Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects.…

Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever“, and a few things stood out. Here’s a snippet: However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of Auckland light rail, especially as the cost is expected to further increase according to Treasury’s Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update.…

The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different sites achieved: More than 28,000m3 of ballast laid (stones that the tracks sit on) More than 4,600 new sleepers More than 2.6km of new rail track Installation of 16 complex structures, including turnouts and crossovers (which allow trains to move from one track to another) Earlier this week Transport Minister Michael Wood toured some of the work with Radio NZ reporting: Wood said the projects were part of the Government’s commitment to providing better transport options for Aucklanders, and defended the disruption they would cause in the short term.…

Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as with then, it’s unclear yet what projects will be reined in.…