Editorial: Tram plan way off track as a cheap link to airport

G:link is the Gold Coast's new light rail tram system in Queensland Australia. Photo / Anne Gibson

If Auckland transport planners are seriously considering trams as a cheaper form of rail service to the airport, they should come to their senses. Trams, called "light rail" by planners, are of very limited value over a distance of more than a few city blocks. The journey from the airport to the nearest railway station, Onehunga, would take too long. And, as Auckland Council's infrastructure committee chairman, Mike Lee, observes, what would happen at Onehunga? Passengers would have to disembark with their baggage and wait for a train to the city.

Trams are being considered only because there is no money yet for a train link to the airport and Auckland Transport wants to designate a route before its national counterpart, the New Zealand Transport Agency, turns George Bolt Drive into a motorway that would include an intersection underpass. If ever there was a case where the local agency is right and the national agency's priorities are wrong, it is transport to Auckland airport.

A rail service between the airport and Britomart would be well used, particularly by budget travellers. When they arrive at airports, they look first for a train to the city centre. Buses and shuttles are a less popular option because they are not as easy to find and they are liable to have diverse destinations. A train into the city seems simpler, quicker and more reliable for visitors who do not know their way around.

Instead, the NZ Transport Agency is to spend $140 million making a motorway out of a road that is not seriously congested. If cars and buses are held up on their journey to the airport it is not often on George Bolt Drive. In fact, once the Waterview connection is completed it will become the route between the airport and the inner city and North Shore, doing away with hold-ups at Onehunga and the Gillies Ave on-ramp. Improvements to George Bolt Drive seem superfluous; traffic lights at Kirkbride Rd hardly warrant an underpass.

The airport's distance from the city, though, cries out for a rail connection. The need is so obvious that Auckland Airport should be putting up the finance. The airport company has enough cash in its kitty to be giving its international terminal constant makeovers and it is planning runway extensions. It has set land aside for a railway station and two rail corridors, one on George Bolt Drive and another to the Manukau station. But it is a 30-year plan.

Back in March, chief executive Adrian Littlewood said, "We don't know when the city will make the decision for rail to the airport but we need to enable it." At the same time, the company was making provision for two more multi-storey mega-parking blocks with walkways to the terminals.

He insisted public transport was "a central part of our long-term vision", but it must be wondered whether the airport's revenue from car parks and terminal retail leases diminishes its interest in a rail service.

Britomart rail terminal would be a convenient point for meeting or farewelling air passengers, an alternative to the long drive to Mangere. As an airport shareholder, the Auckland Council might be ambivalent about a train connection too.

It was second only to the City Rail Link in mayor Len Brown's priorities when elected in 2010. Two years later the airport line was dropped down the list.

Now the council's transport subsidiary is toying with tracks on roads. They might be cheaper than a dedicated railway but light rail would be false economy. A transfer at Onehunga would discourage its use. Local and national transport agencies should get together and ensure all their plans provide for trains to the planes. Sooner or later, the line will be laid.