Light rail tunnel option gets nod
Auckland’s light rail line will be largely underground and could be built in conjunction with a new bridge or tunnel across the Waitematā Harbour, the Government has decided.
The Government has widened its ambition to creating a rapid transit network, which could advance by a decade the harbour crossing and plug it into the line to Mt Roskill and Māngere.
The $14.6 billion Tunnelled Light Rail option was recommended by an establishment unit, which weighed up options such as a street-level system, and was confirmed in an announcement on Friday last week.
‘‘We are future-proofing for the growth that we know is coming and we are looking ahead 50 years plus,’’ Transport Minister Michael Wood told Stuff.
As recommended, the city centre-to-Māngere line will be tunnelled from Wynyard Quarter, past the University of Auckland to Mt Roskill, then above ground to Māngere town centre and the airport. Wood said it was hoped consents would be approved for a construction start next year, lasting six to eight years.
A new entity would be created to build it and the same organisation might also deliver an accelerated harbour crossing, currently not scheduled to start until the 2030s.
The minister said modelling had shown that rapid transit from the North Shore could boost patronage on the Māngere line by 30 per cent, due to more truly cross-town trips. The route across the isthmus has not been finalised.
Light rail was first explored by Auckland Transport to cope with growth along bus-heavy Dominion Rd but is now being pitched as an urban transformation project, after the Government took it over in 2017. It would serve big, new and higher-density
Kāinga Ora housing developments in Mt Roskill, and Māngere, and intensification along the chosen route.
The establishment unit forecast the line could enable the construction of 60,000 additional homes by 2051, better linked to education and to jobs in both the airport precinct and city centre.
Wood said the need for downtown connections to the North Shore and eventually the northwest meant tunnelling was the only option. He signalled some form of ‘‘value capture’’ – taxing properties along the route which rise in value – could raise up to $2b-$3b but how that would be achieved had not been decided.
While the Government would fund most of the core project, Wood said the detail on how much, if any contribution, should come from Auckland Council had not been determined. The rapid transit network approach meant the line would be built with an eye on how it would integrate with new links to the west and northwest but these would initially be bus-based.
The light rail project would include ‘‘safe walking and cycling along the corridor and with connections to all stations’’.
Auckland mayor, Phil Goff, welcomed what he called the biggest investment ever made in the region’s transport infrastructure.
‘‘It enables future rapid transit to the northwest and a third harbour crossing to the north.
‘‘It will create a linked network which will also connect to the east via the planned airport to Botany rapid transit route and the Eastern Busway, which is already under construction,’’ said Goff.
In making the announcement, Wood drew a parallel with 50 years ago, when Auckland city mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson almost won agreement for a rapid transit network, scuttled eventually by an outgoing Labour Government in 1975.
‘‘The city suffered because of that failure,’’ said Wood.
The National Party has called the plan ‘‘a dream’’.
‘‘If it ever goes ahead, it will be at least $15 billion of wasted spending,’’ National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown said.
‘‘The number one priority for Aucklanders is a second harbour crossing for both public transport and private vehicles,’’ Brown said.