5 May 2014
Auckland rail growth shows CRL needs to start now
An 11.7 percent surge in Auckland rail patronage in the year to April shows the government needs to start on the
Auckland City Rail Link immediately, the Green Party said today.
“The government has set arbitrary and unachievable targets as its excuse not to get cracking right away. It has already
back-flipped on finally agreeing the need for the CRL. Now it needs to understand that waiting until 2020 to start is
too late,” Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter said.
An independent report by Price Waterhouse Coopers, commissioned by the Auckland mayoral office, said patronage targets
for the $2.8 billion project to get approval were “unrealistic”, while the downtown employment target was
“unachievable”.
“This comes straight out of Catch 22 – set impossible targets so you can justify inaction,” said Ms Genter. “PwC noted
that the highest rates of patronage growth ‘are likely to be achieved after full introduction of electric trains in
2016’, so waiting until 2020 to start the project will be too late.”
“The government’s own advisory report, City Centre Future Access Study, clearly spells out that delaying CRL carries
economic costs including displacement of employment, restriction of growth and foregoing the benefits of agglomeration.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown says a 2016 start is vital to Auckland's economic development and to prevent crippling
peak-hour road congestion.
The Green Party will kick start construction of the CRL next year.
“The City Rail Link is the next essential step in creating a smarter, greener transport network for all Aucklanders. It
is vital to unblock the bottleneck at Britomart and get the full benefits of electrification.
"It will double capacity on the network, allowing trains to run every five minutes at peak times. It will reduce travel
times from West Auckland to the CBD by up to 28 minutes.
“After CRL we can extend lines to the airport and the North Shore. Creation of a congestion-free network will de-clog
roads, speed-up journeys and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Compared to National's multi-billion dollar duplicate motorways, investing in Auckland rail is cheap and
cost-effective,” Ms Genter said.
ends