The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is highlighting the incredible cost of Michael Wood's $14.6 million tram to Māngere in terms that anyone can understand.

$14.6 billion is:

• $608,000,000 per kilometre
• $608,000 per metre
• $6,080 per centimetre
• $7,978 for every Kiwi household from Kaitaia to the Bluff
• More than twice as much as Labour's original 2017 tram-to-airport proposal and five times higher than NZTA's 2016 tram-to-airport proposal
• Equal to the estimated cost of a second Waitematā Harbour crossing
• Enough to build four new Transmission Gully motorways
• Enough to build ten new Dunedin Hospitals
• Enough to build 21 Waitematā Harbour cycle bridges
• Enough to conduct another 540 flag referenda
• Enough to buy every house in Whanganui

Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "We will be looking closely at the cost-benefit analysis behind this project, but our immediate reaction is that the cost has ballooned into lunacy before shovels have even touched ground. Every dollar thrown at this gold-plated transport project is a dollar that can't be used to ease financial pressures on Kiwi households dealing with the economic effects of a pandemic."

"Auckland certainly needs better transport, in particular a second harbour crossing. A tram to Māngere isn't the best use for 14 thousand million dollars."

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