The Campaign For Better Transport

Media Release from the Campaign for Better Transport: 05/09/2009 16:16:01

The Campaign For Better Transport’s Hamilton to Auckland commuter train campaign has been so successful, the group have had to order the printing of thousands more of the postcards they are getting people to sign to show their support.

New Zealand’s major sustainable transport lobby group has been inundated with phone calls and emails from the public supporting the call for commuter rail services to be set up between Hamilton and Auckland. CBT spokesman Jon Reeves says the reaction is overwhelming and one thing is clear, New Zealanders want passenger rail services between major cities.

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As Josh Arbury blogs, and the Herald reports, the order for electric trains is under threat.

A basic summary of the situation is that ARTA had an orginal budget of $512m, broken down in the table below:

Now, however, the Government has capped the electrification spend for rolling stock at $500m and at the same time transport planners have identified extra infrastructure spending necessary to remove bottlenecks and maintain 10 minute frequencies. Their recommended approach is shown in this table:

The upshot is that transport officials from ARTA, Veolia, Ontrack and the Government are proposing to reallocate $147m of a $410m budget for electric trains to projects unrelated to electrification, increased project management and project contingency. Yes that $54m (which includes lengthening platforms, signalling upgrades etc)  is probably necessary, but I would argue that it should come from the DART budget or the Kiwirail electrification budget, before the rolling stock budget is slashed.

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