Editorial: Auckland light rail too expensive for taxpayers

Auckland Light Rail never got on track. Board of directors: Chris Aiken (from left), Shane Ellison, Lucy Tukua, Leo Foliaki, Heather Ash, Leigh Auton and chairwoman Fran Wilde.

Editorial

EDITORIAL

The Government’s decision to scrap Auckland’s light rail project was the right move because the slow burn multi-billion dollar behemoth would have drained taxpayers ad infinitum.

Auckland deserves a world-leading public transport system to connect the growing suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau.

But it always felt like the person holding the lollypop sign for the light rail train project track had ‘Stop’ written on both sides. Plus not one of the many ministers of transport who came, and then went, wanted to champion the light rail cause.

It was estimated the proposed $15 billion project would have ended up costing the taxpayer $30b by completion. That was too much for Transport Minister Simeon Brown.

Plus the Government lamented it had nothing to show for the $228 million already spent on the project, without a light train track in sight.

Light rail had the potential to take up to 14,500 cars off the busy Auckland roading network. Anyone who has the misfortune to be caught in Auckland’s daily three-hour traffic peak (morning and night) grind, would wish some of those cars were off those roads now.

Light rail had been mooted for Auckland for decades following on from the electric tram system that serviced Aucklanders well from 1902-1956.

On August 8, 2017, Jacinda Ardern and Labour transport spokesman Phil Twyford told the country that if Labour were to win the September 2017 election, “light rail from downtown Auckland to the airport would be built within a decade”.

It was Ardern’s first major policy announcement as the new leader. Labour did win the election, thanks to New Zealand First. Ardern became Prime Minister, with Winston Peters as her deputy.

Fast forward to today and Ardern - now Dame Jacinda, who got married last weekend - is gone, just like the light rail project, and Peters - another strange coincidence - is once again deputy prime minister.

Auckland’s light rail website says: “Great cities have great public transport.”

That is true. Auckland is a great city and truly deserves a great public transport network.

And had Auckland Transport’s 2015 proposal for light rail up Dominion Road actually been started, that may have saved the project from being canned.

But successive transport ministers have kicked that can down the road, which is why the light rail roadshow never got on track, leaving Simeon Brown no alternative but to derail it.

Let’s hope Simeon Brown and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown have a master plan to get Auckland out of gridlock.