Fight to stop Cross Valley Link road kicks off
Media release
VAN – Valley Action Network
20
September, 2007
Hutt fight to stop Cross Valley Link
road kicks off Sunday
A grassroots campaign will be
launched this Sunday to stop a major new
Cross Valley
Link road between the Eastern and Western suburbs of Hutt
City.
Community campaigners will be going door to door
along the proposed
route talking to residents who would
be affected. They will be asking
people to sign a
petition opposing the project and calling for improved
public transport as the sensible solution to traffic
congestion.
"Although Valley Action Network is kicking
this campaign off, our aim
is to help build a
broad-based action group embracing everyone opposed
to
the road", said VAN organiser Grant Brookes.
The Cross
Valley Link is listed among possible new projects for
2007-2016 in the Regional Council's Land Transport
Strategy. But the
likelihood of the road going ahead got
a boost last month when all five
candidates for the Hutt
City Mayoralty came out strongly in favour of
it.
The
Cross Valley Link will cost upwards of $60-$70 million to
build.
Hutt ratepayers will be expected to contribute
$18-$30 million, at
least.
The road's supporters say
it will relieve congestion on the East-West
route along
the Petone foreshore Esplanade.
"Spending this kind of
money building another major road to encourage
more car
use, in an age of climate change and rising oil prices, is
crazy", said Grant Brookes. "At best, it's a short-term
fix for
congestion that will move the bottleneck
somewhere else.
"The sensible alternative is vastly
improved public transport. VAN's
policy of Free and
Frequent Public Transport, reprinted below, is just
the
kind of solution needed.
"Grassroots pressure has forced
the Council to back down over and over
again", added
Grant. "They've been forced to scrap their plans to close
the Moera Library and Mckenzie Pool, knock down the
historic Korohiwa
Bus Barn and abolish Community Boards.
So we can stop this road."
Although the grassroots
campaign will begin among residents along the
proposed
route, it will be rolled out to involve Hutt residents
everywhere.
"Voters at the upcoming Council elections
have a clear choice",
commented Grant. "VAN is the only
group standing for Council which puts
the sensible
solution of improved public transport over more roads,
more cars and more congestion."
All supporters and
media representatives are invited to attend the
first
campaign action on Sunday.
For more information,
contact Grant Brookes:
organiser@huttvan.org.nz
(021)
053 2973
www.huttvan.org.nz
-------------
Free and
frequent public transport – It makes climate sense and
serves
the people
The burning of oil and other fossil
fuels is raising the levels of
greenhouse gases in our
atmosphere and threatening huge climate change.
At the
same time, peak oil – the end of the world's cheap oil
supplies
– is around the corner. Competition for
what's left is fuelling wars.
To tackle these major
problems facing humanity, new solutions are
needed.
In New Zealand cities, the biggest source of
greenhouse gas emissions
is transport – mainly private
motor vehicles.
For Hutt residents, transport is a big
issue. A third of the Hutt
residents in jobs commute
outside the city to get to work. Many more
commute for
family and social reasons.
Drivers face clogged
motorways, frustration and road rage. Roads within
Hutt
City, too, are choked at peak times. Businesses lose money
through
the delays.
The Council's solution to these
problems is to build more roads. They
support plans to
spend a billion dollars on a new motorway through
Transmission Gully and upwards of $60 million on a new
Cross Valley
Link.
But more roads encourage more car
use and more greenhouse gas
emissions. They're a
short-term fix for congestion in one place that
moves
the bottleneck somewhere else. And new charges on motorists,
like
a regional petrol tax, will be needed to build
them.
What's needed is a major push to encourage people
into public transport
– particularly into our
electrified rail service, which is powered
mainly by
clean, renewable energy.
Making trains, buses and ferries
free would do this, without hitting
drivers with new
taxes.
Other cities like Christchurch and Invercargill
already have some free
bus routes. Campaigners in
Auckland and Dunedin are pushing to extend
this to free
and frequent public transport city-wide, like in some
European and North American cities.
Fares could be
eliminated by diverting a fraction of Wellington's
roading budget to public transport. But it's unlikely to
happen under
current ownership arrangements.
The
privatisation of public transport has been a disaster.
Private
operators have been happy to cream off profits,
while the network's
been run down.
When major
investment is needed to maintain or upgrade the system, they
demand hand-outs from the public purse.
The
government already owns the railway tracks. The Greater
Wellington
Regional Council is spending more than $500
million refurbishing the
trains, buying new ones and
building new stations.
Public subsidies cover around half
the annual operating costs for Tranz
Metro. Bus
operators get two thirds of their income from the public
purse.
It makes sense to spend a little extra and
take the whole transport
network back into public
ownership. Then there would be no private
operator
creaming off profits, and every public dollar could go on
reducing fares and improving services.
In 2002, the
Regional Council won government backing to buy a half
share of Tranz Metro. The deal fell through, mainly due
to ideological
opposition to public ownership from local
councils and business
interests.
We say that a
fraction of Wellington's roading budget should be used to
take public transport back into public ownership and
make it free and
frequent. It makes climate sense and
serves the people.
VAN – Valley Action Network wants moves towards this by:
* Speaking out in favour of public
transport over more road-building in
all public
forums.
* Scrapping plans to waste millions of ratepayer
dollars on a new Cross
Valley Link.
* Pressing Greater
Wellington Regional Council to bring forward its
plans
for trains on the Upper Hutt line every 10 minutes at peak
times,
and every 15 minutes off-peak.
* Linking up
with other authorities and campaigners in the region to
petition the government for more money for public
transport.
* Reviving plans for Greater Wellington
Regional Council to buy out
private transport operators,
and then move to reduce fares towards
zero.
ENDS