Auckland Transport’s new governance arrangements have taken effect on Thursday, October 1, with an inaugural board appointed to oversee the organisation’s narrower focus on public transport delivery.
Auckland Council has appointed transition board members Andrew Ritchie, Robert Clarke and Adrienne Young-Cooper to continue on the re-formed Auckland Transport board.
Ritchie will serve as chair, while passenger transport industry executive Lyndon Leabourn also joins the board from October 1.
A fifth appointment is expected to be announced shortly.
Under the reforms, most local transport responsibilities have shifted from Auckland Transport to Auckland Council, including transport planning, project delivery, infrastructure maintenance and road-controlling authority functions.
Auckland Transport remains a council-controlled organisation but will operate as a smaller, more streamlined body focused on delivering the city’s public transport services.
Mayor Wayne Brown, who was part of the selection panel, says the new board has the industry knowledge and experience required to improve the organisation’s performance.
“I’ve been clear from the start that to fix Auckland’s transport, we need a high-quality public transport service and an efficient, reliable network, with strong oversight from the Auckland Transport board and councillors,” Brown says.
“We’ve selected a board with the skills and experience, who understand the industry, to drive the performance of this organisation.”
Brown says the strong start made by City Rail Link means attention can now turn to maintaining momentum and increasing public transport patronage.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop says the reforms restore democratic accountability by giving Auckland Council greater responsibility for transport planning and decisions.
“For 16 years, Auckland Transport has performed transport functions that local councils manage elsewhere in New Zealand,” Bishop says.
“That has meant Auckland Council hasn’t had the say it needs to set the direction for Auckland’s transport system.”
Local boards will also assume greater responsibility for local and collector roads, including decisions covering speed limits, event-related road closures, parking and cycleways.
The reforms have also established the Auckland Regional Transport Committee, comprising Auckland Council and government-appointed representatives.
It will develop Auckland’s first 30-year transport plan and coordinate long-term priorities between central and local government.
Brown says elected representatives will now have greater authority over Auckland’s transport system.
“For years Aucklanders expected elected members to fix transport problems, with limited ability to influence decision-making. That’s changing,” he says.
“This is about accountability. It is what I was elected to do: get control of transport back where it belongs, with elected members, where Aucklanders expect it to be.”
New board member Leabourn has more than 20 years’ experience in New Zealand’s passenger transport sector, as well as senior commercial and financial experience in the United Kingdom.
From 2006 to 2024, he was managing director and a shareholder of a family-owned passenger transport company operating north of Auckland.
He is a chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Management Studies from the University of Waikato.
