KEY POINTS:
Crippling road congestion looms larger than ever as a great unifier in Auckland local politics, particularly from the regional council's perch above Spaghetti Junction.
A 2.4 per cent rise in public transport use in the past year has failed to stop peak-time traffic delays lengthening through the tight motorway junction - to up to two and a half minutes a kilometre - and on regional arterial roads as population growth and associated economic activity pour ever more cars and trucks into finite spaces.
More than 80 per cent of employed Aucklanders travelled to work on census day in March last year in vehicles other than public transport, and 870,455 cars were in private ownership throughout the region compared with 747,584 in 2001.
That has left Auckland Regional Council candidates across the political spectrum making better public transport a common rallying cry, differing only over how it should be delivered and paid for and where it should sit with the Government's hefty spending on roads.
To the right, Citizens & Ratepayers contenders are calling for "vastly improved public transport" and, from the far left, the Residents Action Movement is demanding free buses and trains to stop the region being choked and polluted by "car culture". In between, council chairman Mike Lee's new left-of-centre Regional People ticket wants the council to consider setting up a publicly-owned bus company to provide competition to private operators due to reap $85 million in subsidies this year.
Although passenger rail custom has surged 80 per cent since 2004 to 5.74 million annual trips, bus patronage of 42.73 million trips in the year to June 30 was 5 per cent lower, at 42.73 million trips.
Mr Lee says he is not advocating a "re-nationalisation" of the regional bus operation but is pleased with support from commercial lawyer and running-mate candidate Shale Chambers for a "niche" company to try to stretch ratepayer dollars further.
There is no apparent dissent among candidates over rail electrification, for which the hard slog involved in overcoming ministerial reluctance and extracting the Government's approval - subject to raising a regional fuel tax to pay for the $1 billion-plus project - has been a highlight of the incumbent council's term.
The council has kept on an even keel this term, with annual rates rises to about this year's level of 4.95 per cent over the next decade, despite a wide gulf in public transport funding now eased by the Government's agreement for a regional fuel tax to be raised for capital investment.
The onus will remain on the council to pay ballooning operating costs with the help of $1 billion over 10 years from its Auckland Regional Holdings subsidiary, steward of $1.4 billion of assets including Ports of Auckland.
