Immediate steps should be taken by the next government to establish a single integrated transport strategy, delivered within 10 years.
So says Auckland Business Forum chairman Michael Barnett.
“Auckland’s transport crisis is self-made. We have delayed doing the obvious catch-up road and public transport projects far too long, leaving Auckland well behind where it should be for an international city of our size, ambition and pace of growth,” Barnett says.
He says it is critical for Auckland’s (and New Zealand’s) future that a strategy is introduced as soon as possible.
Barnett says that’s essential for attracting the international investment and construction capacity needed to get action immediately.
Quickly adopting an integrated network mindset will be crucial if our aim is to reduce congestion, support growth and productivity and guarantee access to employment and housing development areas is to be achieved, he says.
“A staged light rail to Auckland Airport, yes, but going down the already heavily congested Dominion Road would make things worse. We need to be smarter in our thinking on where it should go.”
An immediate option is to include a public transport corridor to a modernised Puhinui railway station as part of long-proposed SH20B Airport access route, Barnett says.
“Labour’s idea to scale back the East West Link when it also proposes to build a third rail line makes no sense. Local roads are heavily congested with around 6000 heavy trucks daily, many heading to the Southdown rail terminal, which will see rail freight trips increase and more heavy truck traffic when the third line is built. Both a new road and rail line is needed.”
A long-term option is a new city, located to the south, Barnett says.
He believes that with Auckland’s pace of population and economic growth the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) 30-year time frame is far too slow.
The forum says a single investment urgently needed by 2028 includes the north western busway, Mill Road extension and Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative within five years, the SH20B to Auckland Airport including a rail link to Puhunui by 2021 (when Auckland defends the America’s Cup and hosts APEC), Grafton Gully stage three extension of SH16 from Stanley St to Quay St, doing Penlink from SH1 to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and widening SH1 north of Albany to Silverdale, the East West Link by 2023 and providing a corridor to the eastern suburbs, and third and fourth rail lines including extending electric rail to Pukekohe and commuter services to Waikato towns.
Other higher value projects in the forum’s agenda include completing with urgency dual lane/peak hour streaming of selected peak hour ‘congested’ routes such as Lake Road (Takapuna to Devonport), selected rail-road crossing grade separation by 2021 (to ensure the 10-minute City Rail Link train service doesn’t bring congestion chaos), multi-storey park and ride buildings at main busway and train stations, and a city-wide light rail programme to service areas of Auckland without easy access to train, ferry and efficient bus services.
Go to chamber.co.nz for the full agenda.
