21June 2016

Auckland and Government align on transport

Auckland Mayor Len Brown is today welcoming continuing progress towards agreement between Auckland Council and the government on investment on transport in Auckland for the next 30 years.

The Mayor, Transport Minister Simon Bridges, Finance Minister Bill English and Auckland Councillor Bill Cashmore today received the second of the three reports that make up the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP).

ATAP will provide an agreed programme for achieving Auckland's transport goals. Broadly, these goals deal with transport access to employment locations, improving on current congestion forecasts, increased public transport usage and ensuring value for money invested.

Len Brown says “Government and Auckland Council together are making solid progress in prioritising Auckland's transport investments for the next 30 years.”

Councillor Bill Cashmore, who is working with Mayor Brown in the governance of the project, says “We’ve made such good progress with the Government because we’ve got the process right. Together, we’ve agreed the goals; we’ve agreed the data and the modelling approach and applied common sense to the results.”

A key finding is that Auckland's high population growth means that expected investments will need to be made sooner than expected.

Mayor Len Brown says “The issue with growth is because transport infrastructure and services have long lead-in times, we need to fund and build them now. We can’t build them after people arrive. That would be a recipe for a choked and economically stunted Auckland.

“The good news is that ATAP shows road pricing, where road users pay to use parts of the network, particularly during peak traffic periods, is an important part of the solution.”

Auckland Council has already carried out considerable consultation on this option and will need to consider it as the current “interim transport levy” paid by all business and residential properties expires in 2018.

The Mayor and Minister have reviewed the work to date and are happy for the project to proceed to the final phase – a prioritised investment programme for transport in Auckland.

The project team will now undertake final modelling, apply different budget scenarios and assess the results against the agreed goals before delivering the final ATAP report in August.

Councillor Bill Cashmore says “It’s important that the third step springboards into a funding discussion because this must get sorted before the 2018 Auckland Council Long-Term Plan (LTP).”

Len Brown says “Auckland’s growth means government and council need to put aside politics, agree the facts, design the responses and jointly deliver transport investment across Auckland”.

ENDS

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