Subscribe to RSSNorthland Rail Upgrade Supported
The ARC’s transport committee is keen to see the Northland rail link kept open and upgraded - and supports a roading upgrade between Puhoi and Wellsford.
The Northern regional council has put forward its 30 year strategy plan and invited the ARC committee to comment on it.
The Northland strategy sees improved rail connections for freight to Auckland and to the Marsden Point, allowing more freight to access these routes and reduce truck movements.
Their report makes no provision for passenger rail services, apart from a small tourist service between Kawakawa and Port of Opua.
Commenting on that, the ARC committee said it considered the North Auckland rail link an important part of the connection between the two regions.
It supported the Northland proposal to investigate the possibility of upgrading the line and identifying freight, which could be moved by rail instead of road.
The committee also supported the priority given to improving the stretch of SH1 between Puhoi and Whangarei.
It considered the form of road improvement, whether motorway, expressway or highway upgrade, should be an outcome of strategic studies being done and “should not be predetermined.”
The committee also noted that “as well as the section between Puhoi and Wellsford identified in the government policy statement on transport funding, the draft NRLTS identifies issues at Brynderwyn Hills, where land slips frequently threaten the road and at Te Hana, where a single bridge spanning the Te Hana creek could be placed at risk, effectively severing the road network between north and south.”
8 Comments
“It considered the form of road improvement, whether motorway, expressway or highway upgrade, should be an outcome of strategic studies being done and “should not be predetermined.””
What, actually udertake a study to find the most appropriate form of improvement rather than just build what takes your fancy?! Don’t tell Steven ‘RONS’ Joyce that!
I don’t believe that the Marsden Point Branch will get built until there are container cranes in place and container ships are using the port. It’s something that’s been talked about for years. The main event that could possibly trigger this, is the advent of the “Superships” on the New Zealand run apparently.
it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. not enough containers come out of Northland to justify building a container terminal so they need traffic from Auckland to make it work. However they cant do this without a rail line.
Even a motorway all the way to Whangarei would not cope with handling Aucklands 800,000 containers per year.
However no-one is going to build a rail line unless there is a guarantee of substantial traffic.
Port of Tauranga built a container terminal in 1992, but didnt really receive any traffic until they started metroport in 1999. Now they are NZ’s second biggest container terminal. So there is a precedent for Marsden Point there.
Freight on rail to the north and from the north would be such a positive for both roads and rail.
Nick R - They do heaps of studies on roads and alternatives, they may not be read once produced but the study has been done…:)
Really Joshua? This whole ‘holiday highway’ things seems to be done backwards, the government says ‘build a motorway here’ and NZTA scramble off to try and make it work.
They never seemed to say ‘show me an evaluation of the best way to improve this corridor’.
Just a curiosity -the Te Hana bridge thing is bizarre.
“…where a single bridge spanning the Te Hana creek could be placed at risk, effectively severing the road network between north and south.”
Except a cursory glance at a roadmap shows this to be untrue. There are alternative road routes linking north and south of Te Hana (via Te Arai and Hakaru). No more than 15km as a bypass is not convenient, but is hardly ‘severing the link’, especially as most traffic though that route is already going distances over 100km.
Sounds like another unchallenged b*llshit justification for an extra bridge to be built. The road builders will love the extra profit.
Northland needs better roads, and better rail as well as shipping. It is the forgotten region of New Zealand. Just because the council want the road link upgraded, is not bad, the reality is most people in Northland will use a car as rail does not go near a lot of the places where people live.