Auckland Metro dream revealed

A vision of a dramatic rail and underground metro service for Auckland has made it onto an official agenda to be debated by authorities this week.

The Auckland Regional Council's transport committee will on Wednesday considered strategic options and developments for the city out to 2041.

The agenda carries options for public transport – including what amounts to a metro service across what will then by Super Auckland.

International engineering consultants Parson Brinkerfoff have come up with what the agenda papers call a "radical network" across the city.

Three new suggestions for a metro are included in the agenda.

The first is a metro line, above ground and capable of taking heavy trains, from Manukau City to Botany Downs. It would loop up to Panmure to Remuera Road and into the Auckland central business district (CBD). It would then carry on out west to Point Chevalier and Unitec.

Perhaps the most radical of the suggestions is a Metro from Massey University in Albany though to the CBD then up to Auckland University and down Dominion Road to Mt Roskill.

The third leg would be a rail line from the CBD to Onehunga and on out to the International Airport at Mangere and reaching Puhinui.

The ARC committee will consider next the cost effectiveness of the proposed network.

The documents give no costing of the proposed network, but the committee, if it agrees, will then carry out work to develop indicative costings.

- © Fairfax NZ News