NZTA’s view of the CBD Rail Tunnel

Another NZTA board paper that Jon C has kindly passed onto me is NZTA’s report to their board – back in December last year – on the CBD Rail Tunnel business case, as it was released in November last year. While it doesn’t discuss the possibility of NZTA contributing to funding the project, it is reasonably complimentary of the tunnel project. It also raises many of the same questions I have about the project, like the need to better understand the link between the rail tunnel and increased economic activity in the CBD.

The board paper summarises some of the key messages from the business case succinctly: When one fully analyses the options for increasing transport capacity into the central city, it becomes reasonably obvious that the CBD Tunnel is the most sensible option. It would appear that NZTA also have a growing appreciation that this may be the case: How the Auckland Plan interacts with the CBD Rail Tunnel will be crucial and I think it’s good NZTA have recognised this. The business case highlights a compelling argument for concentrating employment in the city centre to a greater degree, but the tunnel alone will not make this happen. It will need to be supported by the Auckland Plan, and the eventual further policies and plans that give effect to the Auckland Plan. That said, I also don’t think that a greater concentration of employment, and all the advantages that brings, would be likely to happen to any particularly great extent without the tunnel. We need both of them.

As I noted a couple of days ago, the funding question is always going to sit there. But I think we’re probably best off setting that matter aside for a while and focusing on sorting out other things – like the designation, consenting, detailed design and enabling works. None of that should cost too much. So I don’t think it’s worth getting too stressed about whether central government should contribute 50%, 60% or whatever at this point of time.

In terms of “where to next”, NZTA’s report outlines pretty much what has happened – that a review group will assess the business case and try to ‘fine-tune’ matters where necessary. It’s interesting that it points to AMETI as a project where such a review led to improvements and cost-efficiencies through a collaborative process. Let’s hope that’s what’s going on at the moment: My understanding is that this review is proceeding as we speak. The results will go to a Cabinet meeting in April that will make choices about what the government’s role is in the project moving forward. It seems reasonably obvious they’re not going to stump up any significant funding at this present time, so I think the most important thing will be for Auckland Council to take things forward from this point and continue the process of getting the project to a point where, should the money become available in 4-5 years time, we can get it going quickly.

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