Short cuts ruled out for city transport

By JASON COLLIE transport reporter

Campaigners pushing for a single Auckland public transport body to tackle the city's traffic congestion have been warned it cannot be fast-tracked.

Twelve public bodies at present control passenger transport in the Auckland region and the North Shore City Council wants to see it under the umbrella of one all-powerful organisation - responsible for building, funding and running it.

But in a report commissioned by the North Shore and Auckland Regional Councils, consultant Christine Perrins said it would be difficult to set up the authority in the short term to steer the $1 billion of planned public transport improvements.

It would need funding reforms and legislative change to make it effective, Ms Perrins said.

The authority's main problem would be the need for its own guaranteed separate source of money from the Government, rather than operating under the present system of a combination from Transfund, Infrastructure Auckland and rates.

She urged Auckland councils to keep working together under the present system, while lobbying the Government to work towards a single transport body.

"Obviously there is a problem in the number of players and bringing them together, both in terms of the mechanics and their objectives, which might be different to the region's," she told a meeting of North Shore's works and environment committee yesterday.

"In the short term, the establishment of a transport authority might help address the number of players, but it won't do a great deal unless funding is sorted out."

North Shore will use the bulk of the report as a submission to other councils to push for a single authority.

Mayor George Wood said that despite goodwill among the councils, there were problems coordinating the planned public transport improvements. However, he said, Auckland needed a single body as soon as possible.

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