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Surprise plans to restore a passenger rail service to Helensville after a gap of almost 30 years have stirred pre-election controversy at the Auckland Regional Council.
The spat has regional transport committee chief Joel Cayford accusing council chairman Mike Lee and other supporters of the move, who include deputy chair and Rodney District representative Christine Rose, of "pork-barrel politics" leading up to October's local body elections. Mr Lee returned fire last night, saying he was disappointed Dr Cayford should question the good faith of fellow councillors while criticising a public transport initiative which the council had backed Rodney residents in seeking from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority since 2005.
Dr Cayford's concern is over a late addition of $450,000 to a $60.7 million annual capital grant from the council to its transport authority subsidiary, to upgrade three stations for a 30km passenger train extension between Waitakere and Helensville. That will allow a trial daily return commuter service in the 2008-09 financial year, starting at Helensville and stopping at rebuilt stations at Waimauku and Huapai before reaching Waitakere, where passenger trains now end their runs.
Although about 15 freight trains still travel through Helensville each week, no scheduled passenger services have headed that far north since 1980.
But the council's Monday night vote was close - a 5-3 majority with two abstentions, including that of Dr Cayford. He said he chose to abstain rather than vote against the extra grant in the absence of enough information for a considered decision.
He said the meeting had no report from the transport authority on such matters as patronage projections for the new service, although figures "well below a hundred" daily passengers had been mentioned previously.
"This is not the right time to be adding the overhead costs of another 30km of track to Auckland's existing 94km, just for a few more passengers who could be serviced by bus," he said. "This decision is emotional - it's not economically efficient - at worst it is blatant pork-barrel politics in the run-up to an election," he said.
Mr Lee said it was Dr Cayford who seemed to be electioneering.
Asked about the lateness of the grant Mr Lee said it was because the transport authority had only just asked for the money since completing a study confirming the feasibility of a passenger service.
He said that followed council requests in each of the past two years for the authority to consider such a service, and its inclusion in the Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy, over which Dr Cayford presided.
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