The key to infrastructure investment: get started

Infrastructure takes time: Labour green-lit the Waterview tunnel, but National finished it and then transport minister Simon Bridges opened it. (Image: Getty)

Pattrick Smellie

Tue, 16 Jan 2024

Imagine that the previous government had begun building the Auckland light rail scheme.Imagine that the necessary land had been acquired, contracts had been let and physical works had begun in earnest in, say, 2020, 2021 or even 2022.If the tracks had been halfway down Sandringham or Dominion Rd by now, would an incoming National-led government have stopped it?Of course not.For all the back and forth over whether light rail was the right answer to Auckland’s obvious need for better mass public transport, the fact is that a project begun i...

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