Canterbury mass rapid transit, bus planning speeds up to take advantage of stimulus spending

Friday, 3 April 2020

Finance Minister Grant Robertson talks to Radio Tarana's Vandhna Bhan on Sunday@5 programme.

Planning work for bus network upgrades and mass rapid transit in Christchurch is being sped up to take advantage of coronavirus recovery spending.

The Government announced this week it was forming an infrastructure group to seek out private and public sector projects ready to be contracted and funded once the construction workforce was able to return to work.

In response to the economic crash caused by Covid-19, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said a huge nation-building programme of infrastructure and public works would be needed to drag New Zealand out of recession.

Agencies involved in planning work for bus and possibly rail upgrades in Christchurch are trying to speed it up to potentially secure stimulus funding.

In Canterbury, the agencies working on improving the bus network and planning for future mass rapid transit, possibly rail, are looking to take advantage of the spend-up.

**READ MORE:

Finance Minister Grant Robertson has talked about the need to invest in public works and infrastructure as part of the economic recovery from Covid-19.

* Bus patronage decreasing as Environment Canterbury moots 9.8 per cent rates rise

* Shakeup planned for Christchurch's public transport network

* Environment Canterbury signs off region's big public transport plan**

The New Zealand Transport Agency, Environment Canterbury, Christchurch City Council and the Waimakariri and Selwyn district councils are all involved in the work, which is made up of three business cases, two focusing on the bus network and one on mass rapid transit looking at routes, the preferred transport mode (i.e. rail or buses) and investment options.

Asked if the agencies were looking to fast-track the work to be in a position to potentially secure stimulus spending, ECan chief executive Bill Bayfield said they were.

'The Greater Christchurch Partnership has discussed the opportunity to move urgently on all NZTA business cases, particularly multi-model transport analysis being led by NZTA,' he said.

The contract to do the business cases for improving the core five bus routes and another focusing on the rest of the network had already been awarded to a team of consultants led by company WSP. However, the tender process to award the mass rapid transit business case had been delayed.

NZTA regional relationships director Jim Harland said work on the bus network business cases started in January.

'The steering group has identified the opportunity for some of the outputs from this work to be considered as part of a stimulus package,' he said.

While the mass rapid transit work had yet to start, Harland said the current contract had a provision for this work to be included in it. 'We are currently in discussion with the provider. If successful, it would allow the work to get under way later this month.'

The business cases were necessary to secure funding for the projects to go ahead.

Christchurch transport planner Axel Wilke welcomed the fact work was being expedited. Stimulus spending on the bus network could include money to build bus priority lanes, he said, which would make the service more reliable.

And having mass rapid transit in Christchurch was key to reducing emissions, he said.

'There are untold opportunities in this dire situation and we need to be asking ourselves the big questions: what could we, or what should we be doing.'