Well someone in parliament has finally got around to asking the government about the delays in the announcement of funding for Auckland’s electric trains, thank you Keith Locke. Today’s parliamentary questions on the issue provide a bit more information, but certainly aren’t particularly comforting that we’re not going to end up with the half-baked system I was worried about in my post yesterday. In any case, here’s the transcript:
KEITH LOCKE (Green) to the Minister of Transport: Is he confident that at least part of Auckland’s electric rail system will be rolling in time to help move the 75,000 international visitors and countless Kiwi fans expected for the 2011 Rugby World Cup?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) : No, and it was never going to be the case. The Auckland metro rail electrification project has always been, and remains, due for completion in 2013.
Keith Locke: As Auckland’s regional fuel tax was cancelled in March, how will the purchase of the electric railcars be funded; and if the funding decision has not yet been made, when will it be made?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The funding decision for the half-billion dollar electric trains has not yet been made because agency officials are working on the scope of the project and on the funding for it. When that has been completed to the satisfaction of me and the agency concerned, the decision will be made.
Nikki Kaye: What work is under way to improve Auckland’s railway network in time for the Rugby World Cup?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Government has made a commitment to enhance significantly the public transport infrastructure around Eden Park, particularly for rail travel, in time for the Rugby World Cup. That work includes redevelopment of the Kingsland Railway Station and Morningside Railway Station. In fact, the Morningside station is now up and running; I as Minister opened it on 7 August. Other projects include track crossovers at the Kingsland station to enable trains to run to and from the central business district from both of Kingsland’s platforms, a major new signalling system between the Britomart and Kingsland stations, and improvements at the Newmarket junction. All of that work is part of the substantial sum of $1.6 billion that the Government has committed to investing in the Auckland rail network.
Keith Locke: Can the Minister guarantee that the 140 electric railcars, which are needed, will be purchased as originally planned?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No, I cannot. Once we put the agencies together in a room—which is something that should have happened a long time ago—we discovered a number of potential overruns with the project, totalling up to around $200 million. These include the lack of any significant contingency planning at all for the project, potentially between $50 million and $150 million of additional base infrastructure requirements, and potentially up to $30 million of platform extensions. We have therefore decided, in working with the agencies, that we need to make sure that the scope of the project is properly done so that we can ensure 10-minute frequencies across the network once the project is complete.
Hon Darren Hughes: What leadership is the Minister taking to remove any of the so-called stumbling blocks that he has outlined today that are preventing the purchase of 140 new electric railcars for Auckland, something has already been delayed while he has been the Minister, creating the distinct impression that this Government is not committed to public transport, at all?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I am encouraging the officials to use their calculators properly and carefully, which is something that did not appear to have happened under the previous Government.
Keith Locke: Can the Minister guarantee that ONTRACK’s electrification plan “extending from Papakura in the south to Swanson in the west, and including the Onehunga branch line and the future Manukau link” will still proceed; if not, which parts of the network will not proceed?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The half a billion dollars that was allocated under the previous Government for the electrification of those lines remains in place, and provided that it can be done within that sum of money, it will, of course, proceed to the full extent.
Keith Locke: Will it not be embarrassing if international visitors to the 2011 Rugby World Cup see that we have been fluffing around with the electrification of Auckland’s rail system, particularly when it is very obvious that we need it to get people around Auckland, and to counter the effect of higher oil prices?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: If that is the member’s view, then probably he should have worked with the previous Government, which the Greens were involved with, to ensure that the planning occurred to enable it to be done by 2011, but it was scheduled for 2013, and it is on schedule to be done by then.
My analysis of this shows some good aspects – that $1 billion will certainly be spent on electrifying Auckland’s rail network, and some bad aspects – notably that if there are any increases in costs (which it seems like there are going to be) no more money will be provided, but instead the project will be cut back. I wonder whether such a strict budget constraint will be applied to the $1.4 billion Waterview Connection? Would the government just not finish the last few hundred metres of that motorway if they exceeded the $1.4 billion price cap? If not, why the double-standard?
Some further information on time-frames does seem to be emerging though:
Keith Locke – Written Question.
When does the Minister expect the final tender to be announced for the Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) needed for the electrification of Auckland’s rail system given that the Auckland Regional Transport Authority was originally planning to put this tender out to short-listed tenderers by the end of May, 2009?
Steven Joyce – AnswerThe New Zealand Railways Corporation and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority have agreed to extend the validity of the EMU expression of interest process and have jointly informed all respondees. While there are a number of issues that still need to be worked through, a decision to reengage with the market will be made in the next several weeks.
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So it seems they are going the original ATRA tender in some form or another meaning we might get good EMU’s hopefully
The effect of potential cost-overruns is worrying though.
It is encouraging to hear the minister say that the elctrification “scope” hasn’t been reduced yet (as long as it can be done for $500 million) and the importance of 10 minute frequencies… After Rudman’s article I thought we might get 15 minute frequencies and a confirmation that Manukau and Onehunga wouldn’t be electrified as they haven’t been “proven” to be successful…
I’m starting to hope they’ll electrify all the lines and am not caring so much about the rolling stock as long as they can run 10 minute frequencies (which might have been the government’s plan all along)… The Greens and Labour can buy a whole lot of EMU’s in 6 to 9 years (upon reflection any branches could be electrified then too)…
We just have to lobby (and hope) that all the work can be done to a great standard for $1.6 billion…
The $1.6 billion is a nonsense figure. Much of it was spent 4-5 years ago on double-tracking the Western Line. Clearly we have a cap of $1 billion that will be spent on rail projects in Auckland in the time this government is in power. That’ll hopefully get us electrification, including the trains. Beyond that, I can’t see us getting anything until this bunch of turkeys are tossed out.
$1 billion after DART, with $500 million for electrification and $500 million for rollingstock..?
Sadly in NZ local government tends to promote projects and expect central government to cough up most of the money. Optimism Bias is a term used in the UK, not seen in NZ, to describe how promoters of major projects undercook the costs so they get approval, but then blow out and government is stuck with them. One way to mitigate this is to divide the project into chunks, another way is to have it dependent on revenue from users (doesn’t work in this case) with the private sector being involved.
I’d suggest that both Onehunga and Manukau branches aren’t worth electrifying in the first instance, the volumes expected for both of these are woefully low.
The fact that the funding has been confirmed yet again is a good thing, and an important point was made that the previous goverment had a deadline of 2013, which this government is commited to. I wouldn’t expect labour to do any better. Infact it is another case of labours inability to do things right, and leave this government to tidy up their mess. The fact of the matter is more money should have be set-a-side from the start, both governments are at fault. I’m just glad that through this saga we have been promissed 10 minute frequencies. So as Jezza has mentioned the main point to me out of this is the importance of 10 minute frequencies.
Also note the article on NZ Herald about a super transport agency, this has also been a good point as hopefully this will even out the difference between speending on roads and Public Transport.
“extend the validity of the EMU expression of interest process and have jointly informed all respondees”
Ah but have the tenderers agreed to extend their tenders?
Yes the main point is 10 minute frequencies. With regards to the trains themselves, I imagine that as soon as the new EMUs come in, we’ll see the ADKs and the ADLs immediately retired. That will still leave a reasonably high number of SA trains around though – and they’re new enough (or refurbished recently enough) to supplement the EMUs for a good number of years to come.
I always figured the SA trains would do Pukekohe and Huapai runs. I guess they could be put on the Onehunga line if that wasn’t electrified – although it would be a pity to relegate a potentially exciting new line to second-class status.
I guess the question then is would the SA trains stuff up the 10 minute frequencies..? If so that is unacceptable and pressure must be applied to the government to stump up the extra funds (if required)… Jarbury brings up an excellent point, would the government build the Waterview Connection and have 3 lanes for half of it and 2 lanes for the rest due to cost overruns, don’t think so…
With that said hearing the minister saying that electrification is going definitely going ahead (with budgetary constraints), hearing him even mention the CBD rail tunnel and announcing basically a new beefed up ARTA (who I’m really impressed with) in the ATA, old Joycey has gone up in my estimation this week (however slightly)… It took Labour 7 years to come around to rail and PT, maybe National can be turned quicker…
Listening to the radio this morning I found myself agreeing with Steven Joyce and disagreeing with Mike Lee. Crikey I felt strange.
Lee seems to be really against independent transport agencies… I’m not sure why… He’s usually great on transport issues…
Yes he is usually great. It’s because he has probably been annoyed at the fact that he funds ARTA, yet has limited control over what they do. It’s no real surprise he would be against the establishment of something similar to ARTA, and instead would want it to simply be a department of council.
I do accept that he probably has as good inside information on how well ARTA works as anyone, but he is definitely coming at the issue from a particular perspective.
I would suggest Mike Lee, like most politicians, loves having control of decisions, and hates when they go against his own pre-determined bias for or against certain options. This political control has been the nightmare of US transport decisionmaking, which is biased towards building new roads, not maintaining existing ones, and building flash rail projects, not replacing clapped out buses. Politicians love things they can open and have a high profile,the incentives they have are appalling. The more independent the agency the better. When Transfund was set it, it was deliberately decided to make it illegal for it to follow any directives from the Minister on specific projects – that was a great leap forward in NZ transport policy.
I’d agree with 100%, while I’d like to see SH and rail investment included in the new ATA… I understand completely why it hasn’t been, why would central government give up any more power then it has to without a public cry for it..?