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Labor will pledge to hand over Auckland’s eliminated light rail project if it wins the election, says Transport Minister Phil Twyford.
During the 2017 election campaign, Jacinda Ardern promised to have the first section of the light rail line between Britomart and Mt Roskill built by 2021.
But the project was canceled in June, after the government and its coalition partner NZ First failed to agree on a preferred proposal.
Auckland Transport / Supplied
An artist’s impression of Auckland light rail trains en route to Auckland Airport.
On Tuesday, Twyford said Stuff he believed light rail would go ahead if Labor were to win an outright election victory.
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“We worked hard in this term of office to make this happen, but unfortunately we could not get our coalition party, NZ First, to cross the line.
“They blocked it,” he said, adding that the canceled project was one of the unfortunate casualties of a coalition government.
Bejon Haswell / Things / Things
NZ First leader and deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he never saw any cost for the proposed light rail project.
At the launch of the NZ First campaign in July, leader and deputy prime minister Winston Peters said the party “closed” the project because “sunlight and fiscal sense demanded it.”
“If the people of Aucklanders knew the cost and disruption of the light rail, they would be surprised with a collective alarm.”
Peters later said Stuff they had never shown him the costs of the project.
“Can you tell me what the cost of the light rail is? We did not stop the light rail, we demanded to see the costs, “he said.
“I’m only asking that the heavy rail, which is my option, has been compared to this option.
LAWRENCE SMITH / Things
Labor Transport Minister Phil Twyford told Stuff that the light rail project needed to move forward so Auckland could cope with the growth.
On Tuesday, Twyford said a fast and frequent rail system was Auckland’s ticket to provide “genuine options” so residents did not have to “spend hours sitting in a freeway traffic jam.”
“Rapid transit is the most important thing we need to do to give Auckland a transportation system that can cope with the growth it is experiencing.
“We need it. The city needs it.”
The light rail project ran into trouble for the first time after the government received an unsolicited offer from NZ Infra, a joint venture between the NZ Super Fund and CDPQ infra, a Canadian pension fund, to build and operate the line as an APP.
The government initially planned to allow the New Zealand Transportation Agency, its own infrastructure builder, to build the line.
The project was harassed by NZTA leaks, suggesting incompetence and lack of direction on the part of Beehive.
Twyford succeeded in bringing the two proposals into what was called a “two-way process.”
This meant that the Ministry of Transport would evaluate the NZ Infra and NZTA plans and advise the Cabinet on which one it should choose, with the ministers making the final decision.
However, Twyford admitted that the future of the light rail project would be decided after the elections, as the government parties were unable to agree on a preferred proposal.
