Kerre Woodham: Will the new CRL really boost productivity?

0:00Brenting a car always feels like a bit of a battle, but in the stuffy, slow-paced world of car rentals, Snap is an illegal song, so it's no surprise that Snap is the official car rental partner of the one New Zealand Warriors. When you rent with Snap, you're helping support the team that brings us all together, sweet-ass. For your next adventure, choose a car rental company that backs our boys. Visit snapbrentals.co.nz. Snap simply better car rental. You're listening to the Kerrywood Immorning's podcast from NewsTalks at B. I hope you'll be phoning in to tell me all about the CRL because it's trains planes and auto-mobiles today with the official launch of the long awaited CRL yesterday. This morning it was the hard launch as commuters test the reliability, convenience and time-saving potential of the railway line. Half day to be a bus. Nobody cares, a big stinky diesel thing, even I know a few of you have turned electric.

1:04There the buses are heroically supporting the commuter network, around 70 million passenger trips per year, where's the gratitude? There is none. It's all, oh, shiny trains. But honestly, who doesn't love a train? And there will be some of you thinking, oh, how very Auckland come on. You know and I know that when you go to New York or London or Paris or Hong Kong or Singapore, even Australia, it's so exciting to be able to jump onto a commuter line that works. That takes you where you want to go cheaply, expeditiously. It's fantastic. We have our oyster cards and we've worked out the lines and we think we're so, so the card always we jump on and off the trains. The subway's metros or tubes might be old and duty or smelly, but you can spot a Kiwi. They're so excited to be on there. There's none of this block yourself off and go into your own mind if you're a resident

2:09of the aforementioned cities. Just block yourself out and think this will be over soon. This too will end. We're bouncing around on hanging off the straps. Just real to bits to be there. Now we've got one of our own. I would definitely be using a train if the new Harbour Crossing is built with the capacity to run trains, although I will probably be dead by the time a new Harbour Crossing is built. My ancestors will rejoice. And the rejoicing yesterday, the Sky Tower was lit up with the CRL map. People of all ages set their alarms to stupid o'clock to catch the first train. People from around the country came to Auckland to ride the first train. I'd probably draw the line at saying, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, a group chant as you go through the first tunnel, but then I'm not a railfan or a train spotter or a pharaoh equinologist or an anorac or a gunzel or a phoma or a denture or taku, which is all names from different cultures for those who love trains.

3:11But the fact that there are so many names in so many different languages and so many different cultures for people who love trains shows what a fanbase they have. But beyond this special group of people getting their kicks, there's hope that there will be a significant return on investment with the building of the CRL. Aucklanders lose millions of hours each year stuck in traffic and removing even a small percentage of vehicles makes travel times faster, more reliable for everyone else and that improves productivity. It is hoped that the flow on effects will go right down the country, it won't just be a fun thing to ride or to go on the new aile trail or the aile rail trail, whichever you want to call it. Some friends of mine said they were going to go on the new rail link over the weekend and stop off for a glass of wine at different stations or water after the first two. But there is an actual aile trail on the rail, five breweries and dependent breweries have

4:14signed up for it so you can google that and find it. Businesses like our lovely lady with the flowers and what is the street, Victoria Street? Victoria Street will be praying that the disruption and the loss of business and the hanging on by a thread will all be worth it now that the CRL is finally up and running. So I would love to hear from those of you who have ridden the train, who have jumped on board, test driven it yesterday or have taken the chance to come and to work today on the train. Does it make much difference? Is it going to be part of your regular commute if you're a train spotter love to hear from you too? For more from Carrie Wood in mornings, listen live to NewsTalksetB from 9am weekdays or follow the podcast on iHardRadio.

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