Fund the City Rail Link now: Labour

Today’s launch of the electric trains is an exciting event for Auckland, but brings home the need to fast forward government funding for the City Rail Link, says Labour’s Transport spokesperson Darien Fenton.

“The city’s transport problems can’t wait for Gerry Brownlee to get over his stubbornness about rail.

“His antagonism was laid bare a couple of weeks ago when he told Parliament: ‘KiwiRail is fundamentally dead’.

“This is a deeply worrying comment and leads one to wonder whether the Government’s determination not to fund the City Rail Link until at least 2020 has more to do with Mr Brownlee being out of touch and obsessed with building motorways.

“The Government has set a passenger number target as their excuse for not funding the City Rail Link until 2020, but delaying it will cost taxpayers another half a billion dollars, cost Auckland investment potential and do nothing to ease congestion.

“While we now have these wonderful modern electric trains on the network, Aucklanders will continue to sit in traffic, wasting productivity and keeping our city gridlocked.

“This is Auckland’s number one challenge. The City Rail Link will double the number of trains on the network, ease congestion, and put Auckland on track for a world-class transport system.

"A Labour Government will build the City Rail Link immediately, funding it 50:50 with Auckland Council.

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