Analysis: Let's Get Wellington Moving announcement is déjà vu

Transport Minister Michael Wood and Finance Minister Grant Robertson announcing the Government's preferred option for Let's Get Wellington Moving. Photo / Mark Mitchell

ANALYSIS:

If the Government announcing a second Mt Victoria tunnel and light rail for Wellington sounds familiar, that's because it is.

More than three years ago, in 2019, then Transport Minister Phil Twyford and mayor Justin Lester stood in front of the central railway station and announced the plan to overhaul the capital's transport network.

They said Let's Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) would deliver a second Mt Victoria tunnel and light rail.

Since then, a scathing review found the transport project was at risk of failing, the public has been consulted on four more options, and light rail was no longer going to the airport.

Today Transport Minister Michael Wood and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made another announcement about the Government's preferred option for LGWM.

Light rail is now going to the south, thanks to a greater focus on urban development opportunities.

Apart from that, not a lot has changed.

No one should be surprised the new Mt Victoria tunnel will not provide additional space for cars compared to what currently exists.

None of the four options consulted on last year provided "four lanes to the planes".

Even when Twyford announced the first plan, there was a question mark hanging over what mode the new tunnel would cater for.

The same old questions haven't been convincingly answered, including how the various parties will fund their share of the plan and whether the city is getting light rail or mass rapid transit.

An artist's impression of light rail out side the hospital. Image / LGWM

The Government has made clear its "preferred choice" is light rail, but bus rapid transit will be further investigated alongside it as an alternative.

This has been described as a "fallback position or Plan B" if urban development assumptions don't stack up to justify a more costly, but more efficient, light rail.

But you can't blame the Government for wanting to make an announcement on this latest version of a final decision.

After all, it is a $7.4 billion spend- the magnitude of which may have become lost in LGWM's various problems to date.

Those in charge will still have to withstand the scepticism of Wellingtonians after all this time, not to mention the fact the Government hasn't exactly proved its ability to deliver light rail in Auckland.

Arguably, the most concerning thing that's happened while everyone has sorted out, and re-sorted out, what LGWM is actually doing is the amount of political capital spent on consultation.

Many Wellingtonians will be feeling burnt out by LGWM's seemingly endless rounds of asking people what they think.

Yet it's exactly now when Wellingtonians need to be more engaged than ever before while officials undertake a detailed business case.

As Wellington City Council has found out, selling the idea of expanding the cycleway network by 143km is very different to actually making the changes on someone's street.

The disruption that will come with building something like light rail will be considerable.

Streets will be ripped up, properties acquired, and car parks removed. Transformational projects are a case of no pain, no gain.

The problem for LGWM is there has already been significant pain, and not a lot of gain to point to.