Transport Minister Simon Bridges needs to clarify his position and order an independent review into KiwRail’s decision to replace electric freight trains with unreliable diesel trains, the Green Party said today On Friday Simon Bridges conceded that "there is an avenue down the line for different decisions to be made…” This followed the release of internal KiwiRail reports showing that new diesel trains could cost $230 million more than upgrading the electric fleet, and raising concerns about their reliability. “It’s...

Simon Bridges needs to immediately halt plans to scrap New Zealand's electric freight trains following the release of KiwiRail reports raising major concerns about the diesel trains the State Owned Enterprise intends to buy, the Green Party said today. Documents provided to the Green Party show that KiwiRail bosses decided to scrap New Zealand's electric trains in December last year, despite being told their diesel replacements could cost $230 million more than simply upgrading the existing electric fleet. KiwiRail were...

Increased infrastructure spending must focus on the best ways to fix the housing and transport problems in Auckland, not just a few more expensive and ineffective highways, the Green Party said today. “The most serious infrastructure problems Auckland faces are in transport and housing, and National has spent the last nine years showing that they have no idea how to fix either of them,” Green Party Auckland Issues spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said. “The full trains and overflowing buses every...

The announcement that Auckland’s Northern Busway will be upgraded to rail is a huge win for the Greens’ campaign to get rail to the Shore, but Aucklanders shouldn’t have to wait 30 years for it to happen, the Green Party said today. National’s Auckland transport strategy says a second harbour crossing won’t happen for another 20 to 30 years, but a recent Auckland Transport (AT) study released under the OIA shows parts of the Northern Busway will face overcrowding and...

A Green government would immediately halt Simon Bridges’ eye-wateringly expensive motorway expansion between Warkworth and Wellsford and redirect funding to high-value projects like rail to Mount Roskill or the North Shore, the Green Party said today. Government answers to written questions show the Warkworth to Wellsford motorway is now estimated to cost between $1.4 and $1.9 billion with a Benefit Cost Ratio of 0.25. When it was originally proposed in 2009 the 24km motorway extension was expected to cost $494...

Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter is grateful for having had the opportunity to talk to thousands of Aucklanders about making their city even better and even greener, during the Mt Albert by-election campaign.

The Green Party would look at extending the electric rail line and commuter trains north of Waikanae to improve access to Wellington and relieve congestion around Ōtaki and Levin, instead of building more monster motorways. Transport Minister Simon Bridges mooted the idea yesterday of extending the already $2 billion Wellington Northern Corridor motorway north of Otaki ­– an area which already suffers from severe car and truck congestion. “We need to look at all the options to relieve congestion in...

KiwiRail’s plan to replace its electric locomotives with a dirty diesel-powered fleet is backwards and bad news for New Zealand, the Green Party said today. The Green Party understands that KiwiRail will today announce a plan to phase out its 16 electric locomotives responsible for freight between Hamilton and Palmerston North. The electric locomotives will be replaced with Chinese-made diesel locomotives. “We are very disappointed by KiwiRail’s decision to abandon our electric freight trains and infrastructure. Many New Zealanders will...

Simon Bridges needs to commit to fully funding light rail to Auckland’s airport and North Shore to break the city’s traffic gridlock, the Green Party said today. A NZ Transport Agency briefing obtained by the Green Party shows the Government is considering fully funding major public transport projects in Auckland as it currently does with major motorway projects. The briefing identified light rail to the airport and North Shore as projects that could be 100 percent funded by central government....

National’s gold-plated Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway will suck good money away from more valuable, worthwhile transport projects in Auckland and Northland for decades to come, the Green Party said today. Transport Minister Simon Bridges announced today that work will finally start on its so-called Road of National Significance from Pūhoi to Warkworth, 18 kilometres of motorway with a benefit cost ratio of just 1.1 to 1.2. “This motorway won't do anything to help Northland, it just sucks up funding for...