Why should I in Christchurch pay for Auckland's transport infrastructure. I was born and bred in Auckland and moved here 35+ yrs ago. They want it, they pay for it via a levy. Or at best divide NZ into "state" type areas and have state funding and federal funding. Consider the rest of NZ where transport infrastructures need revision. It appears to be a political football and Labour just does not get it, except trying to get most of its votes from Auckland.

12% of employment in Auckland is in the CBD, in fact most of the most well paid jobs are there.

The trains can only serve around a third of those, given the lines don't serve most of the isthmus or the North Shore.

So this is to service at best 4% of commuter trips. The best paid workers in Auckland getting their commute subsidised, doing nothing for congestion, because it isn't commutes to downtown that jam up the roads.

It is a vanity project, a wealth destroyer and will cost tens of millions every year in subsidies to run the trains. Most of the people who will ride the trains are either riding trains now or riding buses.

Getting railways running and accessible is a great idea. But I wish something was being done to get real options for rail travel running in the South Island too. People could commute much more easily then, for less cost than running cars.

The Highway is to Northland and Rodney not Tauranga or Hamiltion Simon get up with the play.

phil goff, where is your money going to come from, the govt are already running a defict and your going to invest 1.5 billion into a train set for the govt to throw our money into, and this is one of your big pitches pssssh...surely mate(labour) you have no idea...

Must be election time all the promises are coming out, you know what happens to those promises if they get elected.

At last someone is looking beyond cars on roads. Maybe a decent cycleway network would be a good investment too. Much cheaper, and more healthy. Or do we have to wait for the Greens to come up with the best ideas?

Great to read uninspired and uneducated comments from what appears to be the far rights "brightest and most fanatical supporters". With brains like yours New Zealand and especially Auckland, the economic powerhouse of the country, certainly seems doomed by short term thinking.

The rail link project makes absolute sense for the region. A 4 lane motorway to a country town called Wellsford, which will take 15 years to build, makes little to no sense whatsoever.

I'm not from Auckland (thank god), but I thought the problem was not getting around but getting in?

Where will this money come from?????????