20 Apr 2005

Dunne: Transmission Gully takes the chequered flag

Ohariu-Belmont MP and United Future leader, Peter Dunne, says the Western Corridor Transportation Study, released today, shows clearly that building the Transmission Gully motorway is the best long-term option for easing the Wellington region’s transport bottlenecks.

“We’ve now seen all the studies; we’ve looked at all the possible road-rail-slight improvement options; we’ve compared them all and the Gully route emerges as the best.

“We’ve talked long enough; we’ve always known it was going to be expensive; the time to start is now,” he said.

“More delays, more dithering, more budget blowouts will not be to the benefit of the region’s travellers, commercial enterprises or, indeed, the nation’s economy.

“The Study says all the five scenarios presented have high engineering risk elements, but on a scale of 0 – 10, with 10 being the best, the Transmission Gully scenario rates the highest from both the Regional Land Transport Committee (5.7) and Land Transport New Zealand (6.5).

“It is worth noting too that only the Transmission Gully scenario does not include what is called ‘traffic demand management’.

“Motorists will know traffic demand management as road tolls or congestion charges and they wouldn’t be limited to the Western Corridor, they could apply across the whole of the Wellington regional roading network.

“Wellington motorists and businesses have paid for roading through taxes and petrol excises for years.

“I’m not sure they’ll welcome extra charges every day in the future just because the decision makers lacked the courage or foresight to get on with the obvious job today,” said Mr Dunne.

ENDS

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