The ARTA 2009/10 to 2011/12 Regional Land Transport Programme has been released. This particular document is the kind of “end product” when it comes to transport planning and funding in the Auckland Region, and talks about all the transport projects that will take place in the next three years. There are no real surprises anywhere, because by the time we get to the point of having something ready to construct in the next three years it is likely to have been through the planning process already and had its funding already finalised. However, the programme makes reasonably interesting reading, and does give us a good idea about what to expect to actually see completed or under construction in the reasonably near future.
Reading through the RLTP I guess the first thing that is particularly noticeable is just how much money is to be spent on transport each year for the next three years. Over that complete time period $4.36 billion is to be spent on transportation, with $3.19 billion of that coming from NZTA (basically from petrol taxes, road-user charges and the like). The balance is to come from rates of the various councils in the Auckland region and – perhaps – from other central government sources (particularly the case for rail). A summary of the RTLP is outlined below:
Somewhat unsurprisingly most of the talk is about completing all the roading projects that are going on around Auckland at the moment – and then seemingly embarking on the number one priority for ARTA to improve arterial roads (who decided on that being such a high priority I wonder??) If I was being a bit tough on ARTA I would say that this seems like just another example of having the “airey-fairey” strategies doing a lot of talking about improving public transport and focusing on getting people out of their cars and into buses and trains, yet when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of actually putting money into transport projects we see roads completely dominating yet again. It seems as though even the main justification for investment in the Northern Busway and the rail corridors is to make life easier for those still using their cars. I would have thought the main benefit would be for those able to use a public transport system that is (slowly) getting better and better. Another sign of where the real priorities lie when it comes to transportation I wonder?
That said, it certainly seems like ARTA’s hands are rather tied when it comes to what transport projects are prioritised. They have little, if any, say over what NZTA wants to do with the state highways – although seemingly NZTA has little say in that these days either and the whole process of prioritising state highway projects has come down to what Steven Joyce and the Road Transport Forum think are important routes. But let’s not get too side-tracked here. The main issue is that the current local government structure that has created the situation where ARTA’s hands are very tied is going to change quite significantly over the next year and a half. So I am hoping in the future we will see a more “regional” approach to the prioritisation of transport projects – and hopefully the new transport agency that is created will “put its money where its mouth is” when it comes to actually providing the necessary funding for public transport.
Nevertheless, there are still a reasonable number of public transport projects that we will see being completed over the next three years. All major projects are outlined in the image below – which kindly was reproduced by ARTA in a completely impossible to read font. So I have taken the liberty of listing the projects myself:
1) Penlink – road
2) Albany Highway upgrade – road
3) East Coast Road upgrade – road
4) Glenfield Road – road
5) Taharoto/Wairau corner – road
6) Lake Road widening – road
7) Birkenhead wharf – ferry
8 ) Hobsonville fery terminal – ferry
9) Hobsonville deviation – road
10) Te Atatu Road development – road
11) New Lynn TOD projects – road/public transport
12) Dominion Road passenger transport – public transport
13) Tiverton/Wolverton upgrade – road
14) Central Connector – public transport
15) Newmarket Viaduct – road
16) Manukau Harbour Crossing – road
17) SH20-SH1 connection – road
18) Manukau Rail interchange – public transport
19) Flat Bush walking/cycling/road upgrades – I’ll say both road & public transport for this one.
20) Porchester Road construction – road
21) Great South Road/Beach Road intersection improvements – road
22) Franklin interchange improvements – public transport/road (I think)
So certainly we still see the majority of projects to be undertaken in the next three years are roading projects. In addition to those specific projects there are regional projects such as integrated ticketing, travel planning, developing the regional cycle network and funding public transport services. Yet I still can’t help but feel it is simply more of the same – a continuation of roads building dominating transport funding to a far greater extent than I think is justifiable.
In many ways this imbalance towards funding roads comes back to the funding mechanism for transport – with most money seeming to be raised from petrol taxes and an ideology that says petrol tax money should be spent on roads and roads alone. Personally I can’t see much sense in this ideology as surely road users will benefit from quality transport networks – no matter whether those networks involve spending more on motorways, more on railways or whatever. Furthermore, those who drive around on the weekends but catch buses during the week (like myself) don’t really contribute to peak hour congestion (and therefore don’t really need the motorway system to be expanded) but still pay fuel taxes and would certainly benefit from improved public transport services during the week. The funding system is complicated – with the government making it especially complicated by recently changing the way rail infrastructure is funded. This complexity is outlined below:
Anyway, I’ve given ARTA enough abuse for not being visionary enough with their transport funding priorities. Now for the good news – things don’t really seem to have changed much to this plan as a result of the moronic changes to government transportation policies over the past few months. It may be that those changes are yet to properly filter through the system, and we will see their effects in the longer term, but I have to say that (somewhat depressingly) the boringness of this Regional Land Transport Programme is a good thing. The mini-steps in the right direction that have been taken over the past few years are set to continue for at least another three years. Things absolutely could be a whole heap better, but at least they haven’t got significantly worse – as I had been worried about. This “reasonable outcome” is more clearly highlighted in the funding breakdown for what all this $4.3 billion is to be spent on over the next three years:
We can see the money set aside for “public transport infrastructure” is set to increase over the next few years from what it is now (although I suspect that might have something to do with the new rail funding arrangements rather than an actual gain) while a significant amount is also available for public transport services – which effectively is ARTA-speak for subsidies. Of course I still have some significant problems with the 2011/2012 year providing $5.21 for new state highways for every dollar to be spent on new public transport infrastructure – but that is certainly better than the government policy statement’s ratio of $27 on new state highways for every dollar on public transport infrastructure!
All in all, it seems like ARTA have tried their hardest to ignore the stupid changes made to transport by the government over the past few months, and for that alone I give them a lot of credit. We may not really be going forwards with this RLTP, but we’re certainly not heading backwards at a great rate of knots either – which I had feared. The 10 Year Auckland Transport Plan should be released in a few days time, which should be a bit more interesting to read through – especially after I gave ARTA a bit of a bollocking over their draft version a few months back.
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