www.arta.co.nz Auckland Regional Public Transport Plan 2010

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose of the Regional Public Transport Plan
This is the Auckland Regional Public Transport Plan (“the Plan”). The
purpose of the Plan is to specify how the Auckland Regional Transport
Authority (ARTA) will give effect to the public transport components of
the Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy (RLTS), and contribute
to achieving an affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable
land transport system in an efficient and effective manner.
The Plan is a statutory document, which is prepared pursuant to the
provisions of the Public Transport Management Act 2008 (PTMA). It
specifies the public transport services that ARTA proposes for the
region, and the policies that apply to those services.
The Plan is a key tool in achieving ARTA’s mission “to deliver a worldclass
transport system that makes Auckland an even better place
to live, work and play”. Improving public transport is a critical
component of overall plans to lift the performance of Auckland’s
transport system, improve quality of life for the city’s growing
population, and build Auckland’s economic competitiveness.
The Plan builds on the strategic framework for transport in Auckland
established through the RLTS 2010 and describes the policies and
actions that are needed to put in place a simple, integrated public
transport system that delivers value for money. This will contribute to
national and regional targets through increased patronage.
1.2 Scope of this Plan
In preparing this Plan, ARTA has been mindful of the need to comply
with the current legislative and policy environment for transport
in Auckland, and the views of key stakeholders. The preparation of
the Plan has followed a consultative process which included the
preparation of a Discussion Document (February 2009) and
consideration of stakeholder feedback on that document. A draft
Plan was issued in November 2009 for full public consultation
followed by public hearings in February 2010.
An important message from this process has been the general
support for ARTA to continue the process of improving Auckland’s
public transport system through the development of the Rapid
Transit Network, Quality Transit Network, and network integration
initiatives such as integrated ticketing. More immediately, early
completion of the Plan will allow it to be used to guide the
procurement of new services that ARTA wishes to have in place
ahead of the Rugby World Cup in 2011.
Since ARTA commenced the preparation of the Plan, the Government
has signalled some significant changes to the legislative and
governance environment for public transport in Auckland. These
include the implementation of changes to local governance
arrangements in the region, with the introduction of the new
Auckland Council and Auckland Transport from November 2010
which will control the funding, planning and implementation of
public transport in the Auckland region; and the announcement by
the Minister of Transport of his intention to seek a review of the
PTMA with particular focus on regional council (and ARTA) powers to
control commercial services and contracted services.
While the outcome of the review process of the PTMA may require
ARTA to make further changes to its Plan, ARTA is at present required
to prepare, consult on, finalise and adopt its Plan as soon as
reasonably practicable, and by no later than 1 January 2012.
ARTA does not want to propose a Plan that is likely to require further
changes to reflect any possible outcomes of the review process.
ARTA also believes that delay to introducing a Plan until the current
legislative and governance reviews are completed would cause delay
to its proposed service improvement programme.
Taking all of the circumstances into account, ARTA has developed a
Plan that focuses on describing the region’s public transport policies
and the services that ARTA proposes for the region. However, the
Plan does not propose any “controls” over services run by operators
on a commercial basis, or impose any “contracting requirement” for
services that must be contracted to ARTA.
Once the PTMA review process has been clarified, ARTA will consider
whether varying the Plan is desirable or required, and if so, will
initiate the consultation process for varying the Plan as required by
the PTMA or this Plan.
The Auckland Regional Council has adopted the 2010 RLTS which is
consistent with and provides the strategic direction for public
transport reflected in this Plan.
1.3 Plan contents
This Plan is divided into seven chapters:
1. Introduction: a brief outline of the purpose, scope and content
of the Plan.
2. Strategic context: a summary of the statutory and strategic
context within which the Plan has been prepared.
3. Transforming Auckland’s public transport: this chapter provides
an overview of ARTA’s plans to transform Auckland’s public
transport system to help it deliver the step change in performance
that the RLTS requires.
4. Public transport objectives: this chapter describes objectives that
ARTA has established for the future public transport system in
the region, with an overview of how they can be achieved.
5. Policies and actions: this part of the Plan sets out the policies that
ARTA intends to follow to achieve its public transport objectives,
and the specific actions proposed to implement those policies.
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