KEY POINTS:
Political doubt emerging over regional fuel taxes will not deprive Aucklanders of electric trains, says National Party transport spokesman Maurice Williamson.
The Pakuranga MP and former National transport minister yesterday echoed the reservations of his leader, John Key, about the desirability of new fuel taxes at a time of spiralling living costs - notably of food and petrol.
But Mr Williamson insisted that if National won this year's election, there would be no shortage of alternative ways to pay for Auckland's $1 billion rail electrification project.
These could include raising money through infrastructure bonds, or electrifying the network as a public-private partnership (PPP), a device the Government is considering for the $1.9 billion Waterview motorway tunnels.
Mr Key said from Singapore on Monday that a possible 25c added to the price of a litre of petrol from a combination of regional fuel taxes and the Government's biofuels and carbon emission trading schemes would be "too high for the average consumer to bear".
That warning came as the Auckland Regional Council consults ratepayers on a 5c regional fuel tax to cover its half-share of rail electrification, to which the Government could add a further 5c to underwrite the rest of the project while also contributing to the Waterviewtunnels and the "Penlink" toll road to Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
The council will start hearing submissions on May 19 on its plan to tax motorists from January 1, ready for a core fleet of electric trains to be running for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, as an alternative to raising rates by 17 per cent for each of 10 years to plug a $700 million public transport funding gap.
Mr Williamson emphasised that National was not ruling out regional fuel taxes as a long-term possibility, if preceded by personal income tax cuts and better living standards.
"It's got to be at a time when you see people's incomes going up and tax cuts giving them quite substantial money in the hand," he said.
"But right now is the worst of all timings, coinciding with the biofuels and the emissions trading scheme and a whole range of other things."
Even so, he assured Aucklanders of National's commitment to electrifying their rail network, and promised no interruption to the project's momentum if his party gained office this year.
He said a National Administration would ensure the project kept rolling even if it meant having to underwrite it while the Government could work out the best of a range of alternative funding mechanisms.
Regional council chairman Mike Lee said his organisation shared concerns about the burden of rising fuel prices, but it highlighted the importance of providing a strong public transport system.
"It is absolutely the highest priority to provide a decent public transport alternative."
Although he said the Government had done more for Auckland transport than any of its predecessors "in living memory", he was reasonably confident a National Administration would keep the electrification ball rolling.
"One cannot assume anything, but if a National Government were to allow the electrification of Auckland rail to collapse for the third time in 50 years, I think there would be a major backlash.
"Especially so while Aucklanders would see a whole brand new fleet of electric trains being purchased in Wellington right now and 90 per cent paid for by the Government."
Although Wellington gained an electric rail network in the 1940s, a proposal of former Auckland Mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson and the old Auckland Regional Authority for rapid transit system including electric trains running in an underground loop between the central city and Newmarket was vetoed by the Muldoon Government in 1976.
