“We hope the government isn’t going to be too severe on the public transport spend. But we know they are cutting back on the infrastructure spend. At the moment, the national road transport fund, which is a petrol tax and road-user charges, is $2.8 billion a year.

“Of that, 1.8% is spent on public transport infrastructure. But the government is seeking to cut that back to 0.7%. What the government says is, with public transport, the ratepayers are going to have to pay it [almost] entirely themselves.”

If you are interested, our full submission on the forthcoming new Government Policy Statement is here, but the following two charts show how Government funding is being shifted away from a number of areas including public transport infrastructure, and into new state highways. ?You can see here clearly that PT infrastructure spending is being reduced, but perhaps surprisingly there is slightly more provision being made for operational subsidies. Quite why this is the Government hasn’t really explained, however this small increase is unlikely to be sufficient to maintain the dramatic growth in PT usage in the last few years.

The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to support the passenger train service between Waikato and Auckland.

“This is a common sense project with massive public support,” said Green Party transport spokesperson Gareth Hughes.

Mr Hughes is in Hamilton for the presentation of Campaign for Better Transport’s 11,000 signature petition in support of the service.

“Every day hundreds of people drive between Auckland and Hamilton. A fast, efficient commuter service could allow them to do the trip faster, in more comfort, and also allow them to work if a wireless internet link was established on board the train,” said Mr Hughes.