Plan to halve train target upsets Joyce

Transport Minister Steven Joyce says he is unhappy with a report that recommends almost halving Auckland's proposed fleet of electric trains, and has asked officials for something "more ambitious".

"I am not that happy with the draft report - I think it's a little unambitious in terms of the final rolling stock procurement plan they have put forward," he told the Herald last night from Australia.

The minister was commenting on a draft report of a working group of officials who suggest buying a "first tranche" of just 75 electric railcars now, and possibly up to 33 more in 2018.

That compares with 140 railcars proposed by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to would-be international suppliers before the Government revoked a regional fuel tax to pay for these and proposed to add up to $500 million for rolling stock to the $500 million it was already providing to electrify the tracks by 2013.

A further $600 million of Government funds is being spent on a basic upgrade of Auckland rail, mostly on duplicating the western line, although also on new or upgraded links to central Manukau City and Onehunga.

The working group, comprising senior staff of the Ministry of Transport, the Transport Agency, KiwiRail, the regional transport authority and suburban rail operator Veolia Transport, has proposed the cutback as the only "workable option" for buying the trains within that budget.

That is because of its identification of $151 million of potential extra network infrastructure spending, of which it says only $94.4 million can be deferred, including a new station at Parnell and a third set of railway tracks from Puhinui to Westfield, to improve separation distances between passenger and freight trains.

Although the working party proposes slightly longer carriages, of 24m instead of the 20m envisaged by the transport authority, total carrying capacity of the fleet would be reduced from 13,720 passengers to 9945.

The report, leaked to Campaign for Better Transport member Joshua Arbury and posted on his blog site, also proposes the use of 14 electric locomotives to haul existing passenger carriages and refurbishing 1980s diesel commuter units brought from a Perth museum beyond their planned retirement date of 2013-14.

Mr Joyce said he was concerned at the number of items the officials had identified in addition to the basic cost of new electric trains, and had asked the Ministry of Transport to come up with a more acceptable plan as soon as possible.