Auckland’s mayor and transport agency have been blindsided by a letter from Rail Minister Winston Peters announcing three new rail stations in southern Auckland will no longer be handed over by the Crown to join the metro network.
Mayor Wayne Brown says the decision, apparently caused by an accounting oversight that could have left the Crown’s books facing an imposition of several hundred million dollars, is “for much the same logic as we’re not having people coming from India” – apparently a reference to New Zealand First party politics.
Brown revealed the ownership issue to councillors at a transport committee meeting, indicating it needed further work and could sit within the requirement of the new Auckland City Deal for proper consultation between the parties.
Peters tells Newsroom the Crown paid for the stations and will keep them. “That is far better than writing off hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds due to buffoonery that was never legally formalised or accounted for.”
He seemed to blame the expectation that the three stations, Drury, Paerātā and Ngākōroa, would become part of Auckland Transport’s owned network in the way of the new City Rail Link stations, on the former Labour government.
“Only a buffoon would pay for something and then give it away, so we tidied up the mess Grant Robertson and Phil Twyford made in 2020.”
He confirmed a peppercorn rental for Auckland Transport “for their public transport use of the stations, as we want a good deal for commuters as well as taxpayers, and the other commercial tenants rent will fund the maintenance and renewal of the stations.”
The CRL stations have been built as part of the joint underground loop project that was paid for by both the Crown and Auckland Council. They are due to open from some time in August.
The three stations to the south have been funded by the Crown to serve expected housing and population growth of an extra 130,000 people between Drury, where a huge development is planned, and Pukekohe over the next 30 years.
Former Labour transport minister Phil Twyford would not dignify Peters’ ‘buffoonery’ comments with a response, but was happy to say he’d been instrumental in getting the stations the green light during the Ardern ministry.
“As Transport Minister at the time I argued for and secured the funding for three railway stations in that Drury-Pukekohe corridor.
“They are essential to support the growth out there and reduce dependence on a clogged southern motorway. I am agnostic about whether Council or Government own them. The important thing is it is vital public investment in the rail network.”
Brown says the late change to plans for the three stations to transfer to Auckland Transport ownership is “unhelpful .. to have stations different to every other station just to solve an accounting issue in Wellington. It has operational impacts.”
Auckland Transport would have expected to be able to raise revenue from the station “but now there’s a squabble over that.”
Transport and infrastructure committee chair Andy Baker, who represents the Franklin ward where some of the facilities sit, said AT might not be able to benefit from revenues that would be expected from stations, with that now expected to return to the Crown’s books.
Each station has hundreds of car parks attached, and the council needed to clarify that the Crown now wanted to keep the entire property footprint at each site.
“They’ve done some research on [the station ownership] and basically that transfer has never been reflected in the Government books and it’s quite a negative impact for them of several hundred million dollars.
“They’ve offered that they retain ownership of the three stations and we basically have a peppercorn rental and they will maintain them. That will go on until 2035 as an end date for that agreement.”
Two of the three stations, part of the relatively recently electrified line from Papakura to Pukekohe, are set to open this year, with work still underway at Ngākōroa after it was delayed by a legal challenge. It should open in 2027.
Auckland Transport is in the process of being restructured after lobbying by Brown and the council and Parliament passing a law this month stripping of it of its broader responsibilities as the city’s roading authority and transport planner. It will be a purely public transport business from later this year.
