$66 million set aside for western rail expansion

Auckland rail will receive $66 million for a crucial duplicate track to boost services between New Lynn and Henderson - but faces a nine-month delay before it is ready.

Government funding agency Land Transport New Zealand has added $34.8 million to a preliminary grant of $4.8 million for the project, to which the Auckland Regional Council will also contribute $26.4 million.

Although this is a relief for the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, a council subsidiary, the project is not expected to be finished until the first quarter of 2007.
The Waitakere City Council had hoped trains would be coming and going on duplicate tracks running into a new $36 million civic centre and transport interchange it is building at Henderson in time for a gala opening next June.

Transport authority rail chief Elena Trout said project designers had determined that this goal was now "practically impossible" given the sequencing needed to minimise disruption to existing train services.

Not only will 7km of double tracks be added to the western line - to boost trains services to four an hour compared with two now - but three duplicate bridges will be built and four stations redeveloped.

The latest funding arrangements are despite an announcement by the Government shortly before this month's general election that its Ontrack organisation would build tracks and signal controls, leaving the regional council to pay for trains and station upgrades.

Mrs Trout said this formula would apply to more than $120 million of future projects needed to extend duplicate tracks the rest of the way from Boston Rd in Mt Eden to Swanson and to reconfigure Newmarket station and its junction of railway lines by the end of 2008.

But planning for the New Lynn to Henderson stage was too advanced to wait for the new division of funding responsibilities with Ontrack, even though that agency was closely involved in designing the project and short-listing contractors.