KEY POINTS:
Auckland transport politicians are alarmed that their region's share of almost $1.9 billion of rail improvements will be at least five times higher than the local cost of upgrading Wellington's trains.
And that is not counting a Government proposal to raise its $500 million half-share of Auckland rail electrification from a new tax on the region's motorists.
The Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee passed a resolution yesterday acknowledging recent Government investment in local transport, which includes a $600 million package of basic rail upgrade projects, notably duplicating the western line.
It also congratulated the Government on its $690 million buyback of Toll's national rail operation.
But the committee decided to ask the Auckland Regional Council to open discussions with the Government on finding "a more equitable, consistent and nationally standardised" funding model for rail spending.
That followed a calculation by regional councillor Joel Cayford that Auckland was liable for 40 per cent of rail improvements of $1.886 billion, including electrification, compared with a local share amounting to just 7 per cent for a $515 million package of upgrades for Wellington.
Committee member Kathleen Ryan, appointed to represent environmental sustainability, said Auckland's share would be as high as 68 per cent if the Government paid its proposed $500 million contribution to rail electrification from a regional fuel tax.
The regional council wants to introduce a tax starting at 1c a litre next winter, and 2c more in 2010 for its own purchase of electric trains, leaving the Government to announce how much it will similarly raise from motorists to wire up the railway tracks between Papakura and Swanson.
Ms Ryan said Auckland, with a population of 1.37 million, had far greater needs than Wellington with 466,300 people and an electric railway provided by the Government as long ago as the 1940s.
Waitakere City representative Linda Cooper said the disparity was aggravated because average incomes in Auckland were less than in Wellington, and she was concerned a high proportion of regionally distributed transport funding was being diverted to nationally important state highways.
But regional council chairman Mike Lee said Auckland was largely to blame for finding itself outside the national rail funding model because it pressed the Government to buy back its rail corridor from private ownership for $81 million in 2002 in "the biggest ripoff in history".
He had unsuccessfully opposed that move, which was made under the council's previous leadership and was followed a year later by the Government's purchase of the other 3900km of railway lines for just $1.
Mr Lee said use of tax money for Auckland's electrification project was "an amazing breakthrough".
