Another billion added to the CRL’s bottom line is deepening Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s financial woes, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
One year longer, one billion more expensive
If there’s one thing Auckland Council doesn’t need right now, it’s another big bill. Unfortunately that’s exactly what it got on Wednesday when the City Rail Link (CRL) announced a $1 billion funding blowout. The projected completion date is also being pushed out a year, to November 2025. Construction costs for the CRL are split 50/50 between council and central government; Mayor Wayne Brown said he believes the council deserved a better deal. “I’ll be going to the government and saying, ‘Listen here mate, we didn’t have 50% of the decision making’,” he told RNZ’s Morning Report. “The people that made the decision were from Wellington and inexperienced in my view.” The CRL cost increase is primarily a Covid after-effect, CEO Sean Sweeney said, noting that “in Auckland we endured two level four lockdowns, a further 280 days of restricted working conditions and we lost 3.2 million hours through illness among staff.” CRL’s estimated cost now stands at $5.493 billion.
Light Rail is another transport headache
The city’s other big transport project, Auckland Light Rail, got a brief mention in prime minister Chris Hipkins’ reprioritisation announcement on Monday: the project will now be delivered in stages, he said. On the transport blog Greater Auckland, Matt Lowrie said the real issue is the government’s insistence on starting with “an isthmus-spanning tunnel that will take a decade or more, and billions of dollars, to deliver”. Light rail should start with a “surface solution now, with the ability to add a tunnel in the future,” he argued, adding: “Had this government not been distracted by tunnel fantasies, the first stage of Auckland Light Rail would be up and running by now.” I must admit I hadn’t fully realised how much of the track will run underground – although, in my defence, much of the project’s concept imagery does seem to show trains running along city streets. In fact, under current plans, the track will run underground all the way to Mt Roskill, where trains will emerge to run overland along SH20 to the airport.
Public transport woes a national issue
March is the busiest month for public transport, and the stresses are worse than usual this year. Auckland Transport has been criticised for asking passengers to avoid peak hours – otherwise known as the times of day when people have to travel to and from work and school. From Monday, five Eastern Line train stations will be closed until January 2024, while bus services continue to struggle from severe driver shortages. AT will increase public transport fares by about 6.5% from April 2, it announced this week. The fare rise, the first since 2021, will add “no more than 20 cents per journey while half price fares remain in place”, AT interim chief executive Mark Lambert said.
Bus services are struggling in other cities too. Wellington saw 165 cancellations on a single day earlier this month and the region is short about 125 bus drivers. In February, The Press reported that 15,000 bus trips had been cancelled throughout greater Christchurch in the previous four months, an average of 127 a day.
A budget at breaking point
The CRL blowout will put further pressure on Auckland Council as it tries to fill the forecast $295 million hole in its budget. In a frank and wide-ranging interview with Tim Murphy of Newsroom, Maurice Williamson – the councillor leading the charge on cost-cutting – said there would likely be a substantial cut in council staff, especially among the higher-paid ranks, followed by a “steel lid” on employee numbers. Asked on Morning Report how many roles would be cut, Wayne Brown was blunt: “Every person should be concerned.”