What comes first, the $21 billion rail network expansion, or\u00a0moving Auckland\u2019s port?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of the big unknowns in the 30-year vision of KiwiRail, supported by Auckland Transport which it’s promoting to interest groups.<\/p>\n
Rather than settling for pressing on with\u00a0ad-hoc upgrades and fixes, the state-owned rail company is trying to build interest in\u00a0an ideal network of the future.<\/p>\n
Parts locked in already include connecting the downtown City Rail Link, twin 3.5km tunnels to Auckland\u2019s suburban rail network and additional tracks on the southern line.<\/p>\n
But a prized project is\u00a0a line between Southdown and Avondale, on land KiwiRail has owned for decades, when thoughts were afoot of building a new port at the Te Atatu Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Southdown to Avondale is now seen as a way to extend the North Island Main Trunk line through the west of Auckland, and up into Northland, leaving the more central lines clearer for passenger rail.<\/p>\n
The case for the estimated $6b line would need much higher freight volumes, (though it could also have a passenger role) which would basically come from any decision to relocate Auckland\u2019s port trade to Northport.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s another debate which always feels as though it\u2019s getting closer to conclusion, but has defied several rounds of major studies over the past decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What comes first, the $21 billion rail network expansion, or\u00a0moving Auckland\u2019s port? It\u2019s one of the big unknowns in the 30-year vision of KiwiRail, supported b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}