Mayor Justin Lester favours trackless trams over light rail for Let's Get Wellington Moving

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

A mass public transport system is due to be constructed between Wellington Railway Station and the airport as part of the $6.4 billion Let's Get Wellington Moving programme.

Justin Lester doesn't want Wellington to be the last city in the world to build light rail.

If he gets his way, Wellington will be the first New Zealand city to get trackless trams instead.

At a Wellington Chamber of Commerce breakfast to discuss Let's Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) on Wednesday morning, Justin Lester extolled the virtues of trackless tram technology to create a cheaper, wider-reaching public transport network than would be possible with light rail.

Lester says Wellingtonians could get more value from money from trackless trams.

'Personally I'm in favour of a trackless tram,' Lester said.

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'We don't want to be the last city in the world to invest in light rail.'

A trackless tram network could be built in three years and stretch out to Karori, Lester said.

Lester made the comments while attending a Wellington Chamber of Commerce event on Wednesday morning.

'We don't have to have this massive investment in infrastructure, we don't have to put down rails.'

Tim Brown, chairman of Wellington Airport, said 'four lanes to the planes' would be 'more immediate solution to a more immediate problem'.

'Actually mass transit is going to take way longer than you think,'

'We've tried to do bus expressways through the city, people fight to the death over their on-street carparking so I think it's going to take a long time.'

LGWM is a $6.4 billion, 20-year, joint venture between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency aimed at fixing traffic congestion between Wellington Airport and the Ngauranga Gorge.

Is it a tram or a trackless tram? The Mayor of Wellington says the latter.

Under the initiative $2.2b has been allocated to pay for a mass transit option between Wellington city and the airport.

Light rail was once touted by Lester as being 'front and centre' of LGWM, but in May it emerged the LGWM team met with an international trackless tram expert to discuss that technology too.

The technology's fortunes have risen rapidly this year from being a rumour in April to the mayor's preferred mass transit option today.

Trackless trams run on rubber wheels carry a similar number of passengers to light rail, but operate using sensors rather than railway lines.

In overseas examples lines are painted on roads and trams use cameras to follow them the same way a train follows tracks.

The Mayor faced a number of questions over LGWM including on a pedestrian overpass and whether it would ease congestion.

Lester said he'd withdraw support for trackless trams if the business case didn't support it.

The mayor is trying to setup an overseas visit to investigate trackless tram technology.

'We need public transport otherwise we'll just be a city of flyovers and spaghetti junctions.'

COBHAM DRIVE

Meanwhile, the first step in LGWM came under fire at the meeting with several voicing their support for a pedestrian overpass instead.

A move to create an at-grade pedestrian crossing on the 70km/h Cobham Dr was trumpeted as one of the quick wins of LGWM but has run into trouble since.

When audience members raised the idea of a pedestrian overbridge Lester said a similar bridge on the Hataitai side of the Mt Victoria tunnel was not well used.

'Why? Because people hate them, they never use them, they're too lazy to take the steps and go across.'

But Daran Ponter, a GWRC councillor, who has publicly taken a stand in favour of an overpass, spoke earlier to Stuff said the Hataitai overpass had worked well.

'That bridge is only really used on Saturday mornings when there's netball on [but] the reality is for that time it's very important.'