Christchurch may self-fund next stage of mass rapid transit

Saturday, 14 December 2024

Christchurch has the most congested rush hour in New Zealand but has the lowest spend on public transport, despite being the fastest-growing main centre.

If Christchurch wants to see light rail or metro buses on its busiest roads in the next decade, it may need to self-fund a detailed business case.

But it is unclear if the city council has the time or money to make it happen in time for the next funding round, elected members from the city, Selwyn and Waimakariri councils heard in a meeting on Friday.

A public transport advocate is keen to see the work continue regardless, saying Christchurch’s future should not be dependant on “the whims of the electoral cycle”.

But city councillor Sam MacDonald prefers a more cautious approach.

“We could do all the business cases in the world, but without the certainty of government funding I still wonder whether there's any point,” MacDonald said.

Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger warned against using consultants, should the project progress. Cr Sara Templeton says the council would need to meet to decide whether to self-fund the business case.

The case for mass rapid transit (MRT) in Greater Christchurch - first between the suburbs of Papanui and Riccarton, via the city centre, but ultimately connecting to Rolleston and Rangiora - is popular, but pricey.

A preliminary business case - which went out to the public and was endorsed by councils in 2023 - found it could cost between $3 billion and $4b, but would address the needs of a growing population.

At that stage the project was led by Waka Kotahi - NZ Transport Agency, and funding was pledged for a business case with much more detail: a necessary step for shovels to ever hit the ground. But, earlier this year, central government retrospectively pulled that funding.

The proposed mass rapid transit route would eventually connect to Rangiora and Rolleston.

In the Friday meeting of the Greater Christchurch Partnership Committee, representatives heard that NZTA was in the middle of handing the project over to the Christchurch council.

While the Selwyn and Waimakariri district mayors Sam Broughton and Dan Gordon were eager to see it progress, their offers of support fell short of volunteering financial contributions.

Broughton said it was crucial the work was done in the next 18 months, to be ready for the next round of central government transport funding in 2027.

The mayors of Selwyn and Waimakariri want the project to progress, but fell short of offering financial contributions. Pictured: Dan Gordon, mayor of Waimakariri.

It is unclear how much the detailed business case would cost. City councillor Sara Templeton said there was a few million dollars budgeted for MRT in the 2028 financial year, some which could be brought forward, but it was a discussion council was yet to have.

Mayor Phil Mauger warned if it did go ahead, consultants “will be rubbing their hands together with glee”, so he would prefer council directly hired critical staff.

MacDonald, who chairs the council’s finance committee, was not at the meeting but told The Press he was reluctant to spend money progressing a project the Government was not committed to funding.

Greater Christchurch has looked at Sydney’s light rail line, pictured above, as an example of what could happen here. (File photo)

He also wanted to be sure self-funding the work would not jeopardise central government support in future, and thought the transport team’s time was better spent tackling their already-large workload, including a business case for the new Pages Rd bridge.

“We should be using our time and energy fixing roads,” he said.

M Grace-Stent, representing urbanist group Greater Ōtautahi, said the council did not have to choose one project over another.

The council should determine it’s own future and take initiative to prepare the city for population growth, rather than waiting for Wellington to come to the party, they said.

“There's just no other way around it. At some point we're going to need to upgrade and improve our public transport network to become a city that allows more people to live here,” they said.

Regardless, all representatives agreed the future MRT route needed to be protected from development in the meantime.

Richard Osborne, NZTA’s regional manager of system design, also raised the possibility of completing the project in stages - tied to population growth - to make it more manageable.

If they first focused on the Papanui to Riccarton route, the cost would be between $1.5b to $2.2b - or about half the total project cost - while still gaining a benefit-cost ratio of up to 1.5 on transport benefits alone, or up to 1.8 including wider economic benefits.

In June, NZTA estimated the detailed design, consenting and construction of the project would be between 2034 and 2044. Originally, MRT implementation spending was planned for 2031-34.