Rudman's city: At long last things appear to be moving along rail lines

By BRIAN RUDMAN

Six weeks ago Auckland Mayoral Forum chairwoman Christine Fletcher gave the Government the hurry-up about its negotiations with Tranz Rail over the Auckland rail network lease.

"The August 31 deadline is important to us ... We're waiting for the Crown to meet its obligations," she thundered.

Last Friday, the deadline came and went without a resolution and nary a cross word flowed.

After a session with Government negotiator Chris Mackenzie, Mrs Fletcher was expressing her "absolute confidence" that a deal would be signed.

When pressed for his level of confidence, Mr Mackenzie, good Treasury official that he is, suggested with a smile the figure of 88.8 per cent.

What has emerged from his talks with Auckland officials and politicians is a general optimism that the negotiations are on track and could be finalised as soon as the middle of this month.

It appears that what has been agreed to so far meets the requirements set out in the memorandum of understanding between Auckland and the Government.

One reason for Auckland's earlier insistence on the August 31 deadline was the need to plan for a passenger train service after Tranz Rail contract expired in June 2003. Auckland negotiators need to negotiate with Tranz Rail over acquiring some of its more modern rolling stock for the post-2003 service, but felt unable to talk with the company while the Government was negotiating the access deal.

The message to Friday's meeting was that the Government and Tranz Rail were happy for Auckland negotiators to undertake a due diligence investigation of this rolling stock while the other negotiations continued. This will relieve the time pressure on this issue.

As for price, there was no indication, except the hint that it was less than the $112 million deal arrived at by the region eight months ago. It was this deal, of course, which forced Finance Minister Michael Cullen to take over the negotiations in late March.

Dr Cullen said then that the Government could do a better and cheaper deal. The Government was also worried about the national railway network being taken over by a variety of owners and operators.

"Network integrity" has now been preserved, we're told, but price - when agreement has been reached - is something that is a secret until the cabinet, Tranz Rail shareholders and the Stock Exchange hear about it first.

Despite the positivity flowing from last Friday's talks, acquiring the lease on the rail tracks is only one step in the process of introducing a rapid transit system. The next step is funding.

The Government has talked about buying the lease as its contribution to Auckland's public transport solutions. But there's still all the detail to hammer out. Will, for example, the region be expected to sub-lease the tracks back from the Government and, if so, for how much? Will the Government help with double tracking and the like?

Local funding agency Infrastructure Auckland is another source of funds but it has set a limit of $410 million for passenger transit over the next decade. The tussles to extract money for the Britomart development suggest how hard squeezing money from that source can be. Similarly with the national funding body, Transfund.

Without a funding regime in place - and some idea of how much is in the kitty - it will be hard to make decisions about, and call for tenders for, rolling stock, new stations and other infrastructure.

Daunting as these future obstacles may appear, at least with positive vibes from Wellington over access they can now be confronted. For without access, arguing the toss over funding or varieties of trains was a waste of time.

Not that everything has come to a stop while the access negotiations drag on. The Britomart downtown terminus is about to get the official rubber stamp of approval, while at a regional level the selection of the various routes - and the mode of transport over them - is close to resolution.

On top of that are plans for a regionally owned body to administer the system. With so many collapsed attempts for a regional transport system in our recent history, most Aucklanders are pretty cynical about the attempts. It could well be they are in for a surprise.

The backroom boys have been talking of going to international tender by the middle of next year. With the optimism of spring in the air, could it be that this time, they are right?