Bus costs balloon, building goes on

North Shore City Council has vowed to push on with building a string of super bus stations, despite a massive shortfall in funds created by rising costs of the Northern Busway project.

The busway is seen as the flagship project in New Zealand for getting people out of their cars and into buses.

But Mayor George Wood says the council is alarmed at the way its share of the $300 million project - building five bus stations - has rocketed.

At first the council thought the stations would cost $56 million, then it was told $74 million and now that has been revised to $85 million.

Meanwhile, the council launched into building park-and-ride stations at Albany and Constellation Dr.

Mr Wood said an extra $27 million was needed to finish the project by building three stations at Sunnynook, Westlake Girls High School and Akoranga.

The council felt this was an excessive burden on its ratepayers.

Mr Wood said the council this week agreed to start site works for the stations to ensure the whole busway project progressed smoothly.

But as for helping to fill the funding gap to finish the stations, it was depending on the goodwill of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and its funder, the Auckland Regional Council.

He said the council was negotiating with them on what would be a reasonable amount.

"We have not nailed down the final figure of what we want them to put in," said Mr Wood.

"We have a letter from ARTA board chairman Brian Roche which gives us a level of comfort, though it's not a cheque or promissory note that we are getting funding."

ARTA chief executive Alan Thompson said it was not in a position to formally commit to helping with cost increases. The ARTA budget for this year was locked down six months ago, he said, and the city council's request would be considered when next year's budget was formed in February-March.

"We would have to submit proposals to our two principal funders - the ARC and Land Transport New Zealand."

The city council hopes that the entire busway will be running from early 2008, with Transit New Zealand building the busway along the Northern Motorway.

The Albany and Constellation Drive stations, which have free car parking, will open from November 6.

New buses, painted in the MAXX livery, will travel the express route from the stations to Auckland City, using the motorway shoulder lanes until the busway lanes are completed.

City-bound buses will leave Albany and Constellation Dr stations at five-minute intervals in the morning peak.

In addition to commuters' parking and riding, the stations will provide connecting buses to the surrounding suburbs.