People queued up waiting for a bus to arrive on Wellesley Street Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
Labour has sought to defend its track record at a transport debate in Auckland, but spoke more about what it plans to do than its achievements.
Hosted by transport advocacy groups, the debate at Mt Eden War Memorial Hall on Thursday night saw each party set out their priorities.
Labour's David Parker said public transport was important in the main cities but roads were needed in the regions.
"The northwestern busway, in my opinion, is the most important public transport system coming off the block next," he said.
"The CRL is hugely important. It's also massively expensive, it has over $5 billion. And I agree with other speakers who say that we can't afford huge projects like that every day of the week. And in respect of the massive projects like that, you do actually have to sequence them."
(File photo) Labour's Transport spokesperson David Parker Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
He said State Highway 16 served as a good example of how building more motorway lanes would not solve traffic congestion.
"We have an eight-lane highway in the inner reaches of State Highway 16 and out further it's six lanes a long, long, long, long way down the road - and yet it was already congesting."
He said "smarter forms of road pricing" were also needed, like some use of toll roading.
Simeon Brown, National's MP for Pakuranga and transport spokesperson, said they were the party of delivery when it came to transport.
"We are the party which delivered the electrification of the Auckland rail network, we're the party which started construction on the City Rail Link, we're the party which has also built a significant number of roading connections around our regions to connect New Zealand more productively and efficiently so that people and goods can move around our country."
Brown also attacked Labour's record on light rail.
National's Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"Six years on, this government hasn't delivered when it comes to transport. Six years of talk, $155 million spent on Auckland light rail, yet here we are on Dominion Road, and there's still nothing going down Dominion Road.
"We will scrap the Auckland light rail project - it's not a project we support. What we will deliver is integrated bus rapid transit delivery around Auckland, including the northwestern busway, completing the Eastern busway all the way to Botany and the airport-to-Botany busway as well, which will connect the airport through to the heavy rail at Puhinui."
He also committed to progressing congestion charging in the city.
Ricardo Menéndez March, a current list MP from the Green Party, called for a long-term holistic approach was needed.
"We are spending billions and billions on wanting to set up expensive roading projects also spending far too much on maintenance because we haven't built in the public transport infrastructure, and the public transport infrastructure that we're building particularly major rail projects in the city of Auckland, we ended up choosing the most expensive and actually climate intensive options," he said.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
He said the Greens wanted a "series of interventions" to support people who still needed to drive while also lowering barriers to public transport use.
"Rather than doing underground light rail, we would do surface light rail, which is far cheaper, it would be delivered far sooner, and it allows us to build alongside it better walking and cycling infrastructure."
ACT's Simon Court - a sitting list MP - said New Zealand had too little revenue to pay for the things it needed, "and because our infrastructure hasn't kept up whether it's public transport to get people to and from home, work, uni, wherever they're going, as well as our roading infrastructure. It means that Auckland's productivity has dropped significantly".
He said a wholesale shift away from fuel excise tax and towards toll roads was needed.
ACT's Transport spokesperson Simon Court Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
"It's got to happen in the next five years, there's going to be a huge surge of EVs and hybrids coming to New Zealand. That means hybrid diesel trucks and buses as well, we're going to have to find another way to fund the roads. So let's look at paying as you go."
NZ First's attendee David Wilson - a former chief executive running in Upper Harbour - said the party was committed to bringing back rail, and talked up the policy of a new drydock at Northport.
"[That] would allow us to service our inter-island ferries, larger naval vessels, and increase our capacity in coastal shipping," he said.
"We're really committed to a multimodal integrated transport system, especially for our logistics to increase our productivity and increase our ability to connect with one another. We live on a long, skinny nation with challenging terrain and geology, and a massive ocean highway. So for our productivity, sustainability and resilience, we need a multimodal approach."
Te Pāti Māori was invited but did not attend.
