Light Rail: The State Is Back

30 comments on “Light Rail: The State Is Back ”

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1. Ad 1

   31 January 2022 at 10:33 am

   Apologies editors: First para, second sentence should read:

   "The disaggregated state has been camouflaged by COVID. The front line workers and the entire public service delivered us all the magic of time."
   • weka 1.1

     31 January 2022 at 10:37 am

     changed it. Is that right now?
     • Ad 1.1.1

       31 January 2022 at 11:07 am

       Cheers
2. Robert Guyton 2

   31 January 2022 at 10:46 am

   Excellent!
3. Patricia Bremner 3

   31 January 2022 at 10:58 am

   What an uplifting post. Thank you Ad. We have a gem in Megan Wood. The intention of integrated planning is wonderful and breathtaking in scale. We need the third term to allow this to be cemented in. This is the visual of the planning and once the tunneling begins we can all be proud of this.
4. McFlock 4

   31 January 2022 at 11:43 am

   Interesting. I really like the coordination between policy sectors that this post illustrates.
5. Stephen D 5

   31 January 2022 at 11:57 am

   One wonders how much of the failure to deliver over the last 30/40 years has been down to the philosophy of the civil service.
   • Nordy 5.1

     31 January 2022 at 12:30 pm

     The 'philosophy' of the public service is whatever the philosophy of the govt of the day is.

     The 'reforms of the late 1980s and 90s made sure of that that. To not understand that is to completely miss the point of the neo-liberal reforms.
     • Ad 5.1.1

       31 January 2022 at 1:25 pm

       Actually it's the reverse of what you claim:

       All NZ's major infrastructure projects – including housing super-suburbs – are now of a scale that they require multiple governments to implement.

       The state precisely through the 1980s restructures have evolved a set of institutions and contract forms that endure beyond any change of government. Has some downsides, but it locks in delivery at a scale we've not done since Think Big.
       • Nordy 5.1.1.1

         31 January 2022 at 1:47 pm

         Wishful thinking, but not so. The institutions you refer to are not a creation of the reforms, rather they exist despite the reforms.
         • Ad 5.1.1.1.1

           31 January 2022 at 1:59 pm

           If the reforms hadn't occurred, in the major developments you would not have had commercial structures to enable:

           (in transport)

           – City Rail Link alliance

           – Transmission Gully PPP

           – Northern Gateway alliance

           – Waikato Expressway alliances

           (in housing):

           – Hobsonville

           – Cannon's Creek

           – Pt England, Mt Roskill, Oranga, Mangere, Mt Albert

           – SCIRT including Canterbury rebuilds and Kaikoura rebuilds

           (in health):

           – Te Whanau Waipereira and all the other Maori health NGOs, which have proven useful in a 1-in-100 event

           (in finance)

           – Kiwibank

           – Kiwisaver

           – NZSuperfund

           – All the major projects under Provincial Growth Fund

           All with their own Boards and structures and funding, all delivering on policy outcomes, none but a few of the PGF ones stopped by either Labour or National.
           • Stuart Munro 5.1.1.1.1.1

             31 January 2022 at 2:35 pm

             I cannot speak to all your claims, but the Canterbury rebuild is not a poster child for anything good.

             Delay, obstruction, frank corruption, and shoddy workmansip of fraudulent proportions has been the rule.

             The state need not carry the can for this – it was Brownlee's fief after all. But neither can it celebrate it. How Brownlee remains unimprisoned is a mystery to me.
             • Ad …

               31 January 2022 at 2:42 pm

               Agree and the state taking claimants all the way to the Court of Appeal is damning. The counterfactual is, however:

               What would have happened to Christchurch and northern Canterbury without these entities not being set up?
             • mike …

               31 January 2022 at 4:31 pm

               Quite right. Much of what has happened is in spite of Brownlee.

               Christchurch has three extant heavy railway lines. From the south, the west, and the north. Since the earthquakes refugees have made outlying towns like Rolleston in the south, West Melton out west, and Rangiora in the north grow hugely.

               Not one train exists to bring workers from these sites into town. It’s all cars.

               Post earthquakes Christchurch railway station was pulled down and a miserable suburban station at Addington is supposed to suffice. With the destruction in old Christchurch between Addington and the CBD there was so much empty land a new set of underground tracks could have relatively easily been laid arriving at the same central point that the new bus station now occupies.

               But no! Brownlee hates railways and that particular vision was as far away from him as a greasy mince pie was close.

               No city grows (especially in a climate-change era) without a proper rail system. With a bit of foresight, and based on Wellington’s example, a electrified heavy rail commuter system was a real possibility in Christchurch. Now it’s not.

               Good on the progressive government for grabbing the nettle of light rail to Auckland airport (and surrounding suburbs) – something Christchurch’s sad example shows would never be possible under tories.
               • ghostwhowalksnz …

                 1 February 2022 at 8:27 am

                 CBDs of NZ cities were once manufacturing centres in their own right, with a smaller office core.

                 Auckland that stretched to Newmarket ( breweries ,railway and PO workshops timber yards) and Freemans Bay area and Stanley St the other side.

                 The wharves were large labour users as well as the central railway goods areas.

                 That doesnt exist anymore as the light and medium industry and warehousing is in the vastly expanded suburbs.

                 Transport planning uses software and census data to simulate where people live and work – study etc. The morning peak is then modelled.

                 There just isnt the numbers to make rail; services worthwhile in Christchurch at least ( the old city station is used for other purposes)

                 Its nice to compare with Netherlands rail services but they have 18 mill people in an area of the Canterbury region which has 650,000
             • Descendant Of Smith …

               31 January 2022 at 4:37 pm

               The two standouts for me were not putting an immediate rent cap and freeze on allowing profiteering by landlords which exacerbated the speed of escalating rents around the rest of the country as they realised they could get away with charging lots and the lack of investment in New Zealanders in trades training which should have been kicked off straight away.

               I would have also been happy with a mini-MOW to supplement the private sector.

               There was so much opportunity missed with so much of that money moving overseas instead of circulating in our economy.

               edit: And I also agree with the missed rail opportunity.
6. Gosman 6

   31 January 2022 at 2:58 pm

   It will be dropped at the first opportunity by any incoming non-Green and/or Labour government.
   • McFlock 6.1

     31 January 2022 at 4:40 pm

     Nice for parties to have these policy differences. Gives voters a reason to choose between them.
   • Ad 6.2

     31 January 2022 at 5:18 pm

     National rigorously opposed the City Rail Link for years.

     They came around.
   • ghostwhowalksnz 6.3

     31 January 2022 at 5:22 pm

     Remember the Auckland Holiday highway , contract was let before election in 2017 and the first earthworks began that summer as the new government was finding its way around beehive.

     Hasnt completed yet and yet that was one of nationals RONs promised in 2009-10

     Not sure the airport end makes sense, as seen even with Sydneys rail network the airport terminal stations have very low boardings of pax . Down there like Granville station. Usage figures are hidden in the through traffic as its one of the main lines but they want to be in Central.

     Likely many passengers are just getting from one terminal to other as they are on opposite sides of runway
   • Gypsy 6.4

     31 January 2022 at 6:36 pm

     I sincerely hope so. The light rail proposal is destined to be a high priced white elephant.
   • Muttonbird 6.5

     31 January 2022 at 9:19 pm

     It' be finished by the time that happens.

     Do National and ACT supporters really believe the "train set" to the airport is not necessary because people won't be flying much anymore, and everyone will have a self-driving car in the future?
7. ghostwhowalksnz 7

   31 January 2022 at 5:13 pm

   Dont think Hobsonville was 'state directed' at all.

   Yes the state provided the infrastructure development and the Key government sold off great chunks of serviced land to private developers who reaped the windfall of rising land prices when they built the development of their choice.

   Its actually a direct transfer of public wealth into private hands, was repeated with the state buying up the CBD ring land – 'Frames' in Christchurch through compulsory purchase and then sold in crony capitalism style that Key, English and Joyce loved
   • Ad 7.1

     31 January 2022 at 5:17 pm

     Cabinet directed that it be used as housing.

     HLC was the state vehicle set up to direct it, back in the early 2000s.

     And yes much of it was turned into private title and sold off as housing.
     • ghostwhowalksnz 7.1.1

       1 February 2022 at 8:17 am

       Zoning . Councils do this all the time.

       Hardly a situation of the state deciding much at all.
       • Ad 7.1.1.1

         1 February 2022 at 2:22 pm

         The ARC MUL shift for Hobsonville was not what caused Hobsonville today. Certainly it was a necessary part back in 2005-6, but "zoning" doesn't generate or execute the masterplanned development. Only the state did that.
8. Gypsy 8

   31 January 2022 at 6:44 pm

   "The state at war with itself, the state disaggregated, is what tore the light rail project apart and killed the career of Phil Twyford."

   Not only that. Twyford was just one of a number of hapless ministers (think Curran, Meka Whaitiri, Poto Williams, Kelvin Davis, Iain lees-Galloway) Jacinda Ardern has had to deal with.
   • Dean Reynolds 8.1

     1 February 2022 at 10:13 am

     The National caucus, of course, is brimming with talent
     • Gypsy 8.1.1

       1 February 2022 at 1:29 pm

       The national caucus is not currently trying to run a country. Probably just as well
9. Christopher Randal 9

   2 February 2022 at 1:30 pm

   Readers may be interested in this post from Matt Lowry at Greater Auckland

   https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2022/02/01/sooo-tunnelled-light-rail/

   Is his opprobrium because his group weren't listened to?

   I hear that PTUA is against it as well

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