Greens challenge Dunne on Wellington transport
green-party
Fri May 25 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Greens challenge Dunne on Wellington transport
Friday, 25 May 2007, 1:32 pm
Press Release: Green Party
25 May 2007
Greens challenge Dunne on Wellington transport needs
The Green Party says it is astounded by Peter Dunne's assertion that there is no need for additional funding via a regional fuel tax for public transport in the Wellington region.
"The wheels are falling off our trains, poles are rotting, our infrastructure is crumbling, we are getting train carriages out of museums, and commuters are fed up with over-crowded, cancelled and irregular services," Green MP and Wellington Transport Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.
"The Regional Council is trying its best to respond to the decades of deferred maintenance and failure to invest in our public transport infrastructure, but additional money from a regional fuel tax is urgently needed if we are to transform our rundown suburban rail network into a fast, efficient mass transit system.
"For example, we need additional funding to increase peak hour trains to 10 minute frequencies, to double track from Pukerua Bay to Paekakariki, to improve capacity at the entrance to the Wellington railway station, to electrify the network up to Otaki and the Wairarapa and to purchase more train carriages and 80 new buses to meet future demand.
"The Hutt rail corridor is desperately in need of upgrading and an increase in frequency of train services. The Wellington City Council is seeking additional funding from the region for bus priority lanes in Wellington, which are also urgent.
"And we need to plan for light rail from Johnsonville and the Melling and Waterloo lines through to the airport if we are to develop a world class public transport system in Wellington.
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"At present the rail network stops at the entrance to the city and needs to be extended through the CBD and eventually to the airport.
"If we did all this we could get many more thousands of people to commute by rail which would go a long way towards eliminating congestion on the Western corridor," Ms Kedgley says.
"The Regional Council openly admits that if there was a surge in demand for public transport as a result of increased oil prices, as happened last year, our network simply could not cope.
A recent Regional Council survey found that Wellingtonians are overwhelmingly in favour of investing in their public transport network.
ENDS
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