The Campaign For Better Transport

The Herald reported yesterday:

Work is finally starting on a $9 million railhead aimed at taking more shipping containers off Auckland’s congested roads.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce jumped on a digging machine yesterday to turn the first sod in a joint project between KiwiRail and Ports of Auckland, beside the main trunk railway at Wiri.

The Government is contributing $6 million to the project, an addition to an “inland port” which the port company has spent more than $20 million developing off Wiri Station Rd.

Although the company bought a 10ha site several years ago for stockpiling containers carried 25km to or from its waterfront terminal by trucks, it has taken concerted lobbying to gain Government funding for a road-rail interchange using 5ha of KiwiRail’s land.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark announced funding approval in November, just two days before her Administration’s election defeat.

But it has taken until now to gain resource consents and to let a contract due to be completed by November for construction of a 450m-long hardstand and three rail sidings, each capable of receiving 22 wagons.

Once a night-rail shuttle service gathers a full head of steam, the new venture is expected to eliminate up to 100,000 truck trips annually from Auckland roads.

This project has been on the books for years – great to see it has finally started.

There’s an interesting article in yesterday’s Herald about the progress of sorting out the mess Steven Joyce left Auckland’s public transport in when he cancelled the Regional Fuel Tax a couple of months back. There’s some good news, some frustrating news and some potentially good news.

On the positive side, “Money has been assured for new Auckland railway stations.” These include Newmarket, New Lynn, Manukau, Onehunga, Grafton and Avondale – some of which are already under construction (thereby making the need to sort out funding for their completion rather urgent.) The money looks like it will come from a variety of places, including higher ARC rates, an increased subsidy from NZTA and – here’s the killer – cutting back on the costs of Auckland’s integrated ticketing project.

I really don’t know why the government is so against integrated ticketing for Auckland’s public transport. Maybe they realise that simplifying the ticketing in Auckland, and creating something as up-to-date as the smart-card systems we see in London (Oyster Card) and Hong Kong (Octopus Card) will lead to a surge in patronage on Auckland’s public transport system, thereby undermining their view of public transport as something only for the poor and carless. Or maybe they’re being pressurised by Infratil (the owners of most of Auckland’s bus service providers) into delaying a project that Infratil doesn’t like. Either way, it’s pretty depressing to hear that funding has been cut to Auckland’s public transport to the extent that the ARC has had: “to try to scale back the integrated ticketing project, which previously carried a capital cost of about $80 million, including a 60 per cent Government subsidy. Mr Lee said the council would try to find ways of halving that cost.”

These most recent developments mean that the best Auckland can really hope for is to get our version of Wellington’s Snapper Card. Now this is a great outcome for Infratil – as they own Snapper Card – but is no guarantee that this smart-card system will be equally available for all public transport operators in the Auckland Region. Therefore, there seems to be no guarantee that the ticketing system will, in fact, be integrated. When this lack of money for integrated ticketing is coupled with the Ministry of Transport’s decision to review the Public Transport Management Act (the very piece of legislation that gives ARTA the power to impose integrated ticketing), it’s hard not to be suspicious that this critical step in the future of Auckland’s public transport is going to be delayed at best, or possibly even cancelled.

There is a light on the horizon about Auckland’s electric trains though – with Steven Joyce saying “he would report to the cabinet next month on options for buying an electric fleet and that, despite Mr Lee’s nervousness, “we remain committed to electrification”. I can understand Mike Lee (head of the ARC) being nervous though, and I’ll believe that we’re getting electric trains when I see the contract signed.

The Sydney Morning Herald has run this story:

CAR enthusiasts, motorway lobbyists and opponents of public transport have long argued that taxpayers are footing the bill for train travellers because the price of tickets does not reflect the full cost of the service.

But a report for the NSW Government’s price regulator shows that for every train journey the public subsidises, the community saves more than $6 in social costs.

The report into the “externalities” – or the benefits of public transport for those who do not use the system – finds that ticket subsidies are easily offset by savings from less road congestion and less air pollution.

Read the full story here.

Auckland public transport campaigners the Campaign for Better Transport will today urge the Government to stop delaying much needed public transport improvements in the Auckland region when it meets Minister of Transport Steven Joyce today.

“Electrification of rail is critical for Auckland’s future transport needs, but the Government has yet to come up with an alternative funding plan to replace the regional fuel tax which was axed months ago now,” says Cameron Pitches, Convenor of the Campaign for Better Transport.

“For once, the entire Auckland region was united – we had a tender process well under way for both electric trains and integrated ticketing, and funding was assured. But this has now been replaced by Government dithering and delay.”

The Campaign for Better Transport will use the meeting to seek assurances that a number of public transport projects, including railway station upgrades and new ferry terminals, as well as rail electrification and integrated ticketing, will be able to go ahead as originally planned by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

“Investing in public transport is the only practical investment in the face of rising petrol and fuel prices,” says Mr Pitches.

The Campaign for Better Transport will also be highlighting Treasury’s poor record at forecasting future oil and petrol prices to the Minister. The most recent Treasury forecast issued on the 28th May states that “it is assumed that the price of oil will gradually increase over time, reaching US$60/barrel by the end of 2010 and around US$68/barrel by the end of the forecast period [2013].”

“I’ve got news for Treasury,” says Mr. Pitches. “Oil is about $68 a barrel right now.”

“The record petrol prices we experienced last year should have been a wake-up call. Instead all levels of Government have hit the snooze button, rolled over and gone back to sleep,” concludes Mr Pitches.

Postcards for the Campaign for Better Transport’s “Action Stations” campaign can also be downloaded from the bettertransport.org.nz website.

The full agenda for today’s meeting is available here.

Reported on Radio New Zealand:

The Government has signalled a return to allowing a more free-market approach to public transport, especially in Auckland.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce has told a conference in Auckland he wants to move quickly to revisit legislation passed by the previous Government.

The Public Transport Management Act gave regional councils greater control over public transport services, even those run by commercial operators without subsidies.

The Act had been bitterly opposed by the country’s biggest operator, NZ Bus, which argued it removed the ability to get a good return on major investment and smart practices.

The legislation had been particularly welcomed by Auckland’s Regional Transport Authority which said it needed greater powers in order to better control a regionwide network.

Mr Joyce says private operators need to have the confidence to continue to invest in public transport and he plans to move quickly over the next months to change the legislation.

 Hmmm, but shouldn’t there also be greater clarity on how ratepayer dollars are being spent?

Brian Rudman comments on the Minister of Transport’s decision to investigate a public private partnership for electrified trains, and finds that Sydney’s example may not be one to follow:

That contract is running months behind deadline and the New South Wales Premier is very grumpy. The Sydney tender process proper started in August 2004, presumably after months of intricate, contract design work. The successful consortium was finally announced in November 2006.

Hailed as Australia’s biggest PPP scheme, the Reliance Rail consortium agreed to deliver 626 carriages within six years, the first to start appearing in 2010. The deal included a 30-year maintenance contract. The NSW Government says it’s worth $3.6 billion, however the Sydney Morning Herald last month calculated the true figure, once financing costs and the bill for maintenance over 30 years are included, at $9.5 billion. Nearly a third of that figure will go in interest payments and the like.

The full article here is well worth a read.  I’ve also resurrected an article from way back in 2002 by John Shaw, former board member of Transit, on the folly of public private partnerships.