Simon Bridges promises to axe Super Fund light rail project
Tuesday, 22 October 2019
National Leader Simon Bridges would pull out of a controversial plan put forward by the NZ Super Fund to build light rail in Auckland if he wins the next election.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford is currently looking at the NZ Infra plan alongside a counter-proposal from the NZ Transport Agency with a view to selecting a winning proposal early next year.
The final decision will be made by Cabinet.
But Bridges confirmed he would pull out of the project if the Government had not signed off on it by the election.
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On Tuesday, Stuff revealed details of the secretive bid by the super fund, made under the name of NZ Infra, a joint-venture comprising the NZ Super Fund and a Canadian pension fund.
The proposal, which has since been updated, includes tunnels under Queen Street, and long raised sections, probably over Mt Eden, and far fewer stations than previous light rail proposals for Auckland.
Bridges' comments put the proposal in serious doubt under a future National-led Government.
On Monday, NZ First Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones warned of escalating costs and would not commit to any policy on the project after his party's agreement under the current Government expires in 2020.
Bridges supported light rail as Transport Minister, protecting the route to the airport, but it was his view that other Auckland projects should be completed first, so light rail was pushed out into the future.
He said on Tuesday that many of these preferred projects, effectively axed by the current Government, would be brought forward.
'We've got a situation where this Government stopped everything else for this. Its now a shambles we've got a situation where I'll be old, let alone anyone else by the time construction possibly starts,' Bridges said, rubbishing the proposal as a 'slow moving economic train wreck for New Zealanders'.
He called the NZ Infra proposal 'deeply cynical'.
'They're trying to take super profits of a gullible government and they're laughing themselves all the way to the bank,' he said.
Light rail is still relatively popular, 91 per cent of Auckland AA members support light rail it in Auckland.
Twyford today defended the proposal saying it was a 'generational project'.
He said it 'has the potential to deliver for Aucklanders the kind of rapid transit network that Kiwis love when they've travelled to London and and ridden on the tube'.
The speed of the NZ Infra line, which promised trips to the Airport in 30 minutes, would have a dramatic effect on congestion in Auckland.
Twyford rejected allegations of a cost blowout saying that the design process was still being worked through.
While Parliamentarians slogged it out, NZTA quietly launched an investigation into the source of the leak to Stuff.
NZTA board chair Sir Brian Roche said that the agency was ' disappointed that confidential documents related to Auckland light rail have been improperly disclosed. I have commissioned an independent investigation in response.
'Our focus remains on preparing a range of information that we will provide to the Ministry of Transport as part of their assessment process for the City Centre to Māngere Project.
'We are currently consulting with stakeholders to further develop our proposal to assist Government in making their decision early next year about their preferred delivery partner,' he said.