Prime Minister confirms big infrastructure spend on Auckland transport

Prime Minister John Key has confirmed the government's plans to help bring forward spending on Auckland's transport infrastructure including the $2.5 billion city rail link and the $1 billion East/West Connections road project.

The government will work with Auckland Council to bring forward the business plan and formalise Crown funding from 2020, Key told the Auckland Chamber of Commerce in his first major speech of the year. Mr Key had been tipped to bring forward the government's own funding, and these commitments are expected to help the local body negotiate contracts and provide investors certainty for other major central business district projects. A business plan is expected to be delivered later this year.

"The government still has to work through a number of important and quite complex issues with the council," Mr Key said. "These include how project costs will be shared and how the rail link will be owned and managed."

In 2013, the government agreed to jointly fund the rail link with Auckland Council but to not provide its share until 2020 although it said it would consider an earlier business case and construction start date if it became clear that Auckland's CBD employment and rail patronage hit thresholds faster than current growth rates suggested.

The two thresholds were rail patronage hitting 20 million trips a year before 2020 and a 25%  increase in Auckland CBD employment over the 2013 level – half the increase predicted in Auckland Transport's City Centre Future Access Study. Neither threshold has been met at this stage although rail trips are forecast to hit the 20 million mark by the end of this year. Patronage increased 22%  in 2015 to just over 15 million trips a year.

The rail link will connect Britomart Station in downtown Auckland with the existing western line at Mt Eden station, allowing trains to run both ways through Britomart. Preliminary work began in December with the council's long-term plan passed last year based on construction beginning in 2018.

Auckland mayor Len Brown welcomed the commitment, saying it will help the city cater for annual population growth of 3%. The next step for the council to work with the government will be in addressing traffic congestion and make public transport more desirable across the whole city, he said.

“Since the government announced its support for the City Rail Link back in 2012, I have been asking the government to provide certainty over the funding. That is what we needed and that is what the government has delivered today,” Mr Brown said via press release.

Mr Brown also took the opportunity to talk up the benefits of the CRL, saying “it will be transformational, not only to keep Auckland moving but also to boost the city’s economic and social life. Its benefits will be felt across Auckland as well as building a great heart in the central city.”

Mr Key also announced plans to fast-track the East/West Connection to improve traffic between Onehunga and Mt Wellington, which is heavily used by industry, to allow consent to be made within nine months of application.

The government plans to fund the connection through the Land Transport Fund to allow construction to start as early as 2018, he said.

Mr Key detailed up to $115 million of funding for four road projects, two in Taranaki, one in Gisborne and one near Blenheim.

He also touched on housing affordability, which he said has no quick fix, with reforms to the resource management act a priority for the government.

"I want to make the government's expectations absolutely clear - we must continue lifting supply of new houses in Auckland to meet the demands of this growing city," Key said.

(BusinessDesk)