No one knows

If you caught the Bernard Orsman special last night about City Centre to Mangere Light Rail and any apparent progress I am sorry to break it to you there was no progress in the project at all.

From the NZ Herald:

Auckland’s $6 billion light rail project making slow progress

25 Mar, 2019 4:09pm 3 minutes to readPlay VideoEnable auto playThe Government’s $6 billion light rail programme for Auckland is making slow progress as bureaucrats grapple with one of the biggest projects in New Zealand’s history.

By: Bernard Orsman. Super City reporter, NZ Herald

The Government’s $6 billion light rail programme for Auckland is making slow progress as bureaucrats grapple with one of the biggest projects in New Zealand’s history.

Light rail, or modern-day trams, are promised by Labour to run from the CBD to the airport and from the CBD to the West Auckland within 10 years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised to build light rail to Mt Roskill within four years.

Official papers and a statement from the NZ Transport Agency show the task is more difficult than the Labour politicians envisage with a business case for the CBD to airport line still being worked on months after it was due in December last year.It is particularly complex, given it requires extensive works along some of the city’s main traffic arteries

Investigations for the CBD to West Auckland line “are at a very early stage”, NZTA told the Herald.

This will be frustrating the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which is chomping at the bit to open its $40 billion wallet to fund, build and operate light rail in Auckland with the help of a Canadian pension fund.

…..

Source: NZ Herald

Nice to know NZTA are releasing papers to the Herald rather than into the open domain including their website. However, I wonder if those papers and statement really do have anything of substance given reports of imminent announcements (not so imminent it seems) and that reflecting upon the news story the information given is pretty much the same since December.

That is I am not quite sure our authorities have quite got their head around Light Rail here in Auckland. Again, there are easier approaches such as starting at the Airport end first while tying it in to Airport to Botany Rapid Transit so that we get a demonstration line to work out the kinks before hitting the complex Dominion Road!

But for now the waiting game continues!