July 21, 2015
Mayor’s timetable faster than minister’s
The last diesel train was taken off Auckland’s commuter rail network yesterday, and Mayor Len Brown says the public take-up of the electric service will transform the city’s roads.
He says a 22 percent patronage increase over the past year means 200,000 fewer car trips every month, and less gridlock on the roads.
The council put up rates so it can start work on the rail loop under the city, which will halve the time it takes a train to come in from Henderson to the centre.
The government has refused to make a contribution until at least 2020 because it says there needs to be 20 million rail users on the network to prove it is viable.
Mr Brown says on current growth that should happen in 2017, and he wants building to be well underway by then.
"I will be saying to the Transport Minister, Simon Bridges, and to the Prime Minister that we are not only going to beat your target by three years but the real problem we do have is that we are going to end up with gridlock at Britomart because we can only get 20 trains an hour into Britomart." he says.
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