KEY POINTS:
The Government is preparing to open its chequebook for a $120 million-plus upgrade of New Lynn railway station in which duplicate tracks will be laid in a trench below street level.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen is understood to have heeded warnings from Waitakere City Council of traffic chaos if the western railway line was duplicated through the existing New Lynn bottleneck.
Those warnings would have been driven home to Dr Cullen during a visit he made to the site about 10 days ago with fellow minister and local MP David Cunliffe, a strong advocate for a trenching plan likely to cost between $120 million and $145 million.
The Treasury is believed to have advised the Government that the duplication should be "at-grade" for $39 million, meaning increasing road and rail traffic would be forced to compete harder for the same space at ground level.
More than a kilometre of trenched tracks overlaid with landscaped "lids" for unimpeded road and pedestrian crossings would remove the existing barrier cutting the town centre off from much of its hinterland, yielding what council consultants believe would be economic benefits of $218 million.
Mr Cunliffe is expected to make an announcement in New Lynn about the project tomorrow with Government rail agency Ontrack, which is leading the western line duplication project from Newmarket to Swanson, and Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey.
Ontrack has a $600 million funding envelope from the Government for a basic Auckland rail upgrade over three years.
Mr Cunliffe could not be reached for comment yesterday and Mr Harvey refused last night to discuss what he called an "embargoed decision".
But Ontrack is midway through duplicating the line between New Lynn and Henderson for $55 million, a figure $10 million less than estimated by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, and is understood to be optimistic of completing the trenching project without having to ask the Government for more money.
