Let’s build resilience, reform government and reimagine our cities
The Post has been running a series of think-pieces on how to fix the country, and invited Greater Auckland director Matt Lowrie, among others, for an ideal “first 100 days” plan. We’re happy to share Matt’s take with our readers. Turns out you can say quite a lot in 750 words!…
26 Comments Government’s Investment Summit
This week, the Government is hosting a grand event aimed at trying to interest big foreign capital players in financing capital works in New Zealand, particularly its big rural motorway programme. Financing vs funding: a quick explainer
The key word in the sentence above is financing.…
Levelling up the Takaanini LXR project
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, which will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah.
Also like the city centre, this is an upgrade predicated on the City Rail Link.…
Fixing the National Land Transport Fund
As discussed in this morning’s post, the Labour/Green confidence and supply agreement will lead to major change in transport investment priorities going forwards. Especially the following:
National Land Transport Fund spending will be reprioritised to increase the investment in rail infrastructure in cities and regions, and cycling and walking.…
Now a $7 billion shortfall
As well as revealing that the government would be making an announcement on road pricing this week, Mayor Phil Goff also made another interesting comment in relation to transport in his interview on The Nation on the weekend. He mentioned that the funding shortfall from ATAP over the first decade has risen from $4 billion to $7 billion.…
Flashback Saturday: Local roads getting screwed over
This post originally appeared in May 2012.
NZTA is funded from petrol tax and road user charges, which obviously comes from cars, trucks, vans and buses using fuel (or travelling kilometres) along our roading network. The theory is that this creates a relatively ‘user pays’ situation, with money raised from road users being spent on projects that benefit road users (including public transport, walking and cycling, which obviously reduce the number of cars that would otherwise be on the road).…
ATAP ASAP’s – Eastern Busway
In Part 1 of my series I wrote about the third main between Westfield & Wiri as being an ATAP ASAP, a first decade project that in my opinion needed funding straight away. My second post of this series was about the need for extra trains prior to the completion of the City Rail Link.…
Looking closer at the GPS
There has been an impression over the past while about how the government has adopted a more conciliatory approach to transport in Auckland. In some respects this is true, as they’re no longer getting in the way of quickly progressing the City Rail Link, they stumped up the Urban Cycleway Fund which is delivering some fantastic projects, and through ATAP there’s now alignment between the council and government on Auckland’s future transport needs including expanding the rapid transit network and a more open mind to road pricing.…
Govt silly to reject Regional Fuel Tax
Last Thursday Finance Minister Steven Joyce announced that the government was “ruling out” using a regional fuel tax as one way to fill the $4 billion transport funding gap that was identified by ATAP. He noted a few reasons for this decision:
And second, I stress that we are not interested in introducing a regional fuel tax.…
Draft Government Policy Statement 2018-28: Roads Roads Roads
Yesterday the Ministry of Transport released for consultation the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) for 2018-2025. The GPS is refreshed every three years and as the name implies, it sets out the government’s policies and spending for transport over a 10-year horizon.…
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