Central Connector Landsat 7 Image Auckland

The Central Connector (formerly called Auckland Central Transit Corridor), is a bus route (mooted as a potential future light rail route) between

Britomart Transport Centre Britomart Transport Centre, also known as Britomart railway station, is the public transport hub in the Auckland Central Business District, central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway ...

in the

Auckland CBD The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson. It is New Zealand's lea ...

, New Zealand, and the commercial suburb of Newmarket. It has some aspects of a

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

link. It was expected to improve journey times by about 14 minutes for around 2,600 buses per week, about 65,000 passengers daily.''Central Connector to improve bus travel times'' - ''CityScene'',

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...

newsletter, Sunday 9 March 2008 Work began in April 2008 and is now finished.
Newmarket Development Programme
' - ''Auckland City Council Transport Committee'', Friday 14 December 2007 In November 2007

John Banks John Banks or Bankes may refer to: Politics and law *Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet (1627–1699), English merchant and Member of Parliament * John Banks (American politician) (1793–1864), U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania *John Gray Banks (188 ...

, the

Mayor of Auckland City The Mayor of Auckland City was the directly elected head of the Auckland City Council, the municipal government of Auckland City, New Zealand. The office existed from 1871 to 2010, when the Auckland City Council and mayoralty was abolished an ...

, ordered a review of the project as part of his promised crackdown on rate increases. It was decided to go forward with the project, in part due to it being expected to cost Auckland City (according to late 2007 estimates) only NZ$8.5 million, with

Land Transport New Zealand Land Transport New Zealand was a Crown entity in New Zealand, tasked with promoting safe and functional transport by land, and includes responsibilities such as driver and vehicle licensing. It was created on 1 December 2004 by the Land Transpor ...

paying $20.5 million in addition to

Auckland Regional Transport Authority The Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) was the central co-ordinating agency for transport (especially but not only public transport) in the Auckland Region of New Zealand from 2004 to 2010. In this role, ARTA provided public transport ...

's (ARTA) $13.7 million share. Banks' first Council, before its 2004 defeat by

Dick Hubbard Richard John Hubbard (born 18 November 1946) is a New Zealand businessman and politician, founder and former principal of Hubbard Foods in Auckland, and mayor of Auckland City from 2004 to 2007. He was elected mayor of Auckland City on 9 Octobe ...

, had also first mooted the project to replace the tramway that was planned under

Christine Fletcher Christine Elizabeth Fletcher (née Lees, born 25 January 1955) is a New Zealand politician. Currently an Auckland Council councillor, she was previously a National Party Member of Parliament from 1990 to 1999, and served one term as Mayor of A ...

's council but cancelled under Banks'.

Characteristics

The route runs from Britomart via

Symonds Street Symonds Street is a street in Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city. The road runs southwest and uphill from the top of Anzac Avenue (originally Jermyn Street), through the City Campus of University of Auckland, over the Northwestern Motorw ...

Karangahape Road Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flight of resident ...

then over

Grafton Bridge Grafton Bridge is a road bridge spanning Grafton Gully in Auckland, New Zealand. Built of reinforced concrete in 1910, it connects the Auckland CBD and Karangahape Road with Grafton. It spans about 97.6 metres (320 feet), rises 25.6 metr ...

to Khyber Pass Road in Newmarket. It passes through

Auckland University The University of Auckland is a public university, public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest, most comprehensive and highest-ranked university in New Zealand and consistently places among the top 100 universit ...

's City Campus on Symonds Street and past

Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...

's City Campus on Wellesley Street East, Auckland City Hospital, Auckland University's Grafton Campus,

Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...

, and Grafton Railway Station, all important public transport destinations.

is closed to private vehicle traffic during the day, creating a bus lane in each direction between 7am-7pm. This part of the project was reviewed after protests by councillor Ken Baguely. However, part-funding for the project by ARTA had been contingent on those operating hours. Most of the streets en route received substantial overhauls, with, for example, relaid

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

s. Ten

pedestrian crossing A pedestrian crossing (or crosswalk in American English) is a place designated for pedestrians to cross a road, street or avenue. The term "pedestrian crossing" is also used in the Vienna and Geneva Conventions, both of which pertain to road sig ...

s were to be improved and enlarged, especially around the university. The changes included the closure of Alfred Street, a side street off Symonds Street bisecting the university campus in that area, to all traffic except Link and City Circuit buses from the end of 2006,
Students welcome street closure'' - ''New Zealand Herald
'', Wednesday 27 September 2006 and new canopies over footpaths in the university areas.

References

External links

Central Connector
(project webpage from

) {{Bus transport in New Zealand Bus rapid transit Public transport in Auckland Auckland CBD