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Auckland City has been told to expect a land designation application next month for a $1 billion central city "loop" rail tunnel between Britomart and Mt Eden via Karangahape Rd.
"We are working towards designating the CBD rail loop, and expect to come to your council next month with a notice of requirement," Auckland Regional Transport Authority chief executive Fergus Gammie told the city's transport committee yesterday.
The authority considers a tunnel running beneath Albert St and including underground train stops near Wellesley St and Karangahape Rd to be essential for increasing the capacity of Britomart, by turning it from a terminal into an open-ended station.
But to do that, it needs electric trains, for which funding has yet to be determined after the Government said it would not allow Auckland Regional Council to raise a 5c a litre road-fuel tax in one hit next year.
The rail planners have also been thrown off-track by Auckland City planning commissioners, who have allowed retail giant Westfield to build a 41-storey skyscraper on its downtown site above the proposed tunnel.
Negotiations between the authority and Westfield over how the foundations can be designed to steer clear of the tunnel are continuing.
Despite the Government's caution over a fuel tax, which the regional council is now considering phasing in from a first instalment in July next year of 1c a litre, Finance Minister Michael Cullen has acknowledged electric trains are essential for rail development projects.
He said this week, while announcing the $665 million buyback of Toll's rail and ferry operations, that depriving Auckland of electric trains would be "a major setback".
