Greater Wellington welcomes $1.2 billion boost for regional transport funding

Greater Wellington Regional Council has welcomed Tuesday’s announcement by Minister of Transport Hon Michael Wood of the Government’s transport funding priorities for the next three years contained in the National Land Transport Programme.

The announcement will see funding for the Regional Land Transport Programme 2021-24 increase by over $3.1 billion for transport projects, a rise of more than 60 per cent over the previous three years’ funding. This will allow progress to be made on key projects aimed at increasing use of public and active modes of transport and decreasing carbon emissions, to proceed.

Public transport gets a significant boost, with the Government signalling a 40 per cent increase in funding for public transport infrastructure and services nationally, with the Wellington region being allocated $1.2 billion in funding for public transport through the NLTP as well as additional funding for the Let's Get Wellington Moving programme."

Chair of Greater Wellington’s Transport Committee, Cr. Roger Blakeley, applauded the Government for its support in addressing the NLTP funding shortfall.  He highlighted public transport’s role as a cornerstone for delivering a variety of economic, social and environmental benefits including addressing climate change and supporting denser urban development.

“The Government’s announcement will enable Greater Wellington to make significant progress towards delivering a more efficient, accessible and low carbon public transport network, and all the benefits that will flow from that.

“Greater Wellington has set clear targets for our council to be carbon positive by 2035 which includes full electrification of our core bus fleet by 2030. The NLTP announcement strongly supports further electrification of our bus fleet, ferries and longer distance rail services.”

Chair of the Regional Transport Committee, Cr, Adrienne Staples, echoed strong support for the Government’s announcement, noting the NLTP announcement shows strong Government support for the Wellington region’s ambitious climate change and road safety targets.

With 30 per cent of journeys already made by public transport and walking or cycling. Increased funding this latest NLTP will help the Wellington region work towards an ambitious target of a 40% increase in regional mode share from public transport and active modes by 2030. 

The funding will allow continued expansion of the region’s cycling and walkway network providing more options for people to move around the region and promote mode shift from cars. Projects that will meet this objective include the Petone to Ngauranga cycle and walk way and Wellington City’s cycle network.

Cr. Staples also noted the strong inter-regional travel benefits with business case funding included for the procurement of new rolling stock for the Wairarapa and Manawatu lines, and funding for a programme of work to upgrade our rail infrastructure to make it more frequent, reliable and resilient.