IPWEA Conference: 7 June 11 June 2015 Abstract AMETI PANMURE: A SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT SOLUTION - OR NOT? Phil Harrison, Opus International Consultants The AMETI project is a package of multi-modal transport infrastructure improvements designed to provide better transport choices for the benefit of the communities and businesses of Eastern Auckland. The first stage was opened in January 2014 including a new bus / rail interchange at Panmure and local road improvements. The second stage opened in November 2014 and comprised a new link road alongside the rail line designed to remove through traffic from the Panmure town centre and enable the introduction of improved pedestrian and cycle facilities to encourage the use of active modes. This paper provides a view on the effectiveness to date of the Panmure stage to provide more sustainable transport opportunities and how well the scheme has met its objectives compared to the forecasts. It reports on observed changes in travel in the area and discuss what lessons can be taken for application to other projects what worked, what didn t, and why? The paper concludes with an argument of the importance of monitoring the effectiveness of transport schemes upon completion and the sharing of this information for the benefit of planners and engineers looking for solutions or building business cases. Key Words: Sustainable; Walking; Cycling; Public Transport; Panmure; AMETI; Introduction The AMETI project is a package of multimodal transport infrastructure improvements designed to provide better transport choices for the benefit of the communities and businesses of Eastern Auckland. AMETI s objective is to unlock the area s economic potential by better serving current and planned developments by reducing congestion and improving transport options. Alongside addressing local traffic congestion, the project seeks to improve bus and rail public transport links, and walking and cycling facilities. The AMETI project was a tripartite partnership between Auckland City Council (ACC), Manukau City Council (MCC) and Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and since Local Government Amalgamation has been taken over by Auckland Transport (AT). The project is to be delivered over several phases up to 2030. Phase 1 Phase 1 is focussed on the Panmure Glen Innes area and is shown along with the later stages in Appendix A. The NZ Transport Agency approved funding for the construction of Stage 1 in July 2009
and an Opus-Beca led team were appointed to complete Detailed Design in April 2010. In July 2010, Opus and Ascari produced the Panmure Land Use and Transport Plan. This concluded that the proposed scheme, in association with sensitive planning of key developments, will create an integrated transport system for the Panmure area that will address existing problems of congestion and safety and allow for new developments to be progressed. In particular, the provision of high quality infrastructure for passenger transport, walking and cycling along with significant improvements to passenger transport services could result in a significant modal shift from private car to these modes, with resulting benefits to the economy, to the environment, and to public health. Before Surveys Rail Patronage Despite having a rail station within 300m of the town centre and four bus stops along the main street, Panmure was poorly served by public transport due to the separation between buses and trains and indirect walking routes between the station and the town centre (and bus stops). The interchange time between Queens Road bus stops at the rail station was approximately 9 minutes via a convoluted route that required crossing three roads. The train station, despite having been relocated closer to the town centre in 2006, was functional but not attractive and devoid of facilities (Figure 1). It lacked presence in fact it was not visible from the town centre. has grown significantly from just 150 per day in 2003, however the relocation of the station to its current location closer to the town centre in 2006 partly accounts for that growth. Bus Patronage Bus passenger surveys were undertaken within the Panmure town centre at the two sets of bus stops in March 2010. The survey investigated the number of passengers, their origins and destinations and the use of the area for bus transfers. The total passengers recorded boarding the 5XX numbered services at the four Queens Road bus stops per 2 hour peak and direction is shown on Table 1. Stop Eastbound Westbound AM Peak PM Peak AM Peak PM Peak Queens Road (western end) 48 42 26 10 Queens Road (eastern end) Total Peak per Directions Table 1: 2010 Panmure Bus Boarding In the AM peak (07:00-09:00), 157 passengers boarded buses within the Panmure Town Centre. In the PM peak (16:00-18:00) 95 boarded. Walking and Cycling 42 18 41 5 90 60 67 15 The walking and cycling environment in the project area varied between unappealing and unsafe. Figures 2-6 illustrate the condition of some of the footpaths within the project area in 2011. Figure 1 Panmure Station 2010 The 2009 average patronage of Panmure rail station was 1,450 passengers per day. This
Figure 2 Mountain Rd Bridge 2011 Figure 4 E-P Highway Footpath 2011 Figure 5 William Harvey Footbridge 2011 Figure 3 Mountain Rd Footpath 2011 Figure 6 Mt Wellington Hwy Footpath 2011 Surveys of walking and cycling in the Panmure area were undertaken in March 2010. These showed intensity of walking and cycling activity within the project area. For both walking and cycling, Panmure Roundabout was the busiest intersection, even though pedestrians in particular needed
to take a circuitous route to use the offset crossings (where they exist). Figure 7 shows the intensity of pedestrian movements in the am peak. Figure 8 Panmure Station 2014 Figure 7 2010 AM Peak Pedestrian Intensity 130 cyclists were recorded negotiating the Panmure Roundabout over the 10 hour survey day. The Ellerslie-Panmure Highway / Mt Wellington Highway intersection was used by just 25 cyclists over the same period. Intervention Construction of Stage 1 commenced in November 2011 and was completed in November 2014. Features of the project that are specifically aimed at increasing sustainable transport choices are described below. Figure 9 Panmure Interchange 2014 Panmure Bus / Rail Interchange The major upgrade of Panmure Station (8 & 9) creates an interchange that allows easy passenger transfer between trains, the new Busway and local buses. The walking distance between buses and trains is now less than a minute.
Improvements to the station include: New interchange building for busway, local bus and rail passengers; New bridge for busway stops; New central pedestrian plaza linking both sides of rail tracks; Shelter along majority of platforms; Lifts and escalators; Ticketing facilities, staff and public amenities; Improved lighting and signage; and Cycle parking. Walking and Cycling In terms of new walking and cycling infrastructure, Stage 1 delivered: Four kilometres of new on-road cycle lanes on Ellerslie Panmure Highway (Mt Wellington Highway to Queens Rd) and on Te Horeta Road. 2km of new off-road shared walk/cycle paths alongside Ellerslie Panmure Highway (Mt Wellington Highway to Forge Way) and Te Horeta Road with connections to the Bus/Rail Interchange. 1.5km of new or upgraded footpath along Ellerslie-Panmure Highway (Forge Way to Panmure Roundabout), Mountain Road and A wider, longer footbridge with ramps over the rail line between William Harvey Place and Ireland Rd. Figure 10 shows some of the improved walking and cycling facilities completed in Stage 1. Figure 10 New Walking and Cycling Infrastructure After Surveys In order to assess the impact of the infrastructure improvements on the use of public transport, walking and cycling in the Panmure area, rail and bus patronage figures have been obtained from AT and additional surveys of waking and cycling have been carried out by the author. Rail Patronage Rail boarding data from AT has been analysed to establish the changes in rail boarding at Panmure and also to consider the change in boarding against a background of patronage growth generally on the Auckland Rail network. Figure 11 shows the weekday average boarding at Panmure and Sylvia Park stations in April-June 2013, April-June 2014 and monthly from July 2014. Sylvia Park is the next station to Panmure away from the Auckland CBD and is considered to represent a suitable control sample as little has changed at or around the station since 2013.
Figure 11 Average Weekday Boarding at Panmure and Sylvia Park stations 2013-2015 The data shows that boarding at Panmure station increased by 40% between April-June 2013 and the same period in 2014, (the new station opened in January 2014). In the same period, boarding at Sylvia Park increased by 28%. The data also shows that boarding on the entire eastern line (Manukau Orakei) increased by 35% over this period. This indicates that the effect of the new station on weekday passenger boarding in the first 6 months after opening was not as marked as suggested by raw Panmure boarding data. However, the additional 290 daily boardings at Panmure over this period accounted for 22% of the additional 1290 trips on the eastern line, whereas in 2013 Panmure accounted for only 10% of all boarding on the eastern line, so the growth at Panmure was about double that of the eastern line as a whole over this period. Figure 12 Weekday Boarding at Panmure station June 2014-March 2015 Growth spurts occurred in July/August 2014 when patronage increased by 32% and the August 2014 patronage was then steady over the rest of 2014. In February and March (to date) 2015 patronage again grew dramatically and that latest data indicates patronage growth of 72% over April-June 2014 levels and 140% above April-June 2013 levels. Over the same period, boardings at Sylvia Park have increased by 22% since April-June 2014 and by 56% since April-June 2013. Figure 13 shows the same data for weekend boardings at Panmure and Sylvia Park. In 2013, weekend boardings at Sylvia Park were more than double those at Panmure, which is expected as Sylvia Park station s main catchment is the shopping and leisure mall of the same name. Since July 2014, growth in boarding at Panmure has continued and recently accelerated as illustrated on Figure 12, exceeding 1,800 on 5 March 2015. Figure 13 Weekend Boarding at Panmure and Sylvia Park stations 2013-2015
Weekend boardings at Panmure have increased at a greater rate than weekday, which indicates a higher level of use for nonwork purposes. Between April-July 2013 and April-June 2014 there was a 16% growth in weekend boarding. In this period boarding at Sylvia Park increased by 12% but on the eastern line as a whole by only 5%. As with weekday patronage, growth has accelerated at weekends at Panmure and March 2015 boarding data shows weekend growth to of 125% over April-June 2014 levels and 161% above April-June 2013 levels. Over the same period, boardings at Sylvia Park have increased by 36% since April-June 2014 and by 53% since April-June 2013. Overall, the boarding data shows substantial and sustained growth in boarding at Panmure both on weekdays and particularly at weekends and this is considerable higher than observed at the adjacent Sylvia Park station and on the eastern line as a whole. It is also worth noting that an AT survey in 2014 showed that more than 99% of users of the station rated it excellent or outstanding. Bus Patronage October 2014 bus boarding and alighting statistics for the Panmure bus stops (Panmure Interchange and Queens Road) have been obtained from AT s Hop monitoring system. However while the Hop system records both Hop Tag on and paper ticket purchases for boarding, only Hop tagoff data is recorded for alighting, thus not all alighting movements are captured. Tables 2 and 3 show the boarding statistics at the Panmure Bus stops for Wednesday 8 th and Thursday 9 th October 2014. Stop Eastbound Westbound AM Peak PM Peak AM Peak PM Peak Queens Road 7 17 2 18 (western end) Queens Road 14 38 34 16 (eastern end) Panmure 27 200 23 49 Interchange Total Peak per Directions 48 255 59 83 Table 2: Panmure Bus Boarding 08/10/14 Stop Eastbound Westbound AM Peak PM Peak AM Peak PM Peak Queens Road 7 25 7 16 (western end) Queens Road 9 39 29 19 (eastern end) Panmure 27 196 19 29 Interchange Total Peak per Directions 43 260 55 64 Table 3: Panmure Bus Boarding 09/10/14 When compared with the 2010 surveys of bus boarding in Panmure, the 2014 data suggest a near doubling in the number of people boarding services at the Panmure stops. However, the 2010 surveys did not capture the use of a bus stop that was located on E-P Highway just west of Forge Way, which was the closest eastbound bus stop to the Panmure rail station. The eastbound pm peak boarding at the Panmure Interchange is by far the largest of the recorded movements, and it is likely that some of these boardings previously took place at this now removed bus stop. The comparison needs to thus be treated with much care. It is however clear that the bus boardings at the Western Queens Road stops (the closer end to Panmure station) have reduced dramatically (by about 60%), with the likely reason being that these trips have transferred to the new interchange stops.
Walking Surveys of walking at two locations on Ellerslie-Panmure Highway were undertaken in March 2015 to compare with the 2010 surveys to assess whether the new infrastructure has had an effect on the amount of walking in the area. At the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway / Forge Way intersection, the number of pedestrians was found to have increased in the morning from 84 to 120 (+43%) and in the afternoon from 76 to 123 (+62%) as detailed on Figures 14 and 15. Figure 16 Pedestrian counts EPH/Jellicoe AM Peak 2010 and 2015 Figure 14 Pedestrian counts EPH/Forge AM Peak 2010 and 2015 Figure 15 Pedestrian counts EPH/Forge PM Peak 2010 and 2015 At The Ellerslie-Panmure Highway / Mountain Road / Jellicoe Road intersection, pedestrian numbers were found to have increased in the morning from 77 to 266 (+245%) and in the afternoon from 125 to 211 (+69%) as detailed on Figures 16 & 17. Figure 17 Pedestrian counts EPH/Forge PM Peak 2010 and 2015 On the basis of these surveys it is concluded that there has been a substantial increase in walking in the Panmure interchange area since the completion of the Phase 1 project. A substantial amount of this increase is likely to be associated with the increased bus and rail patronage, with more people walking to and from the interchange. Cycling At the time of the after surveys, the shared path alongside Te Horeta Road south of Ellerslie-Panmure Highway was closed off. This is a key link connecting Mt Wellington Highway with Panmure Interchange and Town Centre, so its closure could have a significant impact on cycling routes. Surveys were undertaken at the same locations and times as the pedestrian surveys. At the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway / Forge Way intersection 9 cyclists were observed in
the AM peak compared to 20 cyclists making the same movements in the before survey. 9 cyclists were also observed in the PM peak, the same number as in the 2010 survey. At the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway / Jellicoe Road intersection, 4 cyclists were observed in the am peak and 6 in the pm peak, considerably less than the 21 and 28 respectively in the 2010 surveys. It is likely that cyclists are using different routes through the area, notably on the cycle lanes along Te Horeta Road. A wider survey that identified screenlines in both the northsouth and east-west directions would be required to identify the actual change in cyclists before and after the opening. Conclusions The AMETI project is designed to improve the sustainability of the transport system through increasing transport choice by improving the public transport, walking and cycling networks to increase the attractiveness of these modes as an alternative to car use. Phase 1 of the project has delivered significant improvements to the infrastructure for public transport, walking and cycling in the Panmure area. The expectation is that these improvements would lead to increased use of these modes in the area, and this paper has investigated the evidence of current usage of these modes and compared them with before survey data to consider what effect the infrastructure improvements have had on use of sustainable travel modes. Changes in Use of Sustainable Modes Evidence from Auckland Transport monitoring of rail patronage at Panmure Station before and after the opening of the new interchange show that there has been a substantial increase in boarding at this station since the opening, with weekday boarding in March 2015 up 150% over 2013 levels and weekend boarding up 161%. Even taking into account the considerable growth in patronage on the entire rail network over this period, this represents a substantial increase in the use of Panmure station since project completion. Patronage data from AT Hop system shows the bus interchange is being used by a considerable number of passengers and that some of these have transferred from Queens Road stops, this suggests an increase in bus use overall but there is insufficient before survey data to be sure. Also, AT Hop data does not capture non Hop card users alighting, so before and after alighting comparisons have not been made.. The number or people walking has increased markedly (by between 43% and 245%) at the two surveyed locations either side of the Interchange. This is doubtless partly due to increased use of rail and buses at the interchange leading to more walking to and from the interchange. In regard to cycling, insufficient before data was collected, and temporary closure of the shared path alongside Te Horeta Road south to make judgement about any increase in cycling due to the project. Overall it is concluded that AMETI Phase 1 has delivered on the objective for the increased use of sustainable transport modes. There were no specific targets in the project objectives so the effectiveness cannot be measured against any target. Phase 2 of the project will introduce a segregated Busway from Panmure to Pakuranga and associated walking and cycling paths and is considered very likely to further increase the use of public transport, walking and cycling in the area.
Importance of Before and After Surveys Before and after monitoring of the impact of transport projects on travel patterns is essential to inform clients and consultants of the effectiveness of particular projects. This can then be used in forecasting impacts of future similar projects, in terms of designing for appropriate volumes and in economic assessment. It also provides evidence for further financial investment in sustainable transport improvements which has been traditionally more difficult than for road based projects where traffic modelling readily forecasts the benefits. The NZ Transport Agency Business Case approach to project planning requires more stringent definition of success factors and leads towards need for more monitoring of the outcomes of transport projects and this is being rolled out to include Local Authority projects. The Phase 1 outcomes recorded in this paper provide evidence of the effectiveness of the infrastructure improvements in changing travel patterns and this information will be useful in completing the assessment of likely impacts of later Phases of AMETI. Recommendation This paper recommends that project sponsors plan and budget for appropriate before and after surveys to capture the effectiveness of transport infrastructure projects and consider how this information can be shared across the industry to better inform decision making. Further, the requirement for such monitoring should be considered by the NZ Transport Agency to be a fundamental part of every project scope.
Appendix A: AMETI Phases Auckland Transport
Author Biography Phil has a wide experience in many areas of transport planning and engineering over 30 years. He started his career with the NZ Ministry of Transport, before moving to the UK in 1990. He has worked in New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, the UK, Germany, Taiwan and Puerto Rico. He returned to NZ and joined Opus in January 2009 when he became Project Manager for the AMETI package through to delivery in 2014, and is currently Deputy Team Leader and Design Manager for the Northern Corridor Improvement project in Auckland. Phil is the Transport Group Manager in Opus Auckland office. Postal Address: PO Box 5848, Auckland 1141. E-mail: phil.harrison@opus.co.nz