Commuter "race" a winner for train passengers

The Green Party's Waikanae to Wellington commuter "race" during Friday morning's rush-hour saw the train passenger beat the car driver by more than five minutes.

Green Party transport spokesperson Sue Kedgley said the event, part of the party's Transport Policy launch, showed that one answer to the Wellington region's - and the country's - transport problems lay in better public transport.

Ms Kedgley said Green Otaki candidate Gary Williams caught the Capital Connection rail service from Waikanae to Wellington then walked up to Parliament and arrived more than five minutes before Mana candidate Robert Shaw who did the same trip by car.

The growth in vehicle numbers on the coastal highway into Wellington had greatly increased congestion and the solution was not more roads. More roads simply increased the amount of traffic, leading inevitably to more congestion, she said.

The Greens proposed a $100 million yearly spend on public transport initiatives such as light rail, bus-only lanes, integrated ticketing systems, park and ride and other ways of making public transport more convenient and attractive.

"Unless we invest in alternative transport options, all our cities will become gridlocked, and so less prosperous and less liveable."

Ms Kedgley said public transport had been the poor cousin in transport funding for far too long. Only 5% or $48 million out of Transfund's $900 million budget was allocated to public transport.

The Greens would introduce a Road Traffic Reduction Act similar to that passed in the United Kingdom.