ANALYSIS
National’s transport plan for Wellington is clearly “four lanes to the planes”.
What you might have missed is that the party also supports bus lanes on either side of a second Mt Victoria tunnel and is open to investigating whether the current bus tunnel could be converted into one for walking and cycling.
The Opposition has promised to kill the $7.4b Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) plan including light rail if it gets into government.
Transport is shaping up to be a defining issue for Wellingtonians in this year’s general election with National presenting a clear alternative to the Government’s current plans, although Transport Minister David Parker has alluded to changes afoot amid frustration at LGWM’s progress.
But putting light rail to one side (while also acknowledging this is the centrepiece of LGWM), the transport projects the city would end up with under National aren’t so drastically different.
Construction on a second Mt Victoria tunnel wouldn’t even necessarily start any earlier under National, although party transport spokesman Simeon Brown is confident it will be built more quickly.
LGWM will have spades in the ground by the election for its Golden Mile and Thorndon Quay Hutt Road works. Brown said National is not in the business of ripping up contracts that have already been signed.
A controversial pedestrian crossing across Cobham Drive has already been built.
National’s big promise for Wellington City is building a second Mt Victoria tunnel parallel to the existing one at a cost of $2.2b.
The existing tunnel would be used for traffic heading into the city and the new tunnel would be for those heading in the direction of the airport.
All four lanes would be available to general traffic but the party supports bus-priority lanes on the roads leading to the tunnels.
There would also be a new walking and cycling connection above the road in the new tunnel and separate from traffic, Brown said.
“It would be a larger tunnel designed to be able to have a much better walking and cycling connection through it because the current one, whilst people use it, is not a great experience.”
As for the existing bus tunnel, Brown said decisions on its future were yet to be made and they could explore whether it was still needed for buses or had the potential to be converted into a dedicated walking and cycling tunnel.
It’s hoped construction on the second Mt Victoria tunnel would get underway within three to five years (by 2028), Brown said.
He was confident the tunnel could be built more quickly under National than LGWM.
Brown said the previous Government had already done a lot of work on a duplicate tunnel including Waka Kotahi purchasing properties in the area to make way for it.
National also has a policy that would give the Infrastructure Minister the ability to call in projects of national importance to have them consented within 12 months.
This compares with LGWM’s second tunnel, which could be diagonal to the existing one and would provide four new lanes but no additional space for cars.
Two lanes would be dedicated for buses and the other two lanes would be for general traffic.
A report from last year said construction would start on mass rapid transit, Basin Reserve improvements and the second tunnel in 2027.
“[The] Mt Victoria tunnel would follow Basin Reserve and both would happen in parallel with MRT construction,” the report said.
LGWM has continuous bus priority to Miramar planned, although this has been criticised for not being prioritised ahead of construction on the second tunnel.
The existing Mt Victoria tunnel would be converted into a space for pedestrians and cyclists while the existing bus tunnel would likely be kept for local buses.
LGWM’s plans for the Basin Reserve would effectively remain the same under National, Brown confirmed.
The Basin has been a long-standing choke point in the city’s transport network and is like navigating a ginormous roundabout.
The Herald has confirmed no flyover is involved in National’s plan, which instead involves a cut and cover extension of the Arras tunnel like in LGWM.
This allows state highway traffic to flow past the Basin rather than having to go around it.
National would also widen Ruahine St to create “four lanes to the planes”.
If four lanes to the planes sound familiar, it is. Former Wellington City Councillor Jo Coughlan used it as one of her 2016 mayoral bid slogans.
LGWM’s centrepiece project is mass rapid transit from the central city to Island Bay. It was originally going to the airport before it was decided the route to the east was too vulnerable to sea level rise.
By 2035 in peak hour traffic, mass rapid transit would shave 12 minutes off a trip from Island Bay to the railway station compared to a standard bus ride.
But the real drawcard is the associated housing opportunities the route would unlock.
It’s expected between 50,000 and 80,000 more people will call Wellington home over the next 30 years. Alongside district plan changes, mass rapid transit will enable up to 21,000 extra houses by 2050.
National has vowed to scrap light rail labelling it an “expensive vanity project”.
However, it has set aside $1.8b for the Petone to Grenada Link Rd which had previously been designed to connect the Hutt Valley to State Highway 1 via Horokiwi.
It was re-evaluated in 2018, when it was last costed, and put on the back burner shortly after the Labour-led Government came to power.
National claims the road will support greenfield development opportunities for up to 5,200 new homes.
Brown said it was not a trade-off.
“[The road] has been identified for some time as being one of the most important resilience connections projects in Wellington.”
Brown said it would unlock housing, cut travel time, and make new public transport options available.
The road will almost certainly cost more than the $1.8b estimate from 2018. On this issue, Brown pointed to National’s transport policy as having an overall contingency baked into it as well as potential new funding tools like value capture and tolling.
The end of LGWM under National would mean the three-way partnership (known as the three-headed-monster in some circles) between Waka Kotahi, Wellington City Council, and Greater Wellington Regional Council gets dismantled.
Under LGWM, the Government pays 60 per cent of the share and local government pays 40 per cent.
Treasury and Ministry of Transport officials have been working away in the background on a national approach to funding and financing mass rapid transit but the details of this are yet to be revealed.
National would deliver the $2.2b second Mt Victoria tunnel and Basin Reserve upgrades as fully funded state highway projects.
This cost is based on the latest estimate for these two projects from LGWM documents.
But because National wants to build a parallel tunnel and not a larger diagonal one, there could be some money left over, Brown said.
“If there is funding available, we’re happy to work with the council around what that might look like in terms of bus rapid transit or supporting more public transport options within the city and that will be the envelope we’re working within.”
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
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