Editorial: Top transport body already running late

Just before Christmas the Government trumpeted a package of decisions that answer, it said, Auckland's disorganisation, at least in matters of transport. The centrepiece of the plan was to be a new body, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, that would come into being on July 1. Well, the day has arrived and there is no sign of it. Nobody has been appointed to the authority. Nothing about it seems to be decided, except that its parent body, the Auckland Regional Council, says now the ARTA will come into operation on January 1.

This is not an auspicious start for a body that is supposed to knock heads together on the big public transport plan and get it moving. The regional council has been highly impatient with the body previously holding the region's shares in the port and other public assets for the purpose of making grants to public transport and drainage projects.

That body, Infrastructure Auckland, was duly wound up yesterday and its assets passed to another newly constituted ARC subsidiary, Auckland Regional Holdings. At least ARH does have a board appointed in time to begin its task today but all these new acronyms in Auckland local government should not be allowed to confuse what has really happened. The regional council will once again wield the power of the purse. The regional council will decided how much of the dividends collected by ARH will be available to the ARTA for public transport and it will be open to the parent council to put some of the money to other uses.

The job of the ARTA, when it finally appears, will be to plan and establish public transport services and local roads in the region. But it seems unlikely to be quite the decisive body the Government described in December. It will not have authority over the Auckland decisions of the national transport funding agency, Transfund, and the national roadbuilder, Transit NZ. Those may be supposed to avoid conflict with the plans of the ARTA but nothing in the governing legislation passed at the 11th hour yesterday requires the national agencies to defer to the new regional 'supremo'.

And even with the 10-year $1.6 billion contribution from taxpayers offered in the December package, the funds available to the ARTA will be tiny by comparison with the amounts scheduled to be spent by Transit NZ in the region over the same period. The all-important motorway network and state highways will continue to depend on Transfund and Transit's efforts but Transfund's contribution to local authority roading in Auckland will in future be channelled through the ARTA.

It would be unfortunate if the limited roading role given the region's new transport authority left it with a bias to public transport. The integrated rail-bus scheme Auckland is buying will not itself make much difference to the city's traffic congestion. The scheme depends upon financial discouragements to car use and ultimately also on a reshaping of Auckland's housing preferences so that many more people live in the vicinity of railway stations.

Neither of those conditions will be met quickly. The political courage necessary to introduce road congestion charges and other driving disincentives is not yet evident. And zoning for higher density living in suburban rail centres is already proving contentious in places such as Panmure. But adequate public transport services need to be to ready in case driving disincentives have the desired effect.

It will be the task of the ARTA to see that those services are established in time and with the required capacity. And it will be the regional council's job to see that the ARTA is well-financed and working to plan. It would have been good to see the new body start on time today. That is normally the first requirement of public transport. The regional council must get this vehicle on the road soon.