Airport Rail Petition Presentation Speech
Since 2001 the Campaign for Better Transport has been campaigning for a rail link from downtown
Today we present our petition containing 10,328 signatures to you. We’ve spoken to thousands of people along the way. Comments have been many and varied.
- "Why do we need a petition to do this?"
- "Our public agencies need foresight to plan for the future"
- "It is insane to think that Auckland is a world class city when we don’t have a comprehensive rail system connected to key points such as the airport."
- "I'm amazed that planners can be so short-sighted as to build a motorway and make no provision for rail."
- "Let’s sort Auckland out and not dilly dally around as we have for the last 50 years." And the classic "This is a no-brainer."
We are grateful for the support that we have received from several members of this council, notably Chairman Mike Lee and Cr Christine Rose, who has enthusiastically been attending as many meetings as we can throw at her.
To recap, there are some fundamental drivers behind why we think an electric passenger rail link is sorely needed. Aside from the 9,000,000 air travelers that use the airport every year, every day the population of a small city drives to work at the airport, then drives home again.
It is timely to act now because the construction of the second Manukau Harbour crossing is about to commence.
And with oil prices at record highs as they are now, it is vital that transport projects that reduce our reliance on the combustion of oil, such as an electric rail are prioritised ahead of all others. I just want to emphasise the oil price issue a little bit more, because there are still people in the world who believe that petrol prices will remain constant for the foreseeable future, or if prices rise then people will continue to drive to the same degree that they do today.
In the last four years, oil prices have quadrupled in US dollar terms and tripled in terms of the Euro. In the last year alone, oil prices have doubled. The economists amongst you should know that when prices increase like this, more suppliers should be attracted to the market and the level of supply should increase. But this has not happened.
Over the same four year period that prices have increased by a multiple of four or five, we haven’t seen any significant increase in the supply of crude oil to the market.
Alarm bells should be ringing, but we continue to act as if oil is infinite and we continue to build transportation systems that are totally dependent on oil.
Sure, cars will become more economical, and we will eventually see the emergence of the electric car, but it will take some time and a lot of personal expense to convert the 800,000 internal combustion vehicles that we have in the region to more fuel efficient ones. We should take the opportunity to reduce the number of cars and invest in public transport, walkable communities , and walking and cycling. Rising petrol prices are going to place enormous pressure on our public transport network, and our rail network is struggling even now to cope.
The Campaign for Better Transport has come a long way in our quest for rail to the airport. Early campaigns succeeded in putting a dotted line on the map to the airport in the Regional Land Transport Strategy. Before that there was nothing.
More recently we were successful in our campaign to reopen the Onehunga branch railway line, and our petition for rail electrification will hopefully help convince the Government of the need to fund it.
Last December we took Transit to the Environment Court over their failure to allow for rail across Manukau Harbour and in to Mangere. It was, to put it mildly, a particularly time consuming, frustrating and stressful process to have to convince Transit, along with officials from the ARC and Manukau City Council, of the need to safeguard a rail corridor to the airport. In the end we were able to receive an assurance from the Board of Transit to the Board of ARTA that Transit would "work closely with ARTA and other agencies in their identification of any opportunities to facilitate a rail corridor along the SH20 designation between Mangere Bridge and Walmsley Road."
More recently we have received assurances from Transit that the motorway at Mangere can be moved eastwards to make room for a rail corridor on the western side of the motorway. However Transit, whose sole job is to build and operate the state highway network, have made it quite clear that it is now up to ARTA to determine the exact route and planning of any future rail link. In the meantime the diggers for the motorway move in this month.
Now we can look forward to ARTA producing its Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor plan some time next month, but I think they face a huge challenge to adequately plan for rail to the airport and remain one step ahead of Transit’s diggers. At the same time they have also got to cope with exploding popularity of public transport and the sorting out the operational issues of the new Northern Busway.
We need to be thinking about the next steps in the south west rail loop. Earthworks and construction are underway around George Bolt Drive and a rail corridor needs to be preserved here too. Puhinui Road is an obvious route for a rail link, but Manukau City’s district plan doesn’t even mention this.
It really is shaping up as a race against time.
So this is our vision, and it is the vision of the more than 10,000 people who have signed our petition.
But today we ask that you make rail to the airport your vision, we need your help and we need you to do a lot more than just receive our deputation.
We need loud, vocal advocates on Council that aren’t afraid to state the obvious that spending $2bn on a pair of motorway tunnels at Waterview is a risky investment if petrol goes to $3 a litre. We need a Council that asks why billions are being spent on roading projects while the Government funding of public transport infrastructure projects is set to decline to just 0.5% of a $3.3bn budget in ten years time. We need a Council that asks why roading projects are guaranteed funding until 2011, while electrification funding will be subject to diminishing fuel tax revenues thanks to rising petrol prices.
You should be asking yourselves what is the contingency plan if petrol rises to $2 or $3 a litre. You should be asking central Government the same thing.
We need a Council that isn’t afraid to ask Government to fund sustainable transport options, because as Aucklanders we aspire to be clean and green and carbon neutral.
Its over to you now. Thank you.