Dialogue: Transport problems are being tackled

By CATHERINE HARLAND*

Auckland has a transport problem. However, it is not caused by present local-body politicians standing in the way of progress and it will not be solved by an avalanche of gimmicky postcards, as promoted by Auckland business lobbyists.

Auckland's transport problems stem from decades of funding roads on an incremental project-by-project basis and subsistence funding for passenger transport. The result is an incomplete motorway network and minimal bus, rail and ferry services.

Despite the rhetoric by some in the business community, Auckland councils and Transit New Zealand are getting on with the job.

All of the roading projects Auckland's business lobbies campaigned for are in the Regional Land Transport Strategy and Transit New Zealand's Auckland State Highway Strategy for the next 10 years.

These include completion of the central motorway (Spaghetti) junction, upgrading the Grafton Gully-to-port link, extending the Southwestern Motorway (State Highway 20) to Richardson Rd and upgrading of the Otahuhu motorway interchange as part of the project to build a new road from East Tamaki to State Highway 1 in Manukau.

All these projects have received support from the Auckland City Council and the latter two projects are progressing through the Resource Management Act consent processes.

In addition, Transit New Zealand has studies under way looking at linking State Highway 20 through Avondale to the Northwestern Motorway, and at increasing roading capacity over the Manukau Harbour between Onehunga and Mangere.

Its strategy signals further investigation of a new highway in the eastern corridor in the next 10 years.

These studies take time and while a Transport Solution Taskforce might be able to "storm through the cumbersome regional and environmental blocks," it could do so only by ignoring present laws and having unlimited access to people, resources and finance.

Transit NZ plans to spend $1 billion on new and improved state highway roading in the Auckland region over the next 10 years. Add to that the $100 million-plus a year that local authorities in the region spend on roading projects, and it becomes obvious that claims by the business community of no political will and no progress are not credible.

Auckland City Council spends between $40 million and $50 million each year on its own roads. But more and better roads alone will not solve Auckland's congestion problems.

The business sector cannot ignore the widespread demand for a high-quality public transport network similar to that enjoyed by our Pacific Rim competitor cities.

The $800 million to $1.5 billion price tag was clearly signalled in the 1999 Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy so it is nonsense to talk about the "snowballing" costs of public transport when much more will be spent on roads over the coming decade.

Amusing postcards will add to the talk, but will it speed up the walk? I have my doubts.

* Catherine Harland chairs the Auckland City Council transport and roading committee.