Background
1. What is ATAP?
The Auckland Transport Alignment Project or ATAP is a project focused on improving alignment between central and local government over the way Auckland’s transport system needs to develop over the next 30 years, including testing whether better returns from transport investment can be achieved, particularly in relation to the following objectives:
- To support economic growth and increased productivity by ensuring access to employment/labour improves relative to current levels as Auckland's population grows
- To improve congestion results, relative to predicted levels, in particular travel time and reliability, in the peak period and to ensure congestion does not become widespread during working hours
- To improve public transport's mode share, relative to predicted results, where it will address congestion
- To ensure any increases in the financial costs of using the transport system deliver net benefits to users of the system.
The agencies involved in ATAP are Auckland Council, the Ministry of Transport, Auckland Transport, the NZ Transport Agency, the Treasury and the State Services Commission.
2. What does the final ATAP report find?
The final ATAP report builds on two earlier documents:
- The Foundation Report, released in February 2016, which outlined an agreed set of assumptions and identified the major challenges facing Auckland’s transport system over the next 30 years.
- The Interim Report, released in June 2016, which set out the initial findings of the project. This included that changing the mix of investment would not achieve a step-change in the performance of Auckland’s transport system and it would be neither affordable nor cost-effective to build our way out of the problem in the long-run. The report concluded that to achieve a step-change in performance, a greater focus on influencing travel demand patterns and maximising the benefits of emerging technology is required, alongside new investment and getting more out of the existing network.
The Final Report confirms the approach outlined in the Interim Report and emphasises that an integrated approach is required that better balances demand with the capacity of our infrastructure and services.
3. What are the most significant transport challenges facing Auckland?
Auckland’s rapid and ongoing population growth is putting significant pressure on the city’s transport system. This growth is expected to continue into the foreseeable future, with Auckland expected to accommodate around 700,000 people - or more than half of New Zealand’s total expected population growth - over the next 30 years.
ATAP has identified the most significant transport challenges facing Auckland over the next decade. These are:
- enabling a faster rate of housing growth, particularly in new greenfield growth areas
- addressing projected increased congestion and longer travel times for people living in large parts of West Auckland and some parts of South Auckland
- addressing growing congestion on the motorway and arterial road network, particularly at inter-peak times
- increasing public transport mode share on congested corridors.
Strategic Approach
4. What is ATAP's "Recommended Strategic Approach"?
The recommended strategic approach focuses on three main areas:
- Making better use of existing networks by improving throughput on key routes to increase productivity, and maximising the benefits from new transport technology
- Targeting investment to the most significant challenges – particularly access to housing and jobs and tackling congestion through investing in strengthening strategic road and public transport networks
- Maximising new opportunities to influence travel demand through better integrating houses, jobs and transport links, actively encouraging increases in vehicle occupancy and progressively moving to smarter transport pricing.
5. Does ATAP’s recommended strategic approach provide better returns from transport investment?
- Analysis against the key project objectives of access to jobs, congestion and public transport mode share suggests better Auckland-wide results than would be achieved by current transport plans.
- ATAP has identified a number of additional investments over the next decade that focus on addressing Auckland’s most significant transport challenges. Some of the greatest projected improvements are in West and South Auckland, which did not show good results under current transport plans.