Government plan to upgrade North Auckland Line is economic sabotage

9 SEPTEMBER 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ministry of Transport analysis from March 2019 shows North Auckland Line upgrade only delivers ten cents of benefit for every dollar spent, points out the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says “The Ministry of Transport contracted Deloitte and AECOM to analyse plans for expanded Northland rail and found that an expanded North Auckland Line had a benefit-cost ratio of 0.1. Now, the Government is so obsessed with political success in Northland that it is spending $95 million on the uneconomic railway track.”

“The evidence could not be clearer – Northland rail simply does not stack up – but this Government don’t seem to care about taxpayers.”

“Infrastructure is important for families stuck in traffic and businesses trying to move goods around the country, but there are an infinite number of higher priority projects. In the case of Northland Rail, the Government has thrown any and all standards out the window in the pursuit of political bowing to New Zealand First and Shane Jones. Taxpayers deserve so much better.”

ENDS

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