National’s Election Promise Derails Train Plans
One small, ultimately unsuccessful election promise by the National Party has thrown into disarray Auckland’s plans for a fleet of versatile battery-electric trains.
Had the party made its pledge a week later, the NZ$207 million (about F$297.71m) plan would have been in the bag.
Instead, council agency Auckland Transport has just signed up to Plan B; buying 15 new electric trains costing $133m (about F$191.28m).
The agency will be scrambling over the next few weeks to resurrect the dominoes that fell in August, sweeping away its initial plan.
Auckland needs new trains by 2019 as patronage is rising stronger and for longer than expected, and the current fleet of 57 may be full or nearly full by then.
Plan A was cutting-edge hybrid trains. The extra battery power would allow trains to run beyond the end of the electrified network at Papakura to Pukekohe, currently served by ageing diesel shuttles. This would directly connect Pukekohe nine years earlier than the official plan to extend electrification by around 2026. The hybrids would have brought other advantages. They could potentially extend rail services beyond the western end of electrification at Swanson to Huapai. Their battery power would help when the inner city rail loop (CRL) was being completed and hooked up to the western line at Mt Eden, avoiding a $10m-15m (about F$14.38m-F$21.57m) work-around to get trains through the site. The NZ$60m (about F$ 86.29m) premium brought plenty of benefits and, in July, Auckland Council signed up for its half.
The board of the government’s agency NZTA was due to do likewise in early August.
Council committee backed off
Five days before that board meeting, National announced that if elected, it would bring electrification to Pukekohe forward by perhaps three to four years.
With the upgrade gap to Pukekohe being shortened from perhaps nine years to five or so, NZTA’s board backed off on the battery option. And without their commitment to Plan A, Auckland Council’s finance and policy committee had to reverse its earlier decision, and step back to match Plan B - 15 trains not 17, and no batteries.