Under-city rail plan to ease gridlock

Aucklanders will zoom round on electric trains below city streets if the new transport agency has its way.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority wants to electrify most of the rail network by 2011, and to build a 3.5km tunnel under the central business district from the western end of Britomart to Mt Eden in 10 to 20 years.

Although these plans could cost up to $1.6 billion - if not more - the authority sees them as crucial to keeping rail patronage growing so it is more than six times its current level of 3.8 million trips a year, which is almost double the 2001 total.

It wants to make a serious dent in road congestion by increasing public transport use to 11 per cent of more than a billion passenger trips a year expected to be made by 2015.

The authority is understood to favour buying about 50 electric trains by 2011, to be supplemented by a handful of new diesel units in areas where it would be uneconomic to extend overhead power lines.

The authority, set up late last year at the Government's behest and as a condition of a $1.6 billion funding boost, wants to enlarge the 92km passenger rail network.

First off, an underground west-central rail link to Mt Eden Station via Albert St and Karangahape Rd, at a cost of $500 million to $1 billion, would untap the potential of the Britomart station.

This would introduce an inner-loop service, using Britomart as a through station rather than a terminus, as well as faster and more frequent journeys for West Auckland commuters than their present Newmarket side-shuffle.

Planners believe the network's capacity of 19 million passenger trips a year, or 25 million at a push by improving access to Britomart, could be doubled by adding a western tunnel to make it a through station.

Further extensions could include a rail link to Auckland Airport, via a re-opened Onehunga line or from the main trunk at Manukau, and an outer isthmus loop across tracks from Onehunga to Avondale, where they would join the western line.

The authority must first win approval not only from its funders, the regional council and Land Transport New Zealand, but also the Railways Corporation as track owner.

Although its plan involves installing overhead power lines on the main suburban network to Drury in the south and Swanson in the west, for about $160 million, it would also have to spend $144 million or so on new track signals with electromagnetic shields.

New electric trains are expected to cost about $300 million, and extra money would be needed for diesel units to feed in passengers from further away.

These may eventually be brought from as far as Helensville in the west, and Huntly or even Hamilton to the south.

The authority's board unveiled its long-term rail plans and recommendations to the regional council at a closed workshop this week.

Regional councillors have yet to vote on these, but were said by one workshop participant to have shown "a lot of support" for electrification and an underground rail link.

Approaches have yet to be made to the Government agencies, and official comment for now is limited to a carefully worded joint statement from authority chairman Brian Roche and his regional council counterpart, Mike Lee.

Mr Roche said the workshop was the first step for the council and authority in a project of "great significance for the region".

"The scale of development that the proposed rail upgrade would require is large and would likely span the next 20 to 30 years," he said.

Mr Lee said a decision on a proposal "of this magnitude" required rigorous scrutiny and had to be based on comprehensive technical and financial information.

"The ARC group still has some work to do before a final decision can be made - probably the most important decision for the Auckland region for some considerable time."

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard was less restrained, telling a meeting of the Institute of Architects last night that he was pleased the transport authority had come out in favour of electrification.

"This is a must - the city's spread is at the heart of many of our woes," he said. "It is absolutely critical that we get a greater proportion of people out of their cars."

The proposed tunnel is similar to one championed by former Auckland Mayor Sir Dove-Meyer Robinson under Queen St for an estimated $140 million before the National Government canned it in 1976.

Although the infrastructure needed for electric trains makes their upfront costs higher than those of diesel, individual units cost less to buy and run. Diesel trains are also unsuitable in long tunnels.

A report for regional agencies in 2003 by the Boston Consulting Group said both types of train could reach 120km/h.

The report said electrification would cost $1.51 billion - $110 million more than for new diesel trains, but that was for more than 100 units.

- additional reporting Brian Rudman and Bernard Orsman