ARC blamed for stalling rail progress

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland is awash with money to improve the city's rundown rail service but no one is coming forward to spend it, says Infrastructure Auckland.

Chairman John Robertson says the funding body made $166 million on its investments in the past year but allocated grants of only $47 million for transport and stormwater projects. Of this, $32 million went to rail.

Infrastructure Auckland has earmarked $550 million to upgrade rail between now and 2008 but the money is sitting in the bank while politicians and bureaucrats bicker over how to spend it.

In his monthly report, Mr Robertson blamed the Auckland Regional Council for holding up progress and called for greater transparency and accountability for fixing the region's public transport woes.

Another Infrastructure Auckland board member, Gary Taylor, said the board's frustration with the ARC had reached "explosion point".

The directors' comments came as the Government considers a single transport body for Auckland, possibly under a new ARC structure and including Infrastructure Auckland.

The structure could be headed by the region's mayors and Government appointees overseeing a number of business units for transport, water, and regional facilities such as parks and museums.

The region's wholesale water company, Watercare Services, is being held up by people including Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey and Mr Taylor as the business unit model for transport.

Mr Harvey said Watercare knew how to address big issues like the Waikato pipeline and Mangere sewage purification plant upgrade, unlike the ARC, who were "all talk and no do".

The Government is due to unveil a multibillion-dollar funding and management transport package for Auckland on December 12.

Mr Robertson said Infrastructure Auckland was unable to control how much money was spent on rail because it was able to make grants only from applications that came forward.

The ARC was the lead planner and rail stood out as the most notable project "stuck in a vision and planning process for years".

Infrastructure Auckland hoped for change with this year's business plan to modernise Auckland's rail network but the ARC had failed to sign off a funding package for the plan by the October 31 deadline.

ARC chairwoman Gwen Bull said the regional council was acting to protect ratepayers from the escalating costs and risks associated with the $1.5 billion rail project.

She said the ARC was committed to the rail project and was working with Transfund and the Crown to finance a $175 million operational gap. It would be discussed at the council's passenger transport committee on November 26.

The failure of the ARC to meet the funding package deadline also led to a stern letter from Auckland City Mayor John Banks, Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis and North Shore Mayor George Wood to Mrs Bull last week.

They said: "The unwillingness of the ARC to allow this key regional project to proceed will result in the prolonging of the current chaotic state of the rail network."


Who's Who

Auckland Regional Council: the elected body with responsibility for organising train services.

Infrastructure Auckland: the publicly owned regional funding bank with $1.2 billion of cash and assets to spend on public transport, roads and stormwater.