Leaked report reveals one-year delay for electric trains

Auckland is unlikely to get electric trains until 2014, and may have to accept a smaller fleet in time for the Rugby World Cup than the Government is buying Wellingtonians.

Although the Auckland Regional Council says a regional fuel tax would have allowed the $1 billion electrification project to be completed by 2013, officials wrestling with budgetary challenges after the Government's cancellation of the tax have disclosed a one-year slip in the schedule.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce told Green Party MP Keith Locke in an answer last week to a written parliamentary question that he still expected the first electric trains, which the Government has promised to buy, would be ready for use "when the network electrification project is complete in 2013".

But it took a leaked draft report of a working group of officials, published on the internet at the weekend, to disclose a new estimate of 2014 for the delivery of a full fleet of electric trains.

That will be three years later than the commissioning of 96 new electric railcars for Wellington's passenger network, for which the Government is paying 90 per cent of a cost of $235 million, and which will be the capital's second full fleet replacement since its tracks were electrified more than 50 years ago.

Even then, the officials have proposed almost halving the 140 railcars sought by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to just 75 slightly longer units, after uncovering potential cost overruns of up to $142 million for buying the rolling stock and upgrading tracks and stations.

Mr Joyce has told the Herald he is unhappy with that proposal, and expects advice from the Ministry of Transport on his return from Australia on Monday on how many more trains can be bought within a $500 million funding limit for rolling stock.

But Campaign for Better Transport member Joshua Arbury, who published the leaked report on his website, said yesterday he did not favour cutting costs elsewhere as "trying to run a lot of trains on sub-standard infrastructure" was a recipe for disaster.

He urged the minister to consider the extra operating costs of trying to run a hybrid fleet of electric trains with elderly diesel units past their planned retirement date, as proposed by the working group, which comprises senior ministry staff, the Transport Agency, KiwiRail, the regional transport authority and rail operator Veolia.

Regional council transport chairwoman Christine Rose said the original Government commitment inherited from Labour and carried into the Transport Authority's tendering round for new trains was to have "the full fleet up and running by 2013".

"And here we've got slippage and a bit of a cut-and-paste solution which does not meet the needs of New Zealand's largest city with public transport expectations increasing as we speak," she said.

Ms Rose said plenty of roading projects were allowed to proceed to completion despite cost overruns, and the best way to gain a reliable picture of costs was to test the market, a process which the Government interrupted in March while cancelling the fuel tax.