Government fast-tracks western railway line duplication

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard (left), Helen Clark and Pete Hodgson signal the start of work on the Mt Roskill extension of SH20. Picture / Martin Sykes

Auckland's congested western railway line should have duplicate tracks a year earlier than planned - by 2008 - under a simplified funding policy announced by the Government yesterday.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Transport Minister Pete Hodgson unveiled the new policy not beside a railway but in the path of the $169 million motorway extension through Mt Roskill, after turning the first sods of earth marking its long-awaited construction start.

Mr Hodgson said the Government-owned Railways Corporation would build all new rail tracks and signal controls, leaving the Auckland Regional Council to pay for trains and station upgrades.

This means the Government will pay about $200 million to complete track duplication on the western line, needed to boost train services to four an hour, and to build a new 2km branch railway from central Manukau to the main trunk at Wiri.

It is also likely to pay $150 million to $200 million for new track signals, leaving the council to raise up to $500 million for an electric train system, should it accept recommendations of its Auckland Regional Transport Authority subsidiary.

That money would be provided from rates and income from regionally owned assets such as Ports of Auckland.

Mr Hodgson said the new funding arrangement would not necessarily cost the Government any more than subsidies which the regional council would otherwise need from Land Transport New Zealand.

"There may be more money but it depends on the tender price, and what we have got is a division of labour that gives us greater speed," he said.

"We may need more money or we may not, but we are going to get this thing built faster than it otherwise would have been."

Despite the transport authority's surrender of control of the track duplication project, on which it hoped to start the $70 million second stage next month between New Lynn and Henderson, regional council chairman Mike Lee welcomed the announcement.

"It means the national rail network is now being treated in the same way as our national road system; in other words, a very sensible division of labour," he told the minister and Helen Clark.

"The region can deploy its resources on brand new rolling stock and on upgraded stations, and at the same time the Government is treating Auckland's rail network as an asset of national importance.

"This is truly a breakthrough for the development of Auckland as a First World city and the development of Auckland's transport system."

Transport authority chief Alan Thompson said the duplication project was of a similar scale to a new motorway, so it made sense for a national agency to control it.

He expected double tracks to stretch from Newmarket to Swanson, about 26km, before the end of 2008.

This would mean completion of the project a year before Transit New Zealand expects to finish the 4km motorway extension to New Windsor, and then to press on with a further stretch through Avondale to the Northwestern Motorway, at a cost of $1.15 billion.

National's transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson, said yesterday's motorway construction start was four years too late and warned that the Greens may force a halt as its price for joining Labour in a coalition.

Helen Clark vowed not to let the project be stopped by the Greens, who want priority given to electrifying the rail network ahead of building new motorways.

"This project won't be slowed down - the Government's plans for transport spending are very well established," she said, adding that these provided for all modes of travel.

She made no apologies for delays in starting the job, saying it was important to take extra time when building a "21st-century" road to safeguard such an important geographic and heritage feature as the Mt Roskill volcanic cone.

Cone protection

* Transit has spent 18 months working with the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society to improve the motorway's design around Mt Roskill, easing the boundary between its lower slopes and an on-ramp from Dominion Rd.

* The agency's chief executive, Rick van Barneveld, noted that the motorway would include bus shoulder lanes each way and the final design "future-proofed" it with enabling works for the possible addition later of a rail line between Onehunga and Avondale.