radical rail

Rest assured, reader, I have rigorously fact-checked the following statement. As shocking as it may seem, we are not in the market of misleading our audience, here, at blather.co.nz. 

Tāmaki Makaurau is the biggest city in Aotearoa. Bigger than the next 11 biggest urban areas in Aotearoa. 

It made sense to have the biggest port in the country be in the biggest city in the country, back when there was less traffic and the city was less concentrated. But, Tāmaki Makaurau has burst its banks, and the Ports of Auckland are caught in the deluge. 

Tāmaki Makaurau extends (loosely) from the south Kaipara to Mangawhai, in the north, down along both coasts to Waiuku and Orere Point. It also includes the islands in the Hauraki Gulf (and the Mokohinau islands for some fucking reason), but we can discount these for now, as a port on Rotoroa Island would be less than useless - it would be actively detrimental. The point I am making is that Tāmaki is big. In that huge, huge playground, the Ports of Auckland wants to play on the same swingset that houses, shops, ferries, swimmers, and the Navy also want to have a go on. 

Meanwhile, Te Ika-a-Māui, the island that Tāmaki Makaurau is on, is the most populated island in Polynesia, and hosts 76% of Aotearoa’s population (despite being 43% of the total area). Kirikiriroa, Rotorua, Tauranga, the Hibiscus Coast, and Whangārei lie within 250 km of Tāmaki Makaurau, and have a combined population of circa 535,400. I understand that including Whangārei and Rotorua in this list is a little like saying that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have a combined net worth of two-billion dollars.

We’ve drawn the battleground, now let’s draw the battlelines.

It’s no closely-guarded state secret that Aotearoa is in an economic downturn. Unemployment has been rising since 2021 and, at the time of writing, sits at 5.3%. Public sector jobs are being disestablished, including those at all Regional Councils and the Ministry for the Environment. Others, still, are being replaced by AI, by a government that would rather define what a man and a woman is, than address the 102,123 people currently experiencing homelessness (as estimated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development). I’m certain that this Ministry of Woke Statistics will be the next on the chopping block. But hey, at least we’ll all be spared the confusion of a reo name for WINZ while we’re all lining up in front of it.

To alleviate some of this stress on the country, I propose a graduated response:

One:

Introduce Road User Charges, and scale it by weight. That should appease the crowd who bang on about how heavy electric vehicles are, and how much they damage the roads. It will also disincentivise large or unladen trucks.

Two:

Upgrade the rail network between Whangārei and Tāmaki Makaurau to a high-speed, electrified rail. This line already exists. Use the money the government had earmarked to: change speed limit signs around schools, bypass the Brynderwyns (despite spending millions refurbishing the road only earlier this year), and the cancelling of the extremely short-sighted LNG import plant. Also, partly using the new levying of RUCs.

Three:

Move the naval base to cheaper land near Marsden Point, or in Whangārei proper. Use the old land to house the estimated 44,832 homeless residents of Tāmaki Makaurau. Multiple studies have shown that it’s cheaper for the state to house the chronically homeless than it is to pay for the medical bills/police time, or much else that ensues from living in the cold and damp. 

Four:

Upgrade the rail networks between Tāmaki Makaurau and Kirikiriroa, from Kirikiriroa to Tauranga, New Plymouth to Kirikiriroa, and Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Kirikiriroa. These lines also exist, and should be fast and have freight capabilities.

Five:

Create a national freight sorting hub in Kirikiriroa, with subsidiary sorting hubs in Pōneke, Tāmaki, Whangārei, Auckland Airport (for air freight) and Ohakune. Ensure our new railways can be diverted to these hubs.

Six:

Split the Ports of Auckland between New Plymouth and Tauranga, with all freight being trained directly to Kirikiriroa, for sorting.

Seven:

Exempt electric trucks from RUCs until they form a certain percentage of Class 2 through 5 vehicles. These would be ideal for the ‘short-hop’ transfers between the closest subsidiary sorting hub, and the freight’s intended destination. As an added bonus, charging stations and battery parks can be added by the private freight companies, at their own cost, near these hubs.

Eight:

Use the old Ports of Auckland site for minigolf and Waka Ama, or some other sort of communal third-space.

Despite the huge up front costs, there are some great benefits. I will list only a few, as I am aware I have already taken up a lot of your time. 

One:

Less reliance on fossil fuels. 

Electrifying the rail network, and parts of the trucking infrastructure, will mean when the next global supply-chain disruption happens (cf Evergiven and Strait of Hormuz blockade), would have less of a shock, as the transport of our goods does not rely as heavily on temporary external factors.

Two:

More employment opportunities. 

Everything from track maintenance to conductors to customer care to mechanics to logistics, will have to be employed on an ongoing basis. There will also be many jobs in getting the network up - in planning, construction, fabrication, and (ironically) transport of materials. 

Two (a):

More employment opportunities in the regions.

Less need to move for work, if there are more employment opportunities where you are. More people employed in a place, means more opportunity for what I would deem ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ businesses to flourish. I would consider a ‘secondary’ business as one that supports the needs of those in primary industries - in a farming community, this would be tractor dealerships, fertiliser wholesalers, grocery stores, etc. A ‘tertiary’ business would then be things that service the wants of a population, as a whole - things like movie theatres, or game shops, or TV repairers, etc.

Three:

It extends the lifespan of the roads.

By taking the heaviest vehicles off the road, and consolidating the trips that do use them, the extant infrastructure can be used for longer.

Three (a):

Fewer trucks in the CBDs (and between CBDs) means less congestion. 

Four:

More land for people to live and enjoy. 

They don’t usually let you in the Ports of Auckland or the Naval Base.

Five:

High-speed passenger rail between the regions would break the stalemate on housing, free-up roads, and ensure those who do not drive are not deprived of joy. Weekend trips would become far more viable.