Tunnels at hub of public transport solution

Transport planners get down to the practical details of tunnels and underground stations, writes CHRIS DANIELS.

Auckland commuters cruising through tunnels under Albert Park and making use of an underground station beneath the university are at the inner-city heart of the latest public transport masterplan.

Buses or light rail would use the dedicated public transport route, connecting the new Britomart terminal via an Albert Park tunnel to the university station, through another tunnel under the Domain to the hospital, and on to the western railway line at Newmarket.

These details of the $100 million inner-city "hub" of a regional public transport plan were released yesterday, and are expected to be approved by local politicians this week.

That will be the first step in a maze of planning and design work that would put construction several years away.

But council officers and politicians are confident the latest blueprint for the city's congestion woes will become concrete.

City transport planners, with Tranz Rail and Stagecoach, have been trying to sort out where to put the interconnections between three major public transport corridors, due to be announced next month.

That region-wide plan would cost many hundreds of millions of dollars, paid for by the central Government through road funding agency Transfund and Infrastructure Auckland, and by ratepayers through the regional council and their local authorities.

Catherine Harland, the Auckland City Council transport committee chairwoman, said the central hub was crucial.

"It is the crossroads, the place that everything needs to link. Whether north, south, west or east, there will be this corridor that enables you to move into our CBD - the hub of the region.

"It is quite realistic, it is feasible. It is logical and does all the right things. We are finally getting down to designing something practical, that can be implemented, rather than strategies of nice ideas."

The first corridor to be built is expected to be the Bus Rapid Transit connecting Albany with the central city.

The transport planning manager at the Auckland City Council, Ross Rutherford, said it would be difficult to have buses or light rail travelling in a separate right-of-way.

Some decisions needed to be made urgently, as Auckland Hospital was about to start a major rebuilding project.

Mr Rutherford said he too was confident that this project would actually proceed.

"It's quite exciting. There has been a lot of talk for a long time, but this time there is a determination to do something, as long as we can resolve the issues and get the funding."