Article: NZ to spend $36bn on transport projects

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NZ to spend $36bn on transport projects

NZ to spend $36bn on transport projects
by Rail Express — last modified Aug 03, 2011 10:31 AM
— filed under: Weekly Top Stories, Rail

The New Zealand Government has announced plans to invest NZ$36bn in transport projects over the next 10 years through the National Land Transport Fund.
 
NZ to spend $36bn on transport projects

Courtesy of KiwiRail

The fund earmarks NZ$1.5bn for the development of Auckland's metro rail system. This includes NZ$600m for project DART – the most significant redevelopment of Auckland's rail network since the 1980s – NZ$500m for infrastructure required to support electrification of the network, and $500m loan funding for the purchase of electric trains.

The fund also sees NZ$400m to be spent on Wellington's metro rail upgrade, including double tracking to Waikanae and the purchase of 48 new two-car Matangi trains, and NZ$88.4m for upgrades to Wellington's metro rail network as part of a funding and ownership package with the Greater Wellington Regional Council  (see previous report).

NZ transport minister Steven Joyce said the majority of the government's spend on public transport infrastructure had been made outside the National Land Transport Fund.

To date, this has totalled more than NZ$2bn in crown appropriations for urban rail passenger transport, including NZ$1.6bn for Auckland and NZ$485m for Wellington.

Together, the investments are the most significant to be undertaken since the Ganz Mavag Trains were introduced in Wellington in the late 1970s.

"Taken together, the National Land Transport Fund investments and the parallel rail investments we are a making are a huge investment in transport for a country of NZ's size," Joyce said.

The investment plans are contained in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport Funding 2012/13-2021/22 (GPS 2012) which sets out the government's priorities for expenditure from the National Land Transport Fund over the next 10 years. Between NZ$750m and NZ$1.1bn would be available for public transport during this period.

Joyce will be releasing a summary of the government's overall policy direction for NZ's transport sector next month.

[somebody]

When I was in NZ there was some commentator saying effectively: "The answer is monorail."  Doh!