OPINION
Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) as we know it appears to be at death’s door and while Wellingtonians would probably be glad to see it go, it’s frustrating facing the prospect of heading back to the drawing board.
The future of the capital’s transport system is once again a political football.
National has announced it will get rid of LGWM and build a second Mt Victoria tunnel along with upgrades at the Basin Reserve at a cost of $2.2b.
Transport Minister David Parker yesterday refused to commit to seeing LGWM through to the election.
But under pressure from National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown in the House today, Parker clarified the Government is not “dumping the programme” but is in discussions with councils about how it could be progressed more quickly.
“As the Prime Minister has said, the problem with Let’s Get Wellington Moving is that it hasn’t been moving fast enough.”
Asked whether he has confidence in LGWM, Parker said he did.
LGWM was born in 2015 out of another failure- the Basin Reserve flyover proposal.
After the flyover was rejected, LGWM was meant to be a circuit breaker that took a wider look at the city’s transport system.
It became a three-way partnership between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.
It’s this governance structure that has come to be known in some Wellington circles as a three-headed monster.
For one thing, whoever thought involving the city council in something designed to have cut-through on major transport decisions obviously isn’t very familiar with the council.
This is the same council that went on to build the disaster that is the Island Bay cycleway and presided over the ensuing years of arguing about how to fix it.
Then there is the growing disconnect between LGWM officials and councillors.
Some elected members feel they are not being given information in a timely and transparent way and blame a chilling effect created by previous leaks to the media.
The number of decisions that have to go through all three partners individually for anything to happen is painstaking.
Not only has the programme had to consult with the public on its plans, but it’s had to contend with three-year election cycles.
It has meant that two of every three years is an election year for either the partner councils or the Government.
This presents a challenging working environment when discussions on major projects like a second Mt Victoria tunnel and mass rapid transit to the south are yet to be confirmed.
A change of government could completely upend LGWM, as National’s transport policy announcement has demonstrated this week.
It is through gritted teeth that Wellingtonians endure the future of their city being up for debate yet again, considering LGWM has now had eight years to shore it up.
The endless consultation is enough to make anyone’s eyes glaze over and is ultimately the downfall of the programme.
Fasten your seatbelts for a brief history lesson.
It wasn’t until 2018, three years after LGWM was first formed, that it took a Recommended Programme of Investment to the Government. It turned out this was more like a wish list of projects that required an exhausting level of consultation.
In 2019, then Minister of Transport Phil Tywford and mayor Justin Lester announced the LGWM indicative package which had mass rapid transit going to the airport and a second Mt Victoria tunnel. Other projects like doubling the Terrace Tunnel were not included.
Twyford must have been feeling the pressure to make an announcement saying Cabinet decided to endorse the package because Wellingtonians had waited decades for transport investment.
Treasury advice from that time said Cabinet should “certainly not” endorse it, citing concerns the package was light on details.
Officials even took issue with the use of a word cloud graphic which it called “anecdotal and emotive, rather than conclusive evidence of a need for these particular investments”.
Later that year Lester lost the mayoralty to Andy Foster, who was anything but happy with LGWM.
In 2020 the programme was subjected to a health check which found it was at risk of failing to deliver a cohesive package, had a detrimental culture - and was inadequately resourced. Michael Wood became the Transport Minister at the end of that year.
Then in 2021 officials came up with four different versions of the option Twyford had announced in 2019 to be consulted on. Mass rapid transit was now going to the south because as it turned out the east was too vulnerable to sea level rise.
In 2022 Wood fronted the media and essentially re-announced that the Government was keen on light rail and a second Mt Victoria tunnel. A more LGWM-friendly Tory Whanau was elected as mayor of Wellington at the end of that year.
Yet after all this, no final decisions have been made on mass rapid transit or the second tunnel. A detailed business case for these projects is still being worked on and is not expected to be completed until the middle of next year.
The main thing the programme has to show for itself is a singular pedestrian crossing on a state highway.
As of June 28 of this year $59.4m has been spent on consultants and just $4.6m on construction contractors, a response to a written parliamentary question from Brown shows.
LGWM has left itself ripe for the taking or rather, dismantling.
This should be done so with caution and the absolute certainty that something significant could be built faster than LGWM was already planning. Otherwise, the city will be back to square one.
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
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