Roads lose to public transport spending

Auckland political leaders have given a big tick to maximum public-transport spending, infuriating roading lobbyists and possibly delaying a key motorway link through Avondale.

The influential Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee has voted for a 10-year strategic package which would give public transport almost as much money as new roading projects.

Roads would gain the lion's share of just under $11 billion of transport spending, if $3.21 billion for maintenance, safety improvements and traffic management is taken into account.

But $3.48 billion which the committee has decided should be allocated to public transport in a draft land transport strategy document, is almost as much as $3.67 billion pencilled in for new roading capital works.

These would include such projects as the sorely needed widening of the motorway chokepoint over Victoria Park, a duplicate Mangere bridge and land purchases for another crossing of the Waitemata Harbour.

Missing from the plan would be the completion of a western motorway ring route through Avondale to the Northwestern Motorway and an eastern transport corridor between Pakuranga and Panmure.

Other sections of the ring route, a $174 million southern extension of the State Highway 20 motorway to Manukau and a $167.4 million add-on through Mt Roskill for which tenders closed yesterday, are already assured.

Transport committee chairman Joel Cayford said regional support for the ring route remained strong, but Transit had indicated problems in completing the Avondale extension within the 10-year scope of the land transport strategy.

But he noted that the list of projects which could be accommodated in the preferred strategic option was indicative only and Transit was not legally bound to follow the prescription.

It only had to "have regard" for regional strategies, a point not lost on the National Road Carriers organisation, which called last night for Transit to ignore the land transport committee.

"Transport operators have had a gutsful of broken promises and a lack of commercial appreciation by those delegated the task of sorting out Auckland road infrastructure," said executive director Bruce Reid.

Dr Cayford said his committee, was following a strong community mandate in support of buses, trains and ferries.

It gave public transport the highest of three funding options, compared with a medium-scale spend-up of $400 million for "travel demand management" measures such as school and work-based travel plan alternatives to cars, and more cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

Spending on public transport items such as a new and possibly electric train fleet, a third southern railway line and extra buses and ferries, would be $630 million more than a medium option preferred by Manukau City Council and Rodney and Franklin districts.

Dr Cayford said Auckland Regional Council members on the committee would also have voted for a medium option, had the maximum public transport deal not been heavily advocated by the Auckland, Waitakere and North Shore cities.

Mr Reid challenged his claim that the transport committee had a mandate for such heavy public transport spending.