ARC transport chief fears roads getting priority

Auckland Regional Council's transport head fears Government funders are still favouring roads at the cost of a balanced transport future.

Joel Cayford, chairman of the council's transport committee, contrasts Transit New Zealand's confidence that it will receive $330 million for new Auckland state highway projects this year with a lack of funding certainty for the new Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

He was commenting after a breakfast conference hosted by Transit in Auckland, at which the authority was unable to produce a 10-year plan to complement that of the road-building organisation.

Government funding agency Land Transport New Zealand last week allocated $112.4 million to public transport in Auckland from a $1.7 billion national transport budget.

This is to cover capital spending on the Northern Busway and $11 million for refurbished rail vehicles as well as operating subsidies for trains, buses and ferries.

But reference in Land Transport literature to an additional $49 million which it says "may" be made from Crown funding for rail infrastructure including further duplication of the bottle-necked western line has disturbed Dr Cayford.

Authority chief executive Alan Thompson said that after further inquiry, he was satisfied the allocation would allow $60 million of duplication work from New Lynn to Henderson to be done this financial year with a 40 per cent contribution from regional funds.

Final design work is being done, as vegetation is cleared along the route for a start to the project, which the authority hopes to substantially complete by the time a $35 million Waitakere civic and transport centre opens in Henderson next June.

Mr Thompson said he hoped a Land Transport subsidy would be available to remodel the Newmarket railway junction.

But Dr Cayford, whose committee sets policy for the transport authority to follow, fears the rail capital budget may face a $12 million shortfall in Government funds with a resulting $10 million shrinkage in regional contributions even if the full $49 million is granted.

He said the region would lobby the Government for a fair share of the $500 million tax windfall promised as extra transport money, but on which Transit also wants to draw heavily as a deposit on loans to accelerate construction of key highway links.

Afterwards, Dr Crayford told the Herald that although the regional land transport committee was working hard to strike a balanced transport strategy in line with new-age legislation, he was struggling to find evidence of a like commitment by the state's own funding agency.

Land Transport chairwoman Dr Jan Wright was not at the meeting, but she indicated the day before that funding allocations in the National Land Transport Programme were flexible throughout the year and her agency would deal with each project application on its merits.