Today, most kids travel to school stuck in the backseat of a car, creating congestion and pollution in our cities. Safety is the number one concern that stops parents from sending their child to school on foot or by bike. When parents wave goodbye to their child in the morning they should know they’re going to be safe when riding their bike or walking with their friends to school. Kids walking, biking or riding their scooter to school are healthier,...

The Green Party is setting a target to get half of New Zealand’s freight moving by rail and sea within 10 years, which will dramatically reduce the number of dangerous trucks clogging up New Zealand’s roads. Instead of demanding that rail return a profit, which has set rail up to fail, we’ll fund it from the transport budget in the same way roads are, providing the investment needed to move freight in the most effective and clean way. Every year,...

The Government needs to vastly improve Auckland's public transport before it introduces tolls on Auckland's roads, or it risks further punishing people who live on the edge of the city, the Green Party said today. Finance Minister Steven Joyce today announced that the Government and Auckland Council are investigating road tolls in Auckland to manage demand on the roads. “Aucklanders need to have access to reliable, fast, affordable trains and buses before road pricing is introduced to discourage people driving...

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...