So far it’s ended up better than expected.

Most of my travel these past two weeks has been related to the school I contract to in Northcote.

So far the biggest highlight has been working on the move: I was surprised how easy this was on the train, and it is even possible on the bus. I’m using my Toshiba Portege R500 laptop combined with my 3G phone to get online. I have access to my e-mail and job/support tracker, as well as some remote access to clients while on the move.
The Portege has been good but I’d imagine you could do just as well with a modern netbook too.

I think I’m actually getting more work done this way than if I stayed at home doing admin work followed by driving to a site. While the bus/train is slower, being able to work and move at the same time is more than making up for it.

It also means I haven’t had to worry about the cellphone driving ban, another plus.

I’ve also liked the flexibility of being able to go home from the Shore by ferry if I need to relax after a stressful day. This photo is taken from the Bayswater Ferry this evening.

And, I’ve been able to join in after work drinks. I’m a cheap drunk, and just one drink can affect my driving, so I exclusively stuck to the orange juice if I had to drive afterwards. Not anymore!!

As it happens, I’ve not had any significant equipment movements that I haven’t been easily able to get couriered, so I am yet to use Cityhop’s services. Maybe in the next week or two.

The biggest downside has been the link between the “Rapid Transit Network” and home. Outside of the morning and evening peaks, the bus between home and either Kingsland Station or the city detours around St Lukes Mall which is frustratingly slow. My alternative connection, the 008 bus passing Avondale station, seems to be deliberately timed to fail to connect with any train.

I’m also not doing so well on Wednesday evenings. I’m taking beginner French classes at Alliance Française d’Auckland, on Arch Hill, which finish at 8pm. At the moment, I’m depending on a relative taking the same class to drop me off on Sandringham Rd on his way home, or I have to do a V-shaped run into town and back out again which takes over an hour.

I have been lucky and managed to avoid last week’s train signal failures, although I’d have just kept tapping away at the laptop on the train or at Britomart if caught up in something like that.

So, so far so good…

The displays showed planned upgrade works to local streets and to services such as power and water, as well as the further upgrade work to Kingsland Station. I had a good chat with James from Opus.

Besides its special events and World Cup duties, Kingsland has a lot of potential as an interchange station, which is what I’m trying to use it as.

It has two main barriers to being effective in this role: Lack of integrated ticketing, and no requirement for express buses to stop there at this stage. Both could be solved quite quickly and cheaply.

Besides Kingsland Station, another item that was of interest was KiwiRail’s (not Ontrack’s?) information on electrification. I’ve scanned the flyer here: Electrifying Auckland’s Rail Network.

Interesting information was the order in which the lines will be electrified. Assuming that electric trains are available when the lines are complete (either EMUs or, more likely, electric loco hauled sets), then the first line to see regular electrics may well be the Onehunga branch, in addition to Eden Park specials.

I was also told that this will be the first section to get the long-awaited and much needed signalling upgrade (there were two signal failures today, one in this section at Newmarket)

And I was told at the evening that rumor is that at least a paper integrated ticket will be in place in time for the Rugby World Cup, so long as Transport Minister Stephen Joyce does not manage to repeal the Public Transport Management Act. If he does that then it will be much harder to get one ready in time for the World Cup.

The PTMA gives the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and its supercity successor power to require operators to accept integrated tickets, such as on the North Shore with its Northern Pass. If this Act is repealed, they will lose that power.