Feb 7, 2008

Has Wellington Regional Council Just Wasted $210 million?

The Hive is disturbed to read a story in today's Dominion Post which suggests that the $210 million being spent by Wellington Regional Council on tunnel upgrades and new trains won't expand capacity. Given that we are already at full capacity this would seem to equal zero prospect of growth in passenger numbers. We thought that a strong reason for the upgrade was to increase capacity. Wellington's population is set to grow, as we hope is the Wellington economy. The population needs to travel to get to work. The roads are under strain and the public transport is under strain. Extra investment in roading is underway, but asumptions have been made that road will not be bearing the full pressure of growth. And now, of course, we have the Greens and maybe even Labour suggesting that there is too much emphasis on roads.