Auckland light rail: Preferred tunnelling option met with scepticism

Friday, 29 October 2021

The $14 billion version of Auckland’s light rail network is being met with scepticism.

Tunnelled light rail was one of the three short-listed options being considered by the Government for rapid transport out to Auckland Airport and was chosen by Auckland Light Rail (ALR) board members as their preferred option.

It would travel underground from Wynyard Quarter to Mt Roskill, where it would then exit to the surface and continue at street level to the airport.

Other options included surface-level light rail down Dominion Road, or a light metro, and a rail-based version which is either elevated or underground, via Sandringham Road.

* Auckland light rail: Tunnelling picked as preferred option for transit to airport

Tunnelled light rail has been put forward as the preferred option for rapid transit out to Auckland's airport.

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Green MP Julie Anne Genter is concerned the project is becoming inflated and over-engineered.

* No decision on Auckland light rail, as Government opts for 'fresh start' on project

Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter said it made more sense to pursue the street-level version because it was cheaper, along with it being “staged easier and delivered faster.”

“It's about how do we most effectively provide transport and housing options to people while reducing pollution and emissions,” Genter said.

National MP David Bennett says the Government needs to be “more prudent” with ALR funding.

An “iterative approach” in which the network was built over time as the population of the city grew made more sense, she said.

Genter was also concerned the preferred option was becoming inflated and over-engineered.

“We just need to start moving and delivering benefits to people as quickly as we can,” she said.

Matt Lowrie, editor of transport and urban design blog Greater Auckland said the project’s cost had become “hugely expensive and largely unnecessary.”

“For the same cost of building that tunnel section we could build two or three other light rail lines across the isthmus,” Lowrie said.

The Government’s obsession with trying to avoid disruption along Dominion Road by building the line underground would mean important improvements would continue to be pushed back, he said.

“Dominion road has been held in limbo for decades now and the tunnelled option continues to push that back,” he said.

National Party transport spokesman David Bennett said it was a “huge amount of money” to be spent on a “political project that’s the wish list of the Prime Minister and some Labour MPs.”

“I think it's very debatable whether it will actually get contracted. When you're looking at their quantum of money, it's about over $600 million, a kilometre to service only about 10 per cent of the growth of Auckland,” Bennett said.

The Government needed to be “much more prudent” with the funding it allocated and spent that on projects which would “deliver the best results for Aucklanders,” he said.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff said despite the long process to reach this point, he was still optimistic the project “would be done, because it has to be done.”

“This iteration of the project has been done more thoroughly than ever before. The work has gone into this.

“It's not simply something that somebody mentions during the election as being a good idea,” Goff said.

He said while the costs of all three options were “eye-watering”, it would be offset by what light rail would achieve.

“I fully support the government's commitment to a light rail rapid transit system and this is transformational.”