Waitakere in no mood for 'museum' rail

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey wants out of the Auckland rail project so he can build a separate new rail service to West Auckland.

Mr Harvey said he was not going to have "museum trains" running to West Auckland when people in his young city were prepared to leave their cars at home to travel on modern trains.

The Auckland Regional Council wants to obtain 40-year-old trains from a railway museum in New South Wales and upgrade them as part of a temporary answer to cope with the expected growth in commuter numbers when Britomart opens next July.

Mr Harvey's announcement came on the eve of the release of a review of the $370 million rail project by consultant Sir Ron Carter in which he will urge co-operation among the warring factions.

The ARC commissioned the review following criticism of its handling of the rail project and, in particular, of providing a decent train service out of Britomart when it opens.

Auckland Mayor John Banks has been an outspoken critic of the ARC, and other political figures want a new organisation, Auckland Regional Transport Network (ARTNL), to become the project manager.

ARTNL is a local authority trading enterprise set up by six of the seven Auckland councils to manage fixed-rail infrastructure such as the rails and stations.

Sir Ron is expected to address the issue of who should lead the project, the need for a properly costed business plan and governance issues.

Mr Harvey said his council had lost faith in the rail project and had informed other mayors and ministers that Waitakere "wishes to go it alone".

This flies in the face of ARC plans to find a new regional rail operator for Auckland once Tranz Rail stops providing commuter services next July. The ARC has short-listed three companies.

Mr Harvey said he was close to negotiating a deal with an international operator to run a modern train service from West Auckland to Britomart for up to 20 years but refused to say how it would be funded.

"This is a last-ditch and very serious bid to make it work. I am doing this out of sheer absolute frustration."

A spokesman for Bombardier Transportation at Dandenong, just outside Melbourne, said the Canadian company had provided Waitakere City with information on light rail and other rail vehicles for research into a West Auckland service. Bombardier has also submitted an expression of interest with the ARC to provide new trains for all of Auckland from 2006.

"We are waiting for the Waitakere versus Auckland Regional Council situation to resolve itself," the spokesman said. "We are certainly not interested in short-circuiting what the ARC is doing but we are also more than happy to talk to Waitakere."

Further reading
Feature: Getting Auckland moving

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