Brian Rudman: Sort out the airport buses before talking about a rail link

The Government's antipathy to embracing new Auckland public transport projects has made the debate over a rail link to Auckland International Airport rather academic.

Which makes it rather surprising that the airport company should be so sensitive about a recent Metro article's passing mention that it opposed such a link.

Its chief financial officer, Simon Robertson, indignantly told the magazine: "Auckland Airport strongly supports improved public and private transport links with the airport, both for air travellers and the 12,000 people who work within the airport precinct."

He said the company has been "working hard for many years with all the relevant authorities on improving transport to the airport" and "has been heavily involved in the recent development of bus services to the airport."

He says improved bus services are the short-term solution, while "a viable rail link to the airport could well form part of the longer-term public transport solution ..."

That Mr Robertson even feels the need to finally bend a knee in the direction of the rail lobby is something of a triumph for it. So is the lack of any demand in his note for more roads.

Only five years ago, the previous chief executive, Don Huse, organised an in-house study into land transport issues after "concerns about access at peak periods and the unpredictability of the time it takes people to get to and from the airport".

Mr Huse said that "with numbers of people and freight using the airport increasing every year, we need to ensure that the roading and public transport systems serving the airport are up to the task".

At the time I noted that taxpayers had already forked out tens of millions of dollars' worth of new roading to the airport to ensure passengers got to the airport on time, and it was perhaps time the airport started dipping into its pocket as well.

Particularly as the airport was using the new publicly funded motorway links, in its promotion as a property developer, to try to attract new tenants to the 1500ha of commercial land it had on offer.

The sales pitch talked of "a large established market" of more than 8000 people employed at the airport, and of nearby suburbs with a large potential workforce.

Mr Robertson is now talking of 12,000 workers within the airport precinct, but if you read his property department colleagues, he's being modest.

The airport's latest "property update" encourages new companies to "bustling Auckland Airport", which "is a mini city on the cusp of the world", with "over 15,000 people" employed in the airport community.

That's double the workforce of just five years ago. No wonder the airport is now considering trains to get passengers to their flights, because there's little doubt that this burgeoning workforce adds congestion to the airport roads.

Whether it adds to the case for a rail link is a another question. I bagged Transport Minister Steven Joyce for promoting his $2.3 billion plus holiday highway from Puhoi to Wellsford with no sign of a business case or cost benefit analysis to back it up, so it's only fair to admit the proposed airport rail line also lacks much in the way of analytical back-up material.

The airport bus link is hardly overwhelmed by passengers. The last time I used it, I shared the trip to the airport with one other customer. The time before, it was me and a few back-packers. But I can't help thinking public transport providers can be their own worst enemies.

In August I caught a taxi the short trip from home to the downtown terminal bus stop to find the place deserted. Eventually I discovered a hand-scrawled note on a post saying the stop had been temporary moved off Queens Wharf along Quay St. And that was that. Even as a local, I wondered if I'd come to the wrong place.

Compare that with my experience a few months before in Melbourne, where the airport bus travelled to a dedicated city terminus and one of a fleet of mini-buses shuttled me free to hotels and serviced apartments throughout the city.

Call them at the end of your holiday, and the shuttle picks you up and deposits you back at the bus station.

Little wonder it was very popular. And little wonder Auckland's is not.

If Mr Robertson wants us to believe in the airport's commitment to public transport, he should join the transport authorities to sort out the bus link.