Editorial: Rail terminal no use to city if trains late

Auckland's rail commuters are enjoying their gleaming new central city station, and no wonder. In a sprawling city of low-density lifestyle and diverse travel patterns, the three railway lines have long been the poor relation of public transport. The Britomart terminal holds the promise of better service. But so far, only the promise. The trains now trundling into the new underground terminus are still too often late, their journey too slow and delays on the track seem interminable. In consequence the electronic information has had to be turned off and the old public address brought back into service. These might be mere teething troubles caused in part by the necessarily last-minute realignment of the track away from the old terminal and into the new. But there is a lesson in the "teething".

It is a reminder that the success of the long-awaited urban rail system depends mainly on the trains not the terminals. The proudest of civic amenities will soon be a white elephant unless people find the trains fast, frequent and reliable. If that seems obvious, it is a fact not alway reflected in allocations of public investment. Britomart, be it remembered, has been a case study of public investment pitfalls since it was mooted.

The scheme as originally conceived depended on commercial property developments above ground on a scale that the inner-city would have struggled to absorb. That scheme was ditched for the version now built, which was always going to cost more and provide less than the terminal originally planned. Britomart began as a simple intention to bring the railway closer to Queen St. But almost as soon as the Auckland City Council went to work on a Queen St link, the project acquired overtones of civic grandeur.

When Auckland received a financial windfall from the reform of regional government in the 1990s, it suddenly made possible the realisation of dreams, variously presented as "rapid rail" or "light rail", that the city had harboured for 30 years. The windfall fund and the assets generating it were entrusted to a body called Infrastructure Auckland, which was charged with making the money stretch as far as possible.

The officers of Infrastructure Auckland were hard to spot among the celebrants of the first train into Britomart on Monday, and no wonder. When those "bean-counters" ran their cost-benefit rule over the Britomart terminal they concluded its cost was way out of proportion to its importance in the scheme of things. That sort of caution has not made Infrastructure Auckland popular with local politicians impatient for their works of civic glory, but caution is certainly in the interests of regional ratepayers who begin paying a much increased public transport levy this month.

Britomart is obviously the pre-eminent station in the network but there are many others that will need to be built or refurbished, and they will need the "park and ride" facilities on which the success of the whole scheme depends. It is going to be difficult enough to entice commuters to leave their cars at a transfer station for the day. If the money is not available to make those facilities sufficient, secure and safe, the clientele of the expensive new service will be largely confined to commuters who live near a station. It will be much less economic and a much greater burden on ratepayers to the regional council.

Britomart is a magnificent new civic amenity, still to be seen in its full glory when the refurbished central post office becomes its grand entrance. But the problems of the past few days are a worthwhile reminder that the station will quickly lose its lustre if the trains do not soon start running on time.