Mayor Brown has responded, indicating that a Memorandum of Understanding is being prepared between KiwiRail, Manukau City, ARTA, ARC and Auckland Airport to do exactly that. The exercise will be led by ARTA.

Full response is here.

The Government’s antipathy to embracing new Auckland public transport projects has made the debate over a rail link to Auckland International Airport rather academic.

Which makes it rather surprising that the airport company should be so sensitive about a recent Metro article’s passing mention that it opposed such a link.

A dedicated transport link between Auckland airport and the commercial business district is essential to lift the region’s tourism standing, Tourism Auckland CEO Graeme Osborne says. “My sense is that we are not any closer to that thing materialising. According some greater priority to an airport-CBD link is pretty important.”

Osborne says cities like Dublin and Beijing have invested heavily in dedicated CBD-airport links.

“The trip from the airport to the CBD is absolutely essential to create a positive first impression.”

He says with 1.8 million people coming through Auckland Airport every year – about 70 per cent of international arrivals and departures – an airport-CBD link cannot be left to chance.

“I think the cycleway is a successful new product innovation but I think the house has got to be in order as well. The airport-CBD link is on the list and we have to keep pushing for it.”

The case for investing in visitor infrastructure is strong and extends to better waterfront transport links and improved parking for campervans.

Osborne says the best option for an airport-CBD link is rail but concedes that Dublin and Beijing have successful road links.

But rail has all been ruled out in the short to medium term by Auckland International Airport Ltd. Former chief executive Don Huse told the New Zealand Herald in 2007 the long-term solution for surface access to the airport is public transport, including a rail link to the city, but said completing road networks should come first.

“The capital cost of putting rail in place is enormously expensive. The rolling stock is enormously expensive and running the service is enormously expensive,” he said then.

“We are somewhat sanguine about rail.”

A airport company spokesman said this month the company remained committed to more efficient travel between the CBD and the airport and supported proposals such as “clear routes” to make bus and car travel quicker.

Work is under way on widening Mangere Bridge and its approaches and the long-planned western ring road now extends to Mt Roskill.

 Petition organisers the Campaign for Better Transport have collected over 10,000 signatures in a little over four months. Over 2,000 of those signatures came from the campaign’s website www.bettertransport.org.nz.

“Having spoken to thousands of people, we can truly say that support for the idea is overwhelming. In fact most people ask why we need a petition to do this,” says petition organiser Jon Reeves.

Convenor or the Campaign for Better Transport, Cameron Pitches, agrees.

“The most challenging aspect of the whole campaign so far was going to the Environment Court, where we had to convince Transit, along with officials from the ARC and Manukau City Council, of the need to safeguard a rail corridor to the airport.

“The next challenge is going to be getting Auckland’s transport agencies to act on the petition.”

A report on possible future rapid transport links to the airport is due shortly from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

Rising oil prices, which today reached an all time high of $US108 a barrel, are adding further urgency to the campaign.

“The beauty about expanding rail to the airport is that it won’t just provide people flying in and out of the airport with a reliable connection to the city, but it will also provide thousands of commuters in the airport region with an alternative to their cars. Higher oil prices are going to drive more and more people to public transport, and we need to be expanding our rail network and its capacity as a matter of the utmost priority,” concludes Mr Pitches.