KEY POINTS:
Finance Minister Michael Cullen is offering Auckland $6 million to get more shipping containers off the region's roads, and on to trains.
He has made an offer of a Government grant towards a rail shuttle link between the waterfront container terminals and Wiri, subject to formal Cabinet approval, in a bid to break a negotiating impasse between Ontrack and Ports of Auckland Ltd.
The port company has already spent $19 million buying and developing 10ha of land beside the North Island main trunk railway line for an "inland port" at Wiri, using it as a staging post through which it shifts about 20,000 containers a year by road.
But it has spent several years trying to persuade Ontrack, the Government's rail agency, to build a siding so it can boost that number to more than 100,000 containers with shuttle trains running at night.
That should ease the burden of container traffic on motorways and local roads, including some where residents are said to be concerned that heavy trucks thundering past their homes have caused foundation cracking.
Although neither party is disclosing just how much is needed to develop the siding, citing the sensitivity of negotiations, the port company was understood last year to be seeking $7 million from the Government.
Dr Cullen's offer to provide most of that money remains conditional on the successful conclusion of negotiations between the company and Ontrack over the balance of funds needed, which he has asked the rail agency to do its best to accelerate.
Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, whose organisation passed a resolution last year of strong support for a rail shuttle, said urgent progress was needed on the project to tackle road congestion.
He said it would also be good for both the rail and shipping industries, in which the council has a financial interest through ownership of the port company through Auckland Regional Holdings.
The council's support for the project followed a report from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority which estimated that benefits would exceed costs by five to seven times.
Chris Carr, a director of the Auckland Road Transport Association, said his organisation supported the rail link as good for regional business development, although the rapid growth of the port company was such that he doubted there would be much reduction in container road traffic.
He believed most container trucks were using the direct route up Grafton Gully from the waterfront to the Southern Motorway rather than streets around Orakei and Kohimaramara, especially since a ban was imposed on left turns at night from the Fergusson terminal into Tamaki Drive.
But Toni Millar, Auckland City Council member for Eastern Bays, said there were still many container trucks using Kepa Rd and Kohimaramara Rd during daylight hours.
She said some residents had complained of cracks in their building foundations.
