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The Green Party wants to make public transportation free for those under 18, ban gasoline car imports from 2030 and create a $ 1.5 billion “Cycle Super Highway” fund to build five-meter bike lanes Wide.
A reinforced rail system with trains traveling over 100km / h between major cities and intercity light rail in both Auckland and Wellington are featured in the party’s transport plan, announced by Greens co-leader James Shaw in Auckland on Tuesday.
Shaw said decades of underinvestment in public transport had led New Zealand to rely on cars, exacerbating the climate crisis.
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild our communities in a way that addresses the climate crisis and makes our communities healthier in the long term.”
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Greens co-leader James Shaw has presented the Greens’ transportation policy.
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The party wants to reallocate current funds earmarked for highway construction to fund its transportation policy, taking $ 1.58 billion from the national transportation fund and $ 1.7 billion from the government’s New Zealand upgrade program.
Then another $ 13.6 billion would need to be spent over the next ten years to fund the proposed projects.
“We will connect our major cities through major new investment in intercity passenger rail … The train will transport thousands of people a day from Auckland to Hamilton, Wellington to Masterton and Palmerston North, and from Christchurch to Rangiora and Ashburton , eventually including Dunedin and Timaru, ”Shaw said.
“This new intercity rail network will reduce emissions caused by the status quo of only being able to travel by car, in addition to creating thousands of jobs building the network.”
The party also wants to fund a new “Go Anywhere” transportation card, essentially the equivalent of the Auckland AT Hop card or Wellington’s Snapper card, which would work on all modes of transportation, anywhere in the country.
In addition to making transportation free for those under 18, seniors 65, and community service card holders, transportation costs will be cut in half for students.
For those who pay for transportation, there would be a maximum expense each week. That is, once a person spends that amount on transportation, the rest of their use of public transportation is free that week.
Under the policy, a disputable $ 1.5 billion fund would be created for bikeways. It would be spent on bike lanes between two and five meters wide, as long as the bike path was continuous, connected several outer suburbs with a city, was completely protected from automobile traffic, and could be started in three years and completed in two.
The Greens want to follow the UK in setting a deadline for the importation of gasoline vehicles. In the UK, only light zero-emission vehicles, be it cars, vans and Utes, will be imported into the country after 2030.
Until then, a clean car standard would be set to require imported cars to move fuel efficiently, year after year, encouraging companies to import more hybrid and electric vehicles.
The rail deployment proposed by the party has been established in two stages. The first, until 2027, would have electrified rail services connecting regional cities with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and services would run at least every two hours at speeds of up to 110km / h.
A night train between Auckland and Wellington would run once a day.
The second stage, which will end in 2035, would have these trains running at speeds of up to 160 km / h, and cities such as Napier, Dunedin, Whangārei and Whanganui connected to the electrified railway lines twice a day.
In Auckland, a 40-minute light rail journey between the airport and the city center has been proposed that could carry 21,600 people every hour.
In Wellington, the light rail between the train station and Newtown, which was later extended to the airport, was included in the plan along with a second tunnel through Mount Victoria, not for cars, but for walkers and cyclists.
