Dialogue: Region's rail planning remains on fast track

LES PATERSON* says Tranz Rail's change of direction will have no impact on the crucial question of who controls Auckland's rail corridors.

The fate of Auckland's rail corridors has become even more topical after Tranz Rail's announcement that it plans to quit passenger transport activities. Yet for the Auckland region nothing has changed.

It doesn't matter who owns Tranz Rail's passenger services, even if it is the Government. What matters is who controls the rail corridors.

We would all agree that a person would be crazy to start spending up large redoing a kitchen before buying the house. The Auckland region is simply buying the proverbial house (the rail corridors) before renovating it. What's the problem?

Some people still bemoan the fact that the Government sold the rail company in 1993 for only $400 million. They don't want to give Tranz Rail any more public money.

They fail to see that it is by far the cheapest option for the region to pay to get access to the tracks once and for all now, rather than to pour hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into upgrading the infrastructure while Tranz Rail still owns it.

What has changed since Tranz Rail's announcement is that there is more national interest in the future of New Zealand's rail network. Other regions and the Government may now look to us for guidance on how to proceed.

That's because the Auckland region has done its homework on this one. The issue now surfacing at a national level - what control do we have over our railways? - has been one that the region has been working through for years.

We have planned a major change to Auckland's public transport system based around core corridors solely dedicated to public transport. They will enable fast, frequent, convenient passenger transport around the region running along the rail corridors, with attractive, accessible stations.

We have been grappling with two barriers: funding and access.

In 1995 we went through an expression of interest process with four international companies which were prepared to provide a competitive rail service, but we failed to complete the process because we didn't have access to the tracks.

We considered buying improved services off Tranz Rail but found it to be far too expensive. The region would have to upgrade the tracks and the value of the upgrades would be to Tranz Rail and be in Tranz Rail's control.

We have had to retrace our steps and try again and again. The latest negotiations with Tranz Rail are only on the table after Tranz Rail's new chief executive, Michael Beard, heralded a change of direction for the company back in June. The rest of his ideas the country saw last week.

Tranz Rail and the region have signed a heads of agreement for $65 million and an annual access fee for the main trunk line, and we are working through the details. The $65 million is not for no tangible return as some detractors believe. It is for the physical ownership of the rail tracks, stations, bridges and tunnels for the west Auckland and isthmus lines, and for the rest of Tranz Rail's 70-year lease over these tracks.

It is not about who runs the trains, it's about the region getting control to develop the corridors in a way that will achieve the aims of our regional growth strategy.

Tranz Rail has indicated that it does not want to put significant capital into upgrading the corridors. It may well not be financially prudent for a private company to do so.

The public sector, however, has pressing incentives to upgrade the infrastructure. We need to be able to upgrade in a manner that meets the wider social, economic and environmental needs of the region, not as suits a private company.

There are other issues. Many have commented that complex and rigid governance structures hamper Auckland's transport development. With central Government help, these can be improved. Yet despite these difficulties, the region is proving that six councils can move forward together on rail.

The other bugbear has been funding. There has not been a source for funding significant changes to public transport. Now we have Infrastructure Auckland, and Transfund is also willing to consider the project. Finally, we are overcoming the barriers to access and funding.

All I can say to those who whinge about the region tying itself to long-term financial commitments in passenger transport is that we need to get over our road fetish. No one blinked when $240 million was spent on the Albany-Puhoi motorway extension.

The spiralling economic and environmental costs of congestion must be compared with the costs of running a viable public transport system. Then it may be seen that it is cheaper to do public transport well than not to do it at all.

For 60 years, funding of improvements to the rail corridors have been ignored. Auckland needs major infrastructural investment and higher ongoing subsidies to provide a significantly improved service. We are talking about a fundamental change to the car-bound city of Auckland as we know it, and it's time we sorted out how it can happen rather than complain.

Aucklanders are appreciating the improvements that councils in the region are making to public transport. We now have dedicated bus lanes and special traffic lights for buses along major routes such as Dominion Rd and Great North Rd. The Rideline freephone information service has been enhanced and computerised. The new Half Moon Bay ferry is used by 3000 passengers a week. We plan many other improvements, including integrating the ticketing across bus, ferry and rail to make life much easier for customers.

All these improvements will not by themselves add up to an integrated regional network. Development of the rail corridors is the crucial missing link to make the whole network a viable alternative for car-bound Aucklanders.

We should not stop again. We are finally on our way.

* Les Paterson is chairman of the Auckland Regional Council transport committee.