Wednesday, 17 August 2022
Meet the JournalistsPremiumAucklandWellingtonCanterbury/South Island
CrimePoliticsHealthEducationEnvironment and ClimateNZ Herald FocusData journalismKāhu, Māori ContentPropertyWeather
Small BusinessOpinionPersonal FinanceEconomyBusiness TravelCapital Markets
Politics
Premium SportRugbyCommonwealth GamesCricketRacingNetballBoxingLeagueFootballSuper RugbyAthleticsBasketballMotorsportTennisCyclingGolfAmerican SportsHockeyUFC
NZH Local FocusThe Northern AdvocateThe Northland AgeThe AucklanderWaikato HeraldBay of Plenty TimesHawke's Bay TodayRotorua Daily PostWhanganui ChronicleStratford PressManawatu GuardianKapiti NewsHorowhenua ChronicleTe Awamutu Courier
Covid-19
Te Rito
Te Rito
OneRoof PropertyCommercial Property
Open JusticeVideoPodcastsTechnologyWorldOpinion
SpyTVMoviesBooksMusicCultureSideswipeCompetitions
Fashion & BeautyFood & DrinkRoyalsRelationshipsWellbeingPets & AnimalsVivaCanvasEat WellCompetitionsRestaurants & Menus
New Zealand TravelAustralia TravelInternational Travel
Our Green FutureRuralOneRoof Property
Career AdviceCorporate News
Driven MotoringPhotos
SudokuCodecrackerCrosswordsWordsearchDaily quizzes
Classifieds
KaitaiaWhangareiDargavilleAucklandThamesTaurangaHamiltonWhakataneRotoruaTokoroaTe KuitiTaumarunuiTaupoGisborneNew PlymouthNapierHastingsDannevirkeWhanganuiPalmerston NorthLevinParaparaumuMastertonWellingtonMotuekaNelsonBlenheimWestportReeftonKaikouraGreymouthHokitikaChristchurchAshburtonTimaruWanakaOamaruQueenstownDunedinGoreInvercargill
NZ HeraldThe Northern AdvocateThe Northland AgeThe AucklanderWaikato HeraldBay Of Plenty TimesRotorua Daily PostHawke's Bay TodayWhanganui ChronicleThe Stratford PressManawatu GuardianKapiti NewsHorowhenua ChronicleTe Awamutu CourierVivaEat WellOneRoofDriven MotoringThe CountryPhoto SalesNZ Herald InsightsWatchMeGrabOneiHeart RadioRestaurant Hub

Advertisement

Advertise with NZME.
New Zealand

<i>Brian Rudman</i>: We're all grown-up, so let's get rail right

1 Oct, 2009 03:00 PM4 minutes to read
Brian Rudman
By Brian Rudman, Brian Rudman

Each time Transport Minister Stephen Joyce produces another excuse for stalling the electrification of Auckland commuter rail, it makes me want to scream at the previous Labour administration for dragging its feet for so long.

If Labour had not left it to the dying days of its near-decade in power to back public transport moves such as electrification, integrated ticketing and a regional fuel tax to help pay the costs, contracts would now be locked in place and it would be too late for the pro-road National Party ideologues to start their unpicking.

Mr Joyce now seems to be deliberately taunting Aucklanders, promising all will be well, while slowly and publicly plucking the wheels off the trains, one by one.

He seemed to be deliberately mischievous last weekend when, while enthusing about roads, he told the Weekend Herald that "rail projects are [important] as well, but with the urban ones we need to know the impact on land-use planning in Auckland."

He complained "there's no business case or plans which says, 'here's where we're going to put the two million people we're told are going to live in Auckland in 22 years'."

Whatever else Auckland local government can be criticised for, a failure to prepare reports is not one of them.

Mr Joyce is one of the National Government's smarter minds and a quick learner, so it's hard to believe he was ignorant of the shelves of reports prepared over the years which could be wheeled out to contradict this claim.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee promptly did just that, packing at least 10 of the more recent of these documents off to the minister with a stern note.

The reports included the Auckland rail electrification business plan, prepared in 2006 by Brian Roche, now chairman of the NZ Transport Agency.

But so cocky is Mr Joyce that he doesn't even seem to care he was leaving himself wide open in his criticism of the Auckland rail project lacking a business plan.

For if ever there was an infrastructure project that came without such a document, it's Mr Joyce's own flight of fancy, the eye-wateringly expensive Puhoi to Wellsford motorway extension, estimated to cost at least $2.3 billion.

Certainly such a highway will speed Prime Minister John Key's journey from Parnell to his Omaha Beach holiday bach. It will also do no harm to Mr Joyce's reported desire to inherit Speaker Lockwood Smith's Rodney electorate, through which the grand motorway will run.

But such collateral advantages are hardly a viable substitute for a professional business study or a benefit-cost assessment. Neither do they justify Mr Joyce's post-election declaration that this motorway extension was forthwith to be one of seven roads of national importance.

The Auckland Regional Transport Committee certainly didn't think so last week when it chose to rank this road as bottom of its list of 15 regional transport priorities.

Top of the list was the $1 billion rail electrification project for which Mr Joyce and his Cabinet colleagues are still to allocate any money. Next came the central Auckland rail tunnel, looping out of the Britomart Station and under the CBD to Mt Eden. Third was integrated public transport ticketing.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority and the Transport Agency chose a preferred tenderer for the ticketing months ago. But for months now the agency, under pressure from losing bidder Infratil, has avoided backing Auckland's choice.

The story with the new electric rolling stock is, if anything, worse.

In March, the regional transport authority had already called for international expression of interests in supplying electric rolling stock when the Government abolished the regional fuel tax and said state-owned KiwiRail would buy the train sets instead.

Not for the first time in Auckland's recent history, the tender process for a new public rail system has been stalled by Government antagonism.

In the 1990s the ARC had 58 international expressions of interest in a contest for a light rail system, but Wellington killed it. In 1975 the Kirk Labour Government okayed an electrified suburban rail system for Auckland but the incoming Muldoon National Government sank it.

It's not more business plans we need, it's Government willingness to treat Aucklanders as adults.

Related articles

New Zealand

Should electric trains be a priority for Auckland?

21 Mar 08:06 PM
New Zealand

Bid to keep numbers up on city's electric trains

08 Nov 03:00 PM

Advertisement

Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

New ZealandUpdated

Te Arawa leader Sir Toby Curtis dies

16 Aug 10:25 PM
New ZealandUpdated

Live: Extreme weather event - 'atmospheric river' set to strike swathes of NZ

16 Aug 10:15 PM
New Zealand

Armed police at scene of death on Auckland's North Shore

16 Aug 09:50 PM
New ZealandUpdated

Death on the mountain: 'Different decisions and she may have survived'

16 Aug 10:11 PM
New Zealand

Police confirm death of 7-year old boy in Wairoa

16 Aug 09:38 PM

Most Popular

NZ's low literacy rate is bad news for the economy
Education

NZ's low literacy rate is bad news for the economy

16 Aug 08:12 PM
Chlöe Swarbrick: We can choose to rewrite the rules again
New Zealand|Politics

Chlöe Swarbrick: We can choose to rewrite the rules again

16 Aug 05:00 PM
Premium
Matt Heath: Life is short and the universe doesn't care, so make the most of it
Lifestyle

Matt Heath: Life is short and the universe doesn't care, so make the most of it

16 Aug 05:00 PM

Advertisement

Advertise with NZME.
About NZMEHelp & SupportContact UsSubscribe to NZ HeraldHouse Rules
Manage Your Print SubscriptionNZ Herald E-EditionAdvertise with NZMEBook Your AdPrivacy Policy
Terms of UseCompetition Terms & ConditionsSubscriptions Terms & Conditions
© Copyright 2022 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP