AT sent back to drawing board on its budget

Auckland Transport (AT) has back-pedalled on its controversial draft 10-year budget.

AT’s board transport committee voted on Thursday to rewrite its draft of the Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) budget to more accurately reflect the priorities of the organisation, council and the coalition Government.

The RLTP outlines AT’s funding levels and where transport improvements for Auckland should be made until 2028.

It is revised every three years. By law, AT must have a new RLTP plan put through public consultation, signed off and adopted by the end of June.

Problems arose last week when the draft RLTP was mistakenly placed on AT’s website after an administrative handling error.

Its capital expenditure figures proposed slashing spending for cycling and walking investment by 90 per cent, or $57.5 million, and reducing rail funding from $130m in 2018 to an average of $81m per year until 2028.

But at the same time roading was indicated as a spending priority, with local road improvements increasing from $458m this year to $693.5 in 2021.

This flew in the face of council and government objectives, who both expressed a desire to reduce Auckland’s dependence on its roading system and bring about improvements to active and public transport.

AT’s board blamed these misaligned funding priorities on a calculator used by AT.

The calculator used an out-ofdate plan, the Auckland Transport Alignment Project plan, used by the previous National Government and the council, which marked cycling and rail as low priorities.

SUPPLIED Auckland’s award-winning Lightpath cycleway has become an iconic piece of infrastructure in the city.