Campaign urges commuters to send transport postcards

Commuters in Auckland are being encouraged to send key transport decision makers a postcard - to support a campaign about the future of public transport in the city.

The campaign was launched today at Mt Albert railway station by the Campaign for Better Transport.

The "Action Stations" campaign aims to gain assurance from the Government that funding for a range of public transport initiatives will go ahead as originally intended before the withdrawal of the regional fuel tax.

These include integrated ticketing, new stations, ferry terminals, Onehunga rail and electric trains .

The Auckland Regional Transport Agency (ARTA), which oversees public transport improvements in Auckland, has been forced by the Government to apply to the New Zealand Transport Agency for the funding of railway stations for Onehunga and other projects.

Campaign organiser Dr Francis Reid encouraged the public to participate in the Action Stations campaign by sending transport decision makers a postcard, which can be downloaded from the bettertransport.org.nz website.

"These projects need to be completed. The Government-appointed Auckland council transition agency is threatening to delay all of these projects even further," said Dr Reid.

Ancient tracks on the Onehunga branch line have been replaced, but the location of passenger rail stations and how they are to be funded has yet to be determined.

"The withdrawal of $200m worth of funding through the regional fuel tax has left a gaping hole in Auckland public transport funding", said Campaign for Better Transport convener Cameron Pitches.

"The ridiculous thing is the Government said they did so out of concern about rising petrol prices hurting people in the pocket, but in the meantime petrol companies have increased the price by 5c a litre anyhow."

Mr Pitches said the Government's confirmation it would slash up to $250 million from public transport infrastructure spending over the next three years in order to boost expenditure on new state highways was "deeply depressing."

Total expenditure on new state highways is now set to be 22 times that of public transport infrastructure over the next three years, he said.

"This is an astonishing underinvestment, given the record 20 per cent growth in Auckland's public transport we have consistently seen year on year," Mr Pitches said.

- NZPA