Auckland light rail won't cost $30 billion – CEO

An Auckland light rail concept from NZTA. (Image: Supplied)

Mon, 06 Mar 2023

If light rail is costed at $30 billion after detailed design, the head of the company progressing the project says he’d recommend against it.The origins of the $29.2b figure, rounded to $30b by National and other light rail opponents, was a Treasury document analysing the indicative business case, which featured a p50 costing (50% confidence) of $14.6b for the preferred, partially tunnelled scheme.Based on that high-level estimate, which was done to allow for comparison between the various options, Treasury staff noted the cost could be b...

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