Transit falling short, say carriers

Road carriers claim the Government is providing for only one-third of new highways needed to keep the country and its economy moving over the next 10 years.

Although Transit New Zealand says its latest $12.4 billion state highway forecast is 9 per cent higher than envisaged last year, the Road Transport Forum says only $4.7 billion is earmarked to build new roads.

Most of the rest will go on maintaining the existing 10,900km of state highways, for which material and labour costs have soared.

Transit has acknowledged a $685 million revenue shortfall, and a $150 million to $300 million cost blowout on top of that - meaning a potential gap of up to $1 billion over the 10 years to 2016.

Government funding agency Land Transport New Zealand has also pointed to a potential $400 million shortfall in its subsidies for local roads.

The Government is promising to make up Transit's shortfall to ensure no important projects are deferred, having declared itself "not happy" with the agency's forecast, in which many highway links have been postponed by two or three years.

It has also established an advisory group to try to reduce roading costs.

But transport forum chief executive Tony Friedlander, representing freight operators, said last night that Transit's forecast had identified $1.48 billion of essential new works which had fallen outside its 10-year time-frame.

These included highway improvements north of Puhoi and important components of the Waikato Expressway such as a bypass of Rangiriri.

On top of these were $8.18 billion of works which an experienced planning engineer in consultation with road carriers had deemed economically desirable projects with a benefit-cost ratio of at least two to one.

Bypasses of Huntly, Hamilton, Warkworth, Katikati in the Bay of Plenty, and Kawakawa in Northland were among these.

The total cost of desirable works came to $14.38 billion, of which Transit was committed to just over $4.7 billion.

Of Transit's committed figure, just under $3 billion had been allocated to new highways in the Auckland region.

Mr Friedlander said he was not begrudging Auckland its allocation, as the region's transport needs were "most pressing".

But he said an undertaking Prime Minister Helen Clark gave to Parliament to meet these needs, while very welcome, presented a risk that other parts of the country would be neglected by a focus on Auckland alone.

"Some of New Zealand's the most dangerous stretches of road are going to be left untouched for maybe 15 years or more with an entirely avoidable loss of life," he said.

But Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee chairman Joel Cayford said highway funding was squeezing public transport needs identified as urgent by the region, and he appealed to the Government to strive for a balanced approach despite industry lobbying.

Auckland would be stretched to fulfil its new 10-year strategy of allocating 34 per cent of $11 billion in transport money to public transport, given that this had to be subsidised by rates and other local revenue, he said, while the Government paid the full tab for highways.