Rail electrification

For the past 50 years, each generation of Aucklanders has wavered on the brink of electrifying the region's rail system. Debate about the need for a rapid transit system raged in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s, before the rail network began to suffer from long-term neglect and the number of train passengers dwindled to the point that the viability of commuter trains was questioned altogether.

But in the past five years, as road congestion has really started to bite, Aucklanders have started to take to their trains. And, once again, Auckland has quickly come back to the brink in the great electrification debate.

This time, though, both local and central government agree that Auckland should have electric trains.

For 100 years, coping with Auckland's growth has been a relentless headache. By the 1940s the major arterial roads - the Great North and Great South Roads - were unable to cope with the traffic volumes. Back then, the advice was that the burgeoning metropolis was likely to reach a maximum population of 600,000 people.

Today, the Auckland region has 1.3 million people. In another 25 years, close to 40% of New Zealanders will be living in Auckland, and by 2050 Auckland is likely to be home to 2 million people. The Auckland Regional Council believes the time to electrify is now, because the region's transport system must be to be able to cope.

Electric trains and a regional fuel tax, and other public transport improvements

Auckland could have an electric rail system within five years. It would be a key element of a region wide network with better bus and ferry services. People would get around on one smartcard ticket.

A key question asked in the ARC's Draft Annual Plan 2008/09 is whether the Council should raise significant loans, to be repaid over 30 years using a proposed new regional fuel tax of five cents a litre.

Legislation proposing regional fuel taxes has been introduced to Parliament.

Despite uncertainties around the final detail of the law, the Council has decided to ask for public feedback as part of its Draft Annual Plan 2008/09 process in anticipation that once the legislation is passed, the Council will have the support to submit a regional fuel tax scheme to the Government.

The ARC envisages that a regional fuel tax of five cents per litre would be required to pay for new electric trains, the upgrade of other rolling stock, above track infrastructure development including rail stations and maintenance facilities, ferry terminal upgrades and other transport infrastructure including integrated smartcard ticketing.

This would enable the Council to fund significant improvements to public transport services across the region from rates and distributions from Auckland Regional Holdings. The net result is the following package of public transport improvements:

Trains:

• Electric train services commencing when ONTRACK has electrified the rail network, ideally the bulk of it by 2011 and completed in 2013
• Large modern stations at Newmarket and New Lynn, and new stations at Parnell, Park Rd (near Auckland Hospital), Drury, Huapai, and Waimauku
• Station upgrades at Avondale, Baldwin Ave, Mt Albert, Remuera, Greenlane, Penrose, Otahuhu, Te Mahia, Takanini, Waitakere, Pukekohe and Helensville
• Trial commuter service from to and from Helensville from 2008
• Four or more trains per hour at peak times across the current suburban network from July 2008
• Re-opening the Onehunga branch line for passenger services in 2009
• Increased services to Pukekohe from 2009
• Six or more trains per hour at peak times on western, southern and eastern lines from mid-2010
• Late night train services during the week after 10pm from Feb 2009, and after 11pm in 2011
• Manukau rail link open by July 2010 with six trains per hour at peak times
  
  

Buses:

• Development of a transit network of frequent, high-quality services on key bus corridors linking regional and local centres
• Improved bus services between Auckland airport and the CBD, and a new service from Manukau City, supported by train connections, from mid-2008
• Improved services to Flat Bush, Highbrook, Hobsonville and Mt Wellington from 2008 onwards
• Improved western bus services and connections with trains, including creating quality transit network links along Great North Rd and Lincoln Rd, and links to the CBD and North Shore from late 2008 onwards 
• A comprehensive upgrade of isthmus bus services, including quality transit network links along Manukau Rd, Dominion Rd, Mt Eden Rd, Tamaki Drive, New North Rd, and Sandringham Rd from 2008 to 2010
• More cross-town services throughout the region from mid-2009
• Improved southern and eastern bus services and connections with trains from late 2008, with comprehensive improvements to southern bus services from late 2009, including quality transit network links along the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway
• Improved Waiheke bus and ferry feeder services from 2010.

Ferries:

• Improvements to passenger facilities and additional services at Half Moon Bay in 2008
• More frequent services to Pine Harbour from mid-2008
• More frequent services to West Harbour from 2008 and Gulf Harbour from 2009
• A new ferry wharf and ferry services for Beach Haven from early 2009
• More frequent services to Stanley Bay from 2009/10
• New ferry terminal at Bayswater to open early 2010, with more frequent services to Bayswater and Birkenhead
• More frequent evening and weekend services to Devonport from 2008
• Ferry terminal upgrades at Downtown, Half Moon Bay, Birkenhead, Stanley Bay, West Harbour and Gulf Harbour
• Ferry services from Hobsonville via Beach Haven from March 2010.
  

Other improvements:

• A simpler fare structure for buses and trains by 2009/10
• Integrated smartcard ticketing by late 2010
• Real time public transport information available across the region by late 2010
• Offering every school the opportunity to develop a travel plan by 2014, and increasing support for school bus services and walking school buses
• Ongoing increases for the Total Mobility Scheme for people with disabilities, and concession fares for children, students and senior citizens.
  

The draft legislation allows the Government to collect a further five cents per litre in Auckland to fund its share of electrification and for roading, but this is not canvassed in the Draft Annual Plan 2008/09 as this decision does not lay with the ARC.

The Draft Annual Plan 2008/09 will be available to the public and open for submissions on 2 April. A summary of the document will be delivered to Auckland households at the same time.

Submissions will be open for a month. Public hearings will be held in late May and early June. The Council will then consider all submissions before adopting the final Annual Plan 2008/09.

Why electrify the system now?

• Auckland's aging diesel train fleet must be replaced. Rail assets cost a lot of money, but they last a long time - 30 years or more. The Auckland Regional Transport Authority has established that electric trains will be cheaper to run long-term. Around the world, cities with high-frequency metropolitan passenger rail services use electric trains. Electric trains are quieter, faster between stations and more environmentally-friendly.
• The region must take decisive action to combat road congestion. The current transport system relies disproportionately on private cars, while rail corridors are significantly under-utilised. Road congestion is not only inconvenient for commuters, it constrains the economy by slowing business traffic and freight. Auckland's expected population growth means another 195,000 vehicles could be on the region's roads within a decade. The country is also spending a lot of money completing Auckland's motorway network. To cope with growth and to maximise the benefits of those new roads, public transport must perform better and carry more people.
• Aucklanders are already getting behind rail, and the region needs a rail system that allows this trend to continue. As a result of service frequency improvements and upgraded rolling stock, infrastructure and stations, rail patronage in Auckland has increased from 2.5 million journeys per annum in 2003 to 5.7 million in 2006-07. Rail is extremely efficient at moving people. By 2030, 30,000 commuters could be travelling by rail to the CBD and across the region in the morning peak. Moving the same number of people by car would require around 120 kilometres of extra arterial road and motorway lanes costing at least $3.5 billion.
• Good-quality public transport creates agglomeration benefits including more jobs and greater development in the CBD. And when public transport is visibly "permanent" it facilitates urban renewal. This phenomenon is highly visible along Sydney and Melbourne rail corridors and is beginning to occur in Brisbane.

The quantified economic benefits generated by the Rail Upgrade accrue from four main sources (as required by the Land Transport NZ Project Evaluation Manual):

Benefits to road users:

Travel time and congestion costs savings to road users from fewer people using their cars especially in the peak periods.

Benefits to Passenger Transport users:

Savings in travel time, improved reliability, improved vehicle quality, benefits to new passengers to rail, increased rail revenue.

Indirect transport benefits:

Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, reduced accidents, improved local air quality, reduced noise pollution, reduced urban sprawl and the "hidden" cost of motoring such as land used for roads and parking, severance and social costs of energy use.

Agglomeration benefits:

Benefits from intensification of economic activity in the Auckland CBD including deeper, more efficient labour markets, better links between suppliers and markets, and increased opportunities for knowledge sharing.

Source: ARTA's Rail Development Plan

What does electrification involve?

The plan is electrify the rail system between the CBD and Papakura in the south and Swanson in the west. Trains would be powered by 25 Kva overhead wires.

Electrification would be a joint project between central and local government. The Auckland Regional Council needs to fund the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to buy electric trains and to operate services, and to provide stabling and maintenance facilities for the electric fleet. ONTRACK is responsible for providing the overhead wiring, as well as necessary track and signalling upgrades.

Find more at www.projectdart.org.nz

Preliminary work has already begun to allow for electrification of the system by 2013. However, it may be possible to have some electric trains running in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

Why a regional fuel tax?

In May 2007, the New Zealand Government announced its support for electrification of the Auckland network, with funding for the development to be provided via a regional fuel tax.

The Land Transport Management Amendment Bill 2007 tabled in Parliament in October provides for regional fuel taxes to assist transport infrastructure construction. This Bill is now being considered by a select committee, which is expected to report back in May.

This followed significant public consultation during the development of the Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy (2005) and ARC's 10-year Long-Term Council Community Plan 2006-16. There is a large funding gap between what the strategy and what the region can afford. ARC would have had to raise rates by 17% each year for a decade to bridge the difference, and this would be unaffordable.