Search Results for light rail

Yesterday the government made an announcement that should surprise almost no-one, finally making it official that light rail is dead. The coalition Government continues to deliver on its 100-day plan with the decision to cancel the Auckland Light Rail project. “Auckland Light Rail would have cost taxpayers $15 billion, with advice showing the cost could increase to $29.2 billion,” Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.…

A few months ago, Auckland Light Rail (ALR) consulted on how the project might pass through Onehunga  and Mangere Town Centre – the former included an absurd proposal to use the Avondale Southdown heavy rail corridor. They released the results of the consultation back in June and they’ve now released their recommended options.…

Yesterday was a dramatic day for light-rail watchers, with a number of developments. The Mayor prefers light rail on the surface Mayor Wayne Brown shared his thoughts on light rail with Oliver Lewis at Business Desk, and he seems to nail almost every issue with the project so far, and the trade-offs involved.…

Yesterday the Prime Minister laid out the next tranche of plans to scale back the ambition of Labour’s policy/delivery programme – and this time the Auckland light rail project gets a mention. “I can also confirm today that we will roll out transport projects in Auckland in stages.…

Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects.…

Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever“, and a few things stood out. Here’s a snippet: However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of Auckland light rail, especially as the cost is expected to further increase according to Treasury’s Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update.…

Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as with then, it’s unclear yet what projects will be reined in.…

Tomorrow the Mayor and government ministers will find out just how much more the City Rail Link will cost and how much longer it will take to deliver. While they’re discovering that, it would pay for them to cast their minds to what impacts the factors behind those changes will have on Auckland’s other big rail project – light rail – and whether now is the time to change course for a cheaper and better alternative.…

This is a guest post by Simon Lyall. It was originally published on his blog. Background In late January 2022 the government announced that it was building a $15 billion light rail line from the Airport to the City Center via Mount Roskill.…