No rail to Auckland Airport

The Herald reports:

A commuter rail link to Auckland Airport – which could slash travel times to the international gateway – has been dumped in favour of trams or buses.

The scrapping of the heavy rail connection is a U-turn by the New Zealand Transport Agency, which last year said it was “extremely committed to providing a rail link connecting the airport and the city”.

Auckland Transport (AT), which has favoured rail to the airport as a high priority, meets today to decide if it will endorse the agency’s position.

Road travel typically takes about an hour from the city centre to the airport. Commuter rail could cover the 20km journey in 35 minutes.

This isn’t a surprise as the cost would have been many billions.

However the status quo is pretty appalling. I can’t think of any other major city where the route from the airport to the CBD goes through a residential suburb like Auckland does.  Hopefully the completion of the motorway network will make a difference though. Last time I had an early morning flight to Auckland it took around two hours to get to the CBD!