Govt to pick up most of $15b light rail tab
The Government will pay the “lion’s share” for a $15 billion light rail line from the city centre to the airport in Auckland and is confident of having it built by 2033.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Transport Minister Michael Wood gave those assurances when announcing the Government’s preferred option for light rail yesterday.
The ministers also said they were bringing forward planning for a second Waitematā Harbour crossing with public consultation on options starting this year, with a preferred option selected in 2023. This will include choosing a route, deciding on tunnels or another bridge, and confirming what transport modes will use it.
Light rail will run in tunnels all the way from Wynyard Quarter to Mt Roskill, roughly following the route of Sandringham Rd, although there is flexibility around that. It will then proceed on a surface track alongside State Highway 20, deviating to stop at Onehunga and Māngere townships before continuing to the airport.
The City Centre to Māngere (CC2M) line, will have about 18 stations, and trains every five minutes. It will be able to carry 12,000 people an hour, which the Government says is four times more passengers than can be carried on a dedicated busway or “trackless trams”.
The ministers said the “hybrid” system had been chosen over light rail at street level costing $9b and light metro above or below ground ($16.3b). It had greater carrying capacity, was less disruptive and better aligned to a linked-up rapid transit transport network, they said.
The options were prepared by a light rail establishment unit and presented to the Government in October.
Robertson, who has the job of rustling up $15b for the project, said it would be easy to go with the cheaper option, but he was convinced the preferred option from the establishment group better met the needs for an integrated rapid transit plan.
The Government would fund the “lion’s share” of the $15b project and look at other options, including “value uplift” — a charge on businesses and developments that benefit from the project — and some kind of targeted rate. Whether that rate would be set and collected by Auckland Council had yet to be decided.
Mayor Phil Goff said the council would have a role to play providing infrastructure around the project as part of plans to build 66,000 new homes and create 97,000 new jobs by 2051. But given the council’s financial position, it did not have the capacity out of rates to pay for light rail, saying Aucklanders would contribute to it through their taxes.
Goff said the plan would address congestion, transport emissions and the need for more housing in a highquality, compact form.
Without light rail, he said, the growing city would become gridlocked and unliveable.
Robertson called it the “most important infrastructure project that New Zealand has ever undertaken”.
“It is crucial we get it right,” he said.
Wood said it was the beginning of a
“London-style” connected network that included light rail to Kumeū and Huapai and a new harbour crossing.
Among the 18 or so stations would be a stop at the city’s universities, Kingsland, Onehunga and Māngere.
A “support package” for affected businesses would also be created, he said.
“We are making a commitment to businesses in the area that significant disruption will be addressed through a comprehensive package, including direct financial support.”
Wood is optimistic about the ambitious timeframe to do the planning and consenting in three years and build the 24km route, including 11km of tunnelling, in six to eight years.
Auckland’s 3.4km City Rail Link is a smaller project that is taking nine years to build.
Wood said the planning process was well under way with a lot of work already done, special legislation and fast-track consenting likely, and technical experts had advised him the build would take six to eight years.
“Those are the estimates and we have confidence we can meet that,” he said.
National’s infrastructure spokesman Simon Bridges said the Government’s light rail dream was just that — a dream, saying Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised in 2017 to build light rail to Mt Roskill in four years and all we have is an “option”.
Light rail would be scrapped by National, the party’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown told the this week.
In an interview, he said the indicative business case was full of holes, it only just scraped across the business case ratio of 1 and relied on tens of thousands of homes being built without taking into account the cost of the infrastructure.
“The number one priority for Aucklanders is a second Harbour Crossing for both public transport and private vehicles,” Brown said.
Act transport spokesman Simon Court said New Zealanders from the Waikato to Southland would be on the hook for paying for Auckland light rail.
The Green Party said yesterday’s decision was the first step towards building the climate friendly, accessible city our communities deserved.
Transport Spokesman Ricardo Menndez March said the Greens’ preferred option was for street-level light rail and by partially going underground the Government must ensure underground stations were accessible and welcoming to all communities.
The Government got a big tick from Infrastructure New Zealand for its “transformational Auckland transport plan” of pressing ahead with light rail and a second harbour crossing.
“This is New Zealand’s biggest ever infrastructure project, and a comprehensive and integrated plan addressing long-standing issues and will make Auckland fit for the future and a great place to live, work and play,” said chief executive Claire Edmondson.
The Dominion Rd Business Association welcomed the selection of tunnelled light rail, with manager Gary Homes saying it gave certainty to business and property owners after multiple false starts and dashed hopes for mass transit.
Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board chairwoman Lydia Sosene was rapt with the decision to take light rail through Māngere, saying it would allow the transport-poor community to get about the city on rapid transit, and create job opportunities.