit network.
The ALR consultation document states:
From Mt. Roskill to the airport, light rail will run mostly above the ground. In this section, we are looking at options to separate light rail from local streets and traffic. This means longer trains can run at higher speeds, giving faster travel times.
In FIT’s view, “longer trains” are a bug in light metro, not a feature. Stations (elevated or underground) are the most expensive part of a segregated corridor. Longer trains mean longer, more expensive stations.
The consultation document recognises the way to fix this bug:
Drivers may not be required as the system is automatic.
Why “may not” rather than “will not”? As written, this statement lacks ambition and misses the point of autonomous light metro, which is shorter, faster trains more often, giving better service at lower cost. Because:
Autonomous light metro is an investment in productivity. For example, trains carrying up to 300 passengers running every 90 seconds give a corridor capacity of 12,000 passengers per hour, if needed. Achieving this level of service with human drivers on a non-segregated corridor is expensive and difficult (if not impossible). Provided that Auckland has the demand, autonomous light metro offers the best value.
FIT notes that Vancouver in Canada gives the following reasons, among others, for choosing tunnelled autonomous light metro for its SkyTrain extension to the University of British Columbia:
Most of these reasons would appear to apply to the Auckland Light Rail project. Travellers on an Auckland autonomous light metro service would be immune to Auckland’s “March madness” and other congestion costs.