KEY POINTS:
Auckland councils face financial pressure to separate road traffic from trains and abolish some of their busiest level crossings, before the region's rail network is electrified by 2013.
Consultants to the Auckland Regional Council have identified six level-crossings with heavy traffic that count as candidates for "grade-separation" projects to prevent unacceptable delays as trains run more frequently and barrier arms come down more often.
That means building road bridges over rail tracks, or tunnels under them, at an average cost of $10 million each.
Four of the crossings nominated for closure are in Auckland City; the other two are in Waitakere and Papakura.
An alternative is to sink railway lines into trenches below roads, as Government agency Ontrack is preparing to do in New Lynn for $120 million, to remove level crossings at the notorious traffic-stopping Clark St roundabout and in Veronica St.
Ontrack says that scheme will be exceptional because it is critical to the western-line duplication project in its Government-funded $600 million basic upgrade of the Auckland rail network.
It says the budget will not extend to closing any more crossings, which it insists is the responsibility of territorial local authorities with subsidies from Land Transport NZ.
A regional council staff report warns of an urgent need to separate road traffic from trains, as that will become much costlier once electrification infrastructure is in place.
But it says a relatively good safety record at most Auckland level crossings means subsidy applications to Land Transport may not succeed on benefit-cost grounds.
"This may result in the opportunity to grade-separate prior to electrification being lost," the report says.
It questions the use of historic crash statistics for calculating benefit-cost ratios, given that expanded rail operations are likely to increase delays and the potential for more accidents at crossings.
Ontrack says that although there were 31 collisions or close-shaves on crossings in the Auckland metropolitan area since it became responsible for rail infrastructure in 2004, none were fatal or caused serious injuries.
Even so, the regional council has decided to write to the mayors of all Auckland's city and district councils and to Ontrack chairman Cameron Moore to tell them of an urgent need for funding provisions to "grade-separate" top-priority crossings.
Regional council transport chairman Joel Cayford said the problem was very serious, as road barrier arms would be down and causing traffic pileups "all the time" once trains started running every 10 minutes in each direction.
That would mean trains crossing every five minutes, "and we will in effect be closing these roads."
The roads in which crossings are nominated for closure are: Manuroa Rd, Takanini; Sarawia St, Newmarket; Normanby Rd, Mt Eden; Morningside Drive, St Lukes; Woodward Rd, Mt Albert; Glenview Rd, Glen Eden.
Another possible candidate is a crossing in St Jude St in Avondale, from where traffic banks up along Blockhouse Bay and New North Rd, but which will be difficult to replace with a bridge or tunnel because of its steep grade.
Closing those on the list would still leave 25 level crossings on the existing rail network, as well as eight on the soon-to-be revived Onehunga branch line and 27 between Swanson and Helensville, from which a trial passenger service is due to start next year.
Although there will be just one return passenger service each day, running on a non-electrified single track, regional council deputy chairwoman and Waimauku resident Christine Rose said freight trains used the line and there was a need to safeguard crossings throughout the region.
CLOSURE LIST
* Manuroa Rd, Takanini.
* Sarawia St, Newmarket.
* Normanby Rd, Mt Eden.
* Morningside Drive, St Lukes.
* Woodward Rd, Mt Albert.
* Glenview Rd, Glen Eden.
* St Jude St, Avondale (possible).
