RAM - Residents Action Movement
Election InfoLine 13.9.07

RAM's alternative to 'crazy' ARC scheme

Auckland Regional Council chair Mike Lee is promoting a $3 billion Eastern tunnel under the Waitemata Harbour as "one of the priorities" of a joint transport study with Transit NZ.

Mr Lee's motion was passed by the ARC Transport Committee on 11 September 2007. (RAM councillor Robyn Hughes was absent from this meeting due to other commitments.)

Mr Lee described Transit's favoured $2 billion Western tunnel as "mad" because it would surface close to already congested Spaghetti Junction (Minutes of ARC Transport Committee 11.9.07 and NZ Herald 12.9.07.)

"I agree with Mr Lee that Transit's Western harbour tunnel is mad. But the ARC chair's Eastern tunnel, which would be a geographic fit with John Banks' discredited Eastern Motorway, is equally mad," said Roger Fowler, transport analyst for RAM - Residents Action Movement.

"Mr Lee's $3 billion Eastern tunnel would confiscate the public funds we need to transform Greater Auckland into a public transport region."

"The ARC chair, and the ARC councillors who voted for his Eastern tunnel preference, are showing the need for a vision transplant. They are locked into the existing mobility model which privileges cars at the expense of buses, trains and other forms of public transport. This model is failing in front of our eyes," said Roger Fowler.

"RAM has a plan to tackle the triple threat of climate chaos, peak oil and traffic gridlock. If $3 billion was to be put into free and frequent buses, trains and ferries, Greater Auckland would have no need for Mr Lee's megabuck harbour tunnel. That's shown by the runaway success of the Northern Buslane, despite its private bus fares being among the highest in the Western world."

"$3 billion would cover the capital and operating costs of a publicly-owned network of free and frequent buses, trains and ferries in Greater Auckland for at least the next decade, and probably well beyond."

"It's scandalous that the ARC chair is proposing to squander public funds on a crazy project which would only encourage more cars instead of a sensible and sustainable solution to our region's worsening congestion problems," said Roger Fowler.

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