Light Rail by-election stoush
On the weekend, the Labour Party, as part of the Mt Roskill by-election campaign, announced their intention to fund 50% of the cost of the proposed light rail line from Wynyard to Mt Roskill via Dominion Rd, one of the routes Auckland Transport first suggested in January last year.…
128 Comments Govt Offers a $1b Infrastructure Loan
Yesterday the Government announced its latest policy on addressing the housing crisis in Auckland and increasingly in other centres, a $1 billion infrastructure fund to pay for the bulk infrastructure needed to support *some* of the new houses needed in greenfield areas.…
Subsidies for Electric Vehicles – How do you like them lemons?
*** Note: This post has been updated to correct errors in the initial version. Correcting these errors has not, however, affected the conclusions ***
Imagine, for a moment, that I was trying to sell you a bag of organic lemons. Now imagine that my bag of organic lemons costs 25 times the normal price.…
Government CRL announcement imminent?
Auckland could be about to get a late Christmas present. It’s appearing more and more likely that the government will agree to start to the City Rail Link in 2018, two years earlier than the 2020 date they set back in 2013 when they first agreed to the project.…
CRL Funding Agreed?
In what looks like a sign that the ‘alignment’ project between the Auckland Council and the Government on transport may well just be falling in the right direction, the following data line was discovered by Luke in a Treasury funding ‘pipeline’ spreadsheet: The full document is here.…
John Key up the transport tax creek without a paddle
A wee while back Auckland Council adopted an interim “transport levy”. The levy amounts to $100 per household has been adopted as an interim measure for three years to accelerate a range of transport improvements that would otherwise be unfunded, e.g. …
Close the (freight) rail network?
Yesterday the Treasury released documents related to the government’s budget announced a few months ago. One that has gained a lot of attention is the suggestion from Treasury that the rail network – with exception of Auckland and Wellington – be shut down. …
Supergold changes good
The government have confirmed the outcome of their review of the Supergold Card and the outcome appears quite good.
The changes are below. Lift the moratorium on new services entering the scheme from 1 September 2015, and apply criteria for new services
Cap Crown funding for the scheme at $28.129 million per year for the next five years, with annual Consumer Price Index adjustments to account for inflation
Replace individual fare reimbursements for councils with bulk funding
Cap Crown funding for exempt services at their current levels, adjusted for CPI
Allow tendering on the Waiheke Island route where there is competition
Require SuperGold Card holders to purchase smartcards, such as the AT HOP card, as smartcard ticketing systems become available.…
Government Says No to Road Pricing
How Auckland’s transport system develops and how it is paid for is probably something that will be debated until the end of time. That doesn’t mean we should just sit back and endlessly debate it though. Almost everyone agrees that something needs to be done to and it seems many are even prepared to pay extra for it.…
Building on Government Land
The Government are announcing their budget today and one of the surprises in it slipped out yesterday. The government plan to open up to 430 hectares of of publicly owned land in Auckland to be developed.
3 News can reveal a major part of tomorrow’s Budget will be a plan to develop housing on parcels of Crown land in Auckland.…
Processing...