Baby Britomart puts on weight

Aucklanders need a transport centre, but do they want to pay $249 million? asks BERNARD ORSMAN.

On any sticky summer day, hundreds of commuters arrive for work in Queen St dripping sweat after walking the kilometre from the railway station into the city.

It's a similar story in winter. Ferry users lashed by wind and rain cross Queen Elizabeth Square, arrive at work in damp shoes and spend the next two days nursing a cold.

Downtown Auckland is a dilapidated, rundown blot on the landscape, uninviting by day and dangerous at night.

But 70 years after trains last delivered passengers to the bottom of Queen St, there is new hope - and even a start date of August 3 for the Britomart transport centre.

That is not to say a definite start will be made on the rail, bus and ferry transport terminal on August 3. The date is only pencilled in and conditional on the Auckland City Council getting finance and a rigorous assessment of the costs and benefits of what is dubbed the "son of Britomart."

There was much excitement among Herald readers when they were asked last November to comment on the prize-winning design by Californian Mario Madayag, working with a local firm, Jasmax Architects.

His vision of a transport centre based around the old Chief Post Office plus trees and a forest of pillars emitting light, mist and sounds in QE Square won wide support.

But last week councillors got a reality check with news of an $88 million cost blowout. In four months, the bill has gone from $174 million to $262 million.

How did this cost over-run happen?


Anyone who has hired an architect will know that if you give them a brief they will come back with a raft of seductive ideas that, when costed, bear no relation to your budget. In the final design stages for Britomart, the architects were given a budget of $174 million and asked to design a railway station based around the old Chief Post Office, with provision for buses at ground level and improvements to QE Square and surrounding streets.

The biggest over-run is a subway under QE Square linking rail, bus and ferry services and priced at $39.3 million.

The architects cannot be blamed for all the blowout - the council and other interested groups have made $17.1 million of their own changes, including lowering the post office floor to ground level for better access ($4 million), raising the domes in the post office ($800,000), providing for two light rail tracks in addition to three heavy rail tracks ($5.5 million), and allowing $6.8 million for rising building costs.

Greg Boyden, of Jasmax, urged councillors last week to think of the benefits: "This can be the catalyst to make this part of the city come alive."

What has the Auckland City Council done about the cost blowout?


To stay within a maximum budget of $249.5 million, the council has lopped $13 million off the subway by doing away with travelators and eight escalators, narrowing the subway to 5m and changing the lighting.

Didn't present councillors scoff at the cost of the old plan and promise a smaller, cheaper alternative?

Britomart has long been a political football. Mayor Christine Fletcher said at the last local elections that Auckland could have got an excellent and modest terminal in 1994 for $18 million and that "big and grunty" projects such as the one advocated by then mayor Les Mills "act like steroids in the local body politic."

"Where was the small voice of common sense?" she demanded.

Fast forward to February last year, when the council heard the first hints that there would be no change from $200 million. Mrs Fletcher said the costings were deliberately on the high side: "I would rather come back and say it will cost less than cost more."

Former city councillor Ken Graham, dubbed "Mr Britomart," said a standalone transport centre was always going to cost more than the old scheme, which was part of a bigger underground project.

He says Mrs Fletcher, City Vision and Auckland Now councillors have no mandate to commit ratepayers to a huge expenditure of $250 million for a smaller, inadequate facility without first putting it to the voters at the November local body elections.

What are we getting for the money?

If the council sticks to a budget of $249.5 million, rail commuters will arrive to a backdrop of volcanic cones, ferns, bamboo and waterfalls. And that is only what is planned for the underground rail station. Above ground, a "sound forest" in QE Square of about 140 pillars 3m high will emit light, mist and echoing noises, and there will be a pine or kauri forest outside the Downtown Shopping Centre.

If the subway goes ahead, commuters will be able to move freely from the railway station to the Ferry Building and Queen St. Buses will be at street level in two locations - around Tyler St, Queen St, Quay St and Commerce St, and around Galway St, Queen St, Customs St East and Commerce St. Moving the bus stops will cost $682,000.

Behind the post office, the architects envisage an urban village with a Bohemian atmosphere like High St and Vulcan Lane. Running back from the post office towards Britomart Place will be a pedestrian street with a market square and round pond. A glass column will run from the pond down into one of several volcanic cones between the underground rail platforms.

How many will use the transport centre?


About 2700 commuters use the railway station each weekday, and 17,000 more take buses from the Britomart terminal. An Auckland Regional Council rail transit study projects a 15 per cent increase in the number of rail users as a result of moving the railway station to Queen St.

The ARC has not done any predictions for bus passengers, but bus operators forecast an increase of 5 to 10 per cent.

How will Britomart be financed?


The council proposes to borrow $133 million and is applying to transport funding bodies Infrastructure Auckland for $91.5 million and Transfund for $25 million. The council cannot borrow more than $133 million without affecting its credit rating. Hence the need to trim $13 million from the $262 million cost of the new project.

If the council does not get the full amount from Infrastructure Auckland and Transfund - a real possibility - it will have to cut back further. First to go will be the $39.3 million subway, followed by $6.4 million for upgrading the post office basement, then a lot of additional features like the volcanic cones, platform waterfalls and work on QE Square and streets round the post office.

Council planner John Duthie says the council will have to spend $200 million to get a credible transport centre.

How does the new Britomart differ from the old one?

The original scheme, devised in 1992 by Les Mills, was in two stages. Stage one was a $376 million, five-level, underground development with 2900 carparks and a train and bus station. Stage two gave the developers 11 above-ground foundation sites for high-rise commercial, apartment and hotel buildings. The council was to contribute $164 million for the transport centre. It also had the risk of paying up to $230 million if any of the 11 development sites was unsold after 10 years.

The new council, with a majority of councillors who campaigned to "Rethink Britomart," cancelled the scheme in November 1999 after the developer failed to come up with the money.

What is this talk about a cost-benefit analysis?


Britomart is a significant investment on a national scale underwritten by public money. The Controller and Auditor-General, David Macdonald, said in a report on the original scheme that an area of "significant concern" was that a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis was not done.

The council is still preparing an assessment of the costs and benefits under Audit New Zealand guidelines, but it has not decided if it will be audited to ensure the highest level of financial integrity. The analysis should be ready within 10 days.

Apart from the transport centre, how is the rest of the area going to develop?


The council has dropped plans to spend $17 million restoring many of the 17 historic buildings it owns in the 3.5ha Britomart precinct, leaving this to private developers. The value of this portfolio has halved since June, from $54.5 million to $26.7 million, largely as a result of the council passing on the restoration costs to developers.

How does Britomart fit into the bigger transport picture for Auckland?


Mrs Fletcher, her deputy, Bruce Hucker, and others who are being maligned for spending $86 million more than Mr Mills planned - not including $22 million written off from the original scheme - argue that the new scheme has a stronger focus on public transport and low-rise urban renewal.

They also argue that Britomart is an important part of a regional transport plan with provision for light rail; a central city rapid-transit loop going up Queen St, on to the university, hospital and back downtown via Parnell; Auckland City's link with the North Shore busway; and the key to better ferry services.