Worsening motorway congestion & no train services

The NZTA have reported that morning peak congestion periods on Auckland’s motorways are starting earlier for no apparent. The reason is quite obvious. Auckland’s population is growing at a rapid rate and together, with sky rocketing house prices and rents, people are having to live further out of the city and commuting in by car due to the lack of train services outside the urban fringes of the city.
Traffic regularly banks up to a standstill along SH16 through Kumeu and as far south as Drury on the Southern Motorway during morning weekday peak periods. Yet despite there being railway lines through these areas, there are either no train services or stations to serve them.
An easy and effective solution would be for the NZTA and Auckland Transport to extend the reach of train services west to Helensville and south to Pokeno and Waiuku using some of the now surplus diesel trains that Auckland has, which would help ease pressure on the city’s congested motorways.

Joan Williamson, Pokeno

Since you’re here… we have a small favour to ask. More and more people want the Post than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Post’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. With investigative reporting, we often don't know at the beginning how a story will unfold and how long it might take to uncover. This can mean it is costly – particularly as we often face legal threats that attempt to stop our reporting. But we remain committed to raising important questions and exposing wrongdoing. And we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as NZ$5, you can support the Post – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Support The Post