Greens warn train passengers about National transport plans

Jeanette Fitzsimmons

Green Party politicians descended on Auckland's skeletal rail network yesterday, with warnings to passengers that National would stop expansion plans in their tracks.

They criss-crossed the network for much of the day, handing out green balloons and pamphlets in a whistle-stop rail tour reminiscent of electioneering of a bygone era, which they want to revive as an antidote to Aucklanders' dependence on cars.

Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, whose travelling companions included Auckland transport spokesman Keith Locke, said National's promise to channel into roads all petrol taxes now going to general government coffers would have dire consequences for public transport.

"That means there will be no completion of the double-tracking of the rail, there will be no further progress on bus lanes, there will be no tunnel connecting Britomart to the western line so we can have through trains," she said.

"There will be no rail link to the airport unless Auckland funds the whole jolly lot out of rates and we know Auckland can't do that."

These projects would be "gone by lunchtime", one of her supporters interjected during speeches at Newmarket station.

But National finance spokesman John Key insisted his party supported public transport despite giving top priority to completing Auckland's motorways.

"It's yet another misguided statement by the Greens as they gurgle their way in a death spiral," he said last night.

He said about $600 million a year of petrol tax which was diverted into the Crown account, but which National ultimately intended to put into new roads, would be extra to the $22.3 billion Labour intended spending on transport over 10 years.

"The truth is that double-tracking the western line is already in the baseline and will be completed, and the bus lanes - I don't know if she knows what buses travel on, but the good news is that they are roads, and they will be completed as well."

Mr Key acknowledged, however, that any new rail projects would have to be assessed on their merits before National would approve them.

His party's transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson, has previously agreed that Auckland needs new trains but said they would have to be diesel-powered as an electrification preference of the region's new transport authority would be too costly.

He all but ruled out turning Britomart into a through station with a tunnel under Albert St, another preference of the transport authority as a way of doubling patronage.

Ms Fitzsimons pointed to results from an Auckland Regional Council survey in insisting National was on the wrong transport track.

The survey of 1600 residents, reported yesterday to a council committee, showed that 87 per cent believed better public transport would make it easier to get around Auckland but only 46 per cent agreed more roads would do the same. At the same time, 55 per cent nominated traffic congestion as what they disliked most about living in Auckland.

The Greens leader described National's heavy commitment to new motorways at a time of rising petrol prices as "simply incomprehensible. We are already starting too late to get a robust public transport system before oil becomes unaffordable - we mustn't let anybody stall the progress now - we must keep going."

Ms Fitzsimons said none of the passengers she approached yesterday, both waiting for buses at New Lynn as well as on her train routes, disagreed with her promotion of public transport ahead of roads.

Duncan McSporran, waiting with a bicycle to catch a train to visit his mother "because I feel lazy today", said he had been using both transport modes since losing his licence over a drink-drive conviction.

The part-time builder said that although his licence had been reinstated long ago, he had decided to keep saving money by leaving his car at home. "We need less cars on the road - [National leader Don] Brash would be a fool if he tries to pull trains off the tracks."

Thomas Lipp said he preferred leaving his Volvo at home in Remuera, walking 15 minutes to Newmarket and catching a train to Henderson to help at the joinery business his son has inherited from him.

"We need to do something about Auckland's traffic problem and rail is the way to go, because extra bus lanes only block up roads and an eastern motorway wouldn't have solved the problem."