Auckland light rail facing huge hurdles to get back on track
16 May, 2021 05:00 PM
8 minutes to read
Artist impression of light rail on Ian McKinnon Drive heading towards Dominion Rd. Photo / Supplied The Labour Government s failure to deliver on light rail in Auckland last term has brought a new minister and a new plan to get the multi-billion dollar project back on track. Super City reporter Bernard Orsman explains Light Rail Mark II.
What is light rail?
Light right is the modern-day equivalent of trams, which once carried more passengers than today s combined public transport network of buses, trains and ferries. At the time, Auckland s population was 500,000 people. Today it is 1.7 million.
Labour Government s Auckland light rail plan facing huge hurdles to get back on track
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The New Zealand National Party
Of the 231 shovel-ready projects Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson announced to much fanfare last year, only one project has been completed, National’s Infrastructure spokesperson Andrew Bayly says.
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Thomas Coughlan05:00, May 07 2021
Stuff
The Government announced in March it was extending the bright-line test, reducing tax deductions on property investments, and would step up investment in communal infrastructure to support housing developments.
Less than half of the Government’s ‘’shovel-ready’’ infrastructure projects have begun by its first self-imposed deadline, with just 44 per cent of the 150 projects under construction by the end of February. Last year, the Government announced it would fund 150 ‘’shovel-ready’’ projects, costing $2.6 billion. The projects, including the Naenae pool development, the Eastern Bays Shared Path, and the Wellington District Court, were meant to kick-start the economy with an infrastructure boom as the country recovered from Covid-19.
Report from RNZ by Charlotte Cook
A review into Wellington’s billion dollar highway Transmission Gully has found the project was flawed from the start.
The 27 kilometre stretch of motorway was supposed to cost $850 million but has now exceeded a budget of $1.25 billion.
The report, led by an international expert reviewer Steve Richards and peer reviewed by Sir Michael Cullen and Lindsay Crossen, has found serious flaws at the planning stage of the public-private partnership project, undermining its successful completion.
It was commissioned in August after the Transport Agency Waka Kotahi had to pay another $209.7m to get the project back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. Official documents show the negotiations went on for months and the contract could have been terminated.
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