When I was growing up in Christchurch in the late 1940s and 50s, most of the public transport was powered by what? You guessed it: It was electricity, with electric-powered trams servicing the main corridors into the city centre.
The tram routes were cluttered with ugly overhead lines to keep a constant supply of electricity flowing to the traction motors.
These trams were old, even then, and slow; I can remember cyclists pedalling past the trams and the cyclists were not pedalling too hard.
These old trams were replaced by the Christchurch Transport Board with fantastic new AEC Reliant diesel buses that had none of the mod-cons like power steering.
In fact, the steering wheel was a large diameter so that the driver could gain some mechanical advantage while pulling the steering wheel around with both hands.
(Good old “Strong Arm” power steering as opposed to Armstrong, who were component manufacturers).
Fast forward to today and we are seeing modern single and double-decker electric buses introduced into the New Zealand fleet.
These new buses come with technology that could only have been dreamed about in the days of the trams.
No longer is there a need for ugly infrastructure to supply the power, as overnight charging – along with “flash-charging” en-route – will see these buses complete a full day of moving commuters in comfort and in a timely manner, with free wi-fi so commuters can stay connected during their journey.
These buses will also have a full suite of telematics on board, transmitting back to the base and reporting things like passenger loading, acceleration rates, over-speeding, excessive braking and much more.
These telematics were introduced a couple of years ago into the Christchurch Red Bus fleet; they featured a small Christmas tree light display in the driver’s field of vision, so that the driver could observe and moderate their driving to stay in the green and not have the red lights displayed.
As a result of installing the telematics and the reporting of driver performance, competition soon arose amongst the drivers to become the best driver in the company.
The flow-on effects were fewer customer complaints, crashes and maintenance costs, meaning less down-time per vehicle and a more efficient management of the fleet.
Where else in transport are we seeing the uptake of these technologies? Maritime.
In Norway, they have recently commissioned an electric catamaran passenger ferry to use in the fjords.
This ferry is fully self-contained, with waste holding tanks to ensure pollution of the fjords is minimised, and has a dedicated dock where the ferry’s batteries are recharged in 20 minutes and waste tanks are emptied.
This ferry is the first of many, as the Norwegian Government has passed a resolution that “world heritage fjords” will see emissions banned by 2026 (or sooner if possible).
These fjords include Geirangerfjord and Naeroyfjord, where there is major traffic with ferries and cruise ships.
The Norwegians are also developing autonomous electric cargo vessels, initially for short-haul voyages; but in the future, who is to say that these vessels won’t be used internationally?
We look back at “The Jetsons” on TV and everyone thought this was pie-in-the-sky! How wrong is that thought? We now have an autonomous electric aircraft being trialled in Christchurch after initial testing in Tekapo over the past few months.
This leaves me with the question: Where is transport headed in the future? We are starting to see a paradigm shift in attitudes to car ownership and younger people preferring to forgo obtaining driving licences, relying more and more on public transport.
In Tokyo, for instance, there is one new 10 or 12-carriage subway train being commissioned each week to cater for commuters; Tokyo has the lowest ownership rate of cars per household in the developed world, with one car to 12 or 13 households.
When is Auckland Transport going to provide bike parking buildings (as you see in Japan, and I remember using many times in Christchurch by the railway station in the 1950s) and chargers for E-bikes at its Park and Rides, to help reduce the number of cars and congestion on our roads?
