NZ intercity rail: a conscious break with the past

Today it was reported that the Green Party is promoting investing $9 billion in a major expansion of New Zealand's rail transport capacity to shift the balance of intercity transport from a road-dominated approach towards a mix of road and rail as is commonplace in all the European democracies we conventionally compare ourselves with. This would see electrification of tracks to expand passenger rail networks out from the three main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next 10 years. It would in effect reconstruct the rail network that connected New Zealand for a century, but was allowed to wither by successive administrations in favour of a strong policy preference for roading projects and prioritising commuting by private vehicle. It would also build a rail network capable of delivering much higher speeds than the present outdated, congested network, which would in turn allow much faster intercity rail journeys.

While in recent years New Zealand has often forgotten how to invest in long-term infrastructure, we only have to look at the Vogel administration of the 1870s that borrowed heavily to build the railway networks that engineered regional growth across the country for the next 75 years. Or the hydro schemes that broke the back of the post-war energy crisis and inadvertently gave us a largely sustainable energy source. While the Green proposal is a big-ticket vision and as with all such things, a Parliamentary majority is required to implement it, it's noteworthy that all three parties of the current Government are pro-rail to a greater or lesser extent. National's transport policy is the only outlier.

And the spending doesn't all come at once: the it would be spread over 10 or even 20 years, which is a realistic goal for implementation given the scale of the projects. It's about making a conscious break from the car- and truck-centred transportation bias of all recent transport policy, and saying there's actually a better way to move people and goods. And that way makes more sense both environmentally and financially. It doesn't change people's right to own and operate personal vehicles; it just says we won't continue to choose the congestion and pollution of the outdated transport planning of the past.

Yes it's a lot of money, but so was the previous Government's Roads of National Significance policy, which delivered decidedly mixed results for its very substantial expenditure and was supported by dubious cost-benefit modelling. This rail proposal is one of the ways we can reshape our infrastructure and economy to move past fossil fuels. It will also help the people who are desperate to stay in their own cars, because it will alleviate congestion. And the end result would be being able to take the train between Auckland and Wellington rather than fly; I know which mode of transport I'd prefer.

See also:

History: The break of gauge, 14 January 2014

History: The old Western Hutt line, 10 October 2013

History: Take the 'A' train, 10 October 2009