Harvey rolls out tram-train vision for West

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey wants to buy a $110 million train-tram combo, call it the West Coast Express and start it rolling with a three-month free trial, and coffee and hamburger vouchers.

The entrepreneurial mayor has a vision of commuters riding a tram-train that leaves the main rail track and travels down a track laid in the road to such places as the Westgate shopping centre and New Lynn.

The bullet-shaped trains, with surf waves painted down the side, would leave Henderson for the city at 10-minute intervals during peak hours.

Mr Harvey is countering plans by the Government's Auckland transport advocate, Grant Kirby, for second-hand trains and the Auckland Regional Council for new multiple diesel units.

After visiting train manufacturers in Australia this month, Mr Harvey last week received a formal response from the international energy and transport company Alstom to deliver 17 diesel-powered tram-trains in 2005 for about $110 million.

"My solution is a long-term solution speeded up ... and within the budget for trains," he said.

The ARC is seeking expressions of interest from companies to go to open tender to supply trains in the long term.

ARC transport manager Barry Mein said the Harvey solution had a few technical issues to be worked through but its many good features meant it could go into the tender process in October-November.

The ARC is cobbling together an interim rail service to meet demand when the $211 million Britomart downtown railway station opens in June next year. A new operator does not take over from Tranz Rail until June 2005.

The downside of the Alstom trains is that they cannot run alongside heavy rail for safety reasons and so would have to come off the western line at night.

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