The Campaign For Better Transport

There have been a couple of stories this week in the Herald. The first one talks about Transport Minister Steven Joyce claiming there is a “funding gap” for rail operational costs. The second is a response from Auckland Councillor Mike Lee claiming Steven Joyce is trying to stymie Mayor Brown’s vision. It’s all a bit confusing, but fortunately Josh Arbury over at transportblog.co.nz  has got to the nub of the matter in this post here.

It is appropriate that the Auckland region pays a fair value for track access. It has been doing so since 2003, paying an average $5m per annum.

But now Transport Minister Steven Joyce wants to unilaterally increase this fee to $16m annually. Included in this are loan repayments at commercial rates of interest for the purchase of $500m worth of new electric trains for Auckland. The new trains were originally to be funded through a regional fuel tax of 2c per litre until the Government decided against this in March 2009.

Instead now it is obvious that central Government has decided to stick ratepayers with the bill for the new electric trains. It is disingenuous of the Minister not to mention this and to present this as a fait accompli to the new Mayor.

The Minister also needs to explain to Auckland ratepayers why Wellington’s new electric trains are 90% funded from central Government, and what “track access fees” Wellington ratepayers are expected to pay.

UPDATE: A well placed source tells me that in fact Steven Joyce is still considering how Auckland trains should be funded and what the funding split should be between Auckland and central Government.  Funding of trains is not included in the higher track access fee. It makes the decision to increase the track access fee from $5m to $16m even more confusing.  We will have to wait and see.

Outgoing ARC Transport Chair Christine Rose sent a thank you letter for our presentation on a cost effective alternative to the proposed toll road between Puhoi and Wellsford.

Enclosed with her letter was a the response from Transport Minister Steven Joyce. He makes the startling claim that:

While upgrading an existing road would appear to be the cheaper option, this is not actually the case.  The initial investigations… show that upgrading the existing road to a four lane motorway standard would actually be the same or more expensive than constructing a new, purpose-built road.

As Christine points out, no information has been released to substiate the statement.  Minister Joyce goes on to emphasise the freight aspect of the toll road:

The Puhoi to Wellsford RoNS has additional benefits as it caters for the movement of both passengers and freight – a key priority for the Government. As you may be aware, the National Freight Demands Study 2008 forecast that freight volumes between Auckland and Northland will double over the next 10 years.

No mention of the state owned railway line that also runs north.  No mention of how much the toll will be from Puhoi to Wellsford. He also says that

The NZTA informs me that the cost of constructing a new road for the Puhoi to Wellsford RoNS is comparable with completing the Auckland CBD inner rail loop (without the significant upkeep costs). The number of users is also greater than an estimated 22,000 users per day for the Auckland rail network and 25,000 per day for the Puhoi to Warkworth section.

This is interesting as it indicates that the Minister apparently knows the patronage of the Auckland rail network after the CBD inner rail loop is finished (we’ve yet to see the business case) and the number of vehicles (users?) using the toll road.  Presumably to figure this out he needs to know the toll that will be charged as well.

A copy of the letter is here.

Christine says the ARC understands that NZTA are planning consultation on more detailed proposals for the route before the end of the calendar year. Hopefully we get much more detailed information than has been provided so far.

The Herald comes out swinging against Steven Joyce and heavy trucks.

Virtually from the moment he became the Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce was an “enthusiastic” supporter of mega-trucks. He was convinced of the productivity gains to be made from allowing greater maximum loads.

Little heed was paid to naysayers, who focused on the increased threat to safety on the roads. Acting decisively, Mr Joyce decreed that from May this year, trucks would be able to carry loads of up to 53 tonnes on specified routes, up from the previous limit of 44 tonnes. The upshot, three months later, raises questions about his reasoning and his rush.

It is now apparent that Auckland’s Southern Motorway will not be able to support the new trucks for several years. The Transport Agency has conceded it will take that long to make up to a dozen points “compliant” for them. The obvious weak points are bridges, such as those over the Tamaki River and the Puhinui Stream.

The Herald also points out the irony of the Transport Agency’s view, who say that:

..while it will be some time before mega-trucks can use the Southern Motorway to carry freight to and from Auckland’s port, consignments could be split up and sent by rail between the port company’s inland distribution centre at Wiri and the waterfront.

This is an issue that the CBT raised almost a year ago:

Whilst the current legal limit is a gross mass of 44 tonnes, most of the bridges on the state highway network and indeed the local road network were designed and constructed to carry lower loads. However, they continue to perform beyond expectations because of the conservative nature of some designs, material strengths that are higher than allowed for or ongoing upgrades and strengthening programmes.

306 state highway bridges would require strengthening, or detailed investigation and an estimated $85M would be required to fund the work over a period of several years.

Of these bridges, only 13 have already been included on the approved 09/12 Bridge Replacement and Upgrade Programme due to their current condition. The results have not been studied in detail to determine if any of the bridges should be replaced rather than strengthened.

As we’ve said before, this looks like a sop to the trucking industry, who seem to be expecting all other road users to help pay for the necessary strengthening work.

It is official –  maximum truck weights have been increased by the Government to 52 tonnes under a permit regime as announced by the Government in a carefully timed press release just before Easter. What isn’t so clear is how the trucking industry will respond.  If they pay according to the current RUC regime, then trucking companies will pay between 16 and 21% more per tonne of freight.

Furthermore, councils are unlikely to approve permits for heavy trucks without compensation of the damage they cause.  In moving from 44 tonnes to 52 tonnes, trucks of the same axle configuration are also likely to cause twice as much damage to the roading network.

There needs to be stronger regulation of the trucking industry.  There are already too many accidents involving trucks, and the number of roll over accidents will only get worse as trucks get heavier.

The Herald reports that:

Early community consultations are expected on route preferences for a new “road of national significance” costing up to $2 billion between Puhoi and the north of Wellsford.

That follows the Transport Agency’s awarding last week of a contract worth to $12 million for route investigation work on a proposed 38km link, entailing a four-lane extension of the Northern Gateway toll motorway to Warkworth and a dual-carriage expressway beyond that.

The investigation, by engineering and environmental specialists Sinclair Knight Mertz, is expected to take 15 months, but agency acting regional director Tommy Parker said he would be “disappointed if we are not talking about [route] options before about the middle of the year”.

 The Transport Agency fudges the poor economics of the project by saying:

…the figures were calculated by discounting the benefits at a standard 8 per cent each year after the road opens, a rate it sees as more appropriate to short-term projects.

It says if a 4 per cent discount rate could be used to reflect the longevity of the road, the economic returns could rise to $2 for every $1 spent.

I actually feel a bit for the NZTA here, basically being forced to justify a totally uneconomic project to satisfy the whims of the Minister of Transport.

Mike Lee pretty much hits the nail on the head with CCO’s and Auckland Transport:

According to the explanatory note to the third bill currently being deliberated by the select committee, the Super City was intended to “create one Auckland, which has strong regional governance, integrated decision making, greater community engagement and improved value for money”.

But what has become quite obvious is that Auckland isn’t getting this at all.

He bullet points the unacceptable features of Auckland Transport: Read the rest of this entry »

A letter from the Sustainable Energy Forum to Minister of Transport Steven Joyce has drawn a predictable response.

Tim Jones from SEF wrote this letter, calling for the Government to rethink its transport policy in the light of the International Energy Agency’s recent predictions of a forthcoming oil supply crunch and steeply rising oil prices, and of the rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions from transport in New Zealand.

Steven Joyce belatedly responds with a letter, concluding:

The reality is that, given our population density and history of the development of our transport system, private vehicles will continue to be the method by which most people will travel within the foreseeable future, and our investments need to reflect that reality.

The Campaign for Better Transport met with the Minister last July and got a similar response to our concerns.  We pointed out the record growth in public transport patronage in Auckland.  Like I said, at least you know where he stands. Tim Jones optimistically sees an opportunity in all this:

This provides both a very clear statement of the Government’s view, and an opportunity to present evidence to the contrary. SEF intends to contact the Minister and ask for a meeting to discuss the claims made in his letter, the way in which he fails to deal with the concerns we raised, and the evidence that exists to show that, in fact, a substantial number of road users do switch transport modes when fuel prices rise steeply.

Personally I’ve come the conclusion that nothing short of petrol hitting $3 a litre will make the Minister change his mind on this.

It is just galling to read the comments of Transport Minister Steven Joyce on the Puhoi to Wellsford holiday highway in the Herald today:

A report from the Transport Agency released yesterday by Mr Joyce gives estimates of cost for the whole job. These vary from $1.3 billion to $2.04 billion depending on how long it takes.

Mr Joyce said a $10.7 billion commitment to state highways over 10 years meant that funding was not the big issue for the project.

Funding is “not the big issue” even though this dog of a project promises to return 80c for every dollar invested. But the usual refrain of ”economic growth” apparently magically applies to this and all other roading projects, absolving anyone of justifying the cost:

Mr Joyce said the argument was getting lead infrastructure to help stimulate growth.

Quite how a wider holiday highway equates to economic growth is anyone’s guess.  Paying the unemployed to dig a big hole and fill it in again could potentially stimulate more growth than this utter lemon of a project.

And as Josh points out over at  his blog , the bottle neck is really Warkworth, the solution for which is a bypass around it.