Well known New Zealander Liz Shaw is running for Auckland Central in this year’s General Election. Her competitors include the incumbent Nikki Kaye of National, Jacinda Ardern of Labour and Denise Roche of the Green Party.

Shaw announced last week that if elected she would help the homeless in Auckland and another area of concern for Liz Shaw is that of the transport system in Auckland. She states that “there need to be massive improvements made and we need to think of the long term – not 10 – 20 years, but 50 years ahead to truly get it right”.

On May 2nd of this year, it was printed in The NZ Herald that the NZTA has cut funding to Auckland public transport projects by $16 million for operations.

This is of major concern to Miss Shaw who wants to improve and increase funding to public transport in Auckland. The reality of the matter is that Auckland does not have sufficient bus or train services and they urgently need to be addressed. “Currently the North Shore doesn’t have a train service and whilst the Northern Express Services have certainly helped, they have not gone far enough”.

Shaw has mentioned on her Facebook Campaign Page that part of the problem stems from the development of Britomart and that it is at capacity. She would consider building a new train station in addition to Britomart. It would be built at the old Strand Station near Parnell.

Liz Shaw has lived in Sydney and used the public transport system there, and would like to see a similar system implemented. “Over there you can go from North to South on one line, West to North on one line and South to East on one line. Auckland needs to learn from Sydney”.

In addition to developing a Northern Train Line Miss Shaw would first construct a second harbour crossing going from The Strand Station to somewhere near Akoranga Station. This station would have room for cycle lanes, pedestrian lanes and of course train tracks. When asked why she would build on Akoranga Station and not near Devonport Shaw responds, “we need to use current infrastructure and build on that”.

Increased operating hours of buses will also increase if Liz Shaw has her way and gets voted in as the candidate for Auckland Central. “In Sydney buses and trains run every 5 – 10 minutes between about 5am and 2am every night. Auckland’s transport services should be increased to at least 1am, particularly in the outer suburbs”.

Shaw is unimpressed with the ticketing system used by Metrolink services run by NZ Bus. She would like to see a similar system to Sydney implemented. “In Sydney they recently introduced a new ticketing system called MyMulti where if you travel to multiple parts of the area you can do so on one ticket for a very reasonable price. We need the same in Auckland and I don’t believe the new system, Hop was well thought out”.

Miss Shaw believes in learning from transport solutions that have worked in Australia, focusing on the next 50 years, and planning for growth in the region.

ENDS

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