Len Brown and former Transport Minister Simon Bridges<\/a> both said their biggest regret was not doing more to help businesses out earlier.<\/p>\nBridges is contributing to the \u201clessons learnt\u201d review and admitted the \u201chuman toll\u201d was huge.<\/p>\n
Len Brown said he should\u2019ve done more earlier to help move businesses or compensate them.<\/p>\n
The second report will look at the benefits of the project.<\/p>\n
![\"Auckland]()
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Transport Minister Chris Bishop announce the CRL opening date at Karang-a-Hape station. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
Auckland Council said it will review the extent to which the new rail infrastructure is expected to give a return on investment over time through increased productivity and economic activity, as well as reduced transport emissions.<\/p>\n
Billions of dollars have been promised in economic benefits, but Bishop said it would take time for that to be realised.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never go back and look at what we did and work out if it\u2019s actually working well and what the benefits are,\u201d Bishop said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce it\u2019s open and up and running, we will do a benefits realisation report.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third report is a wider look at bang for buck when it comes to infrastructure.<\/p>\n
In April, Bishop introduced a new process called investment decision assurance (IDA), delivered by the Infrastructure Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand spends a lot on infrastructure, but we\u2019re not always getting value from this investment. Our process for evaluating infrastructure proposals, so that ministers have the information they need to make informed investment decisions, isn\u2019t working as well as it should,\u201d the IDA announcement said.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The soon to be opened Karanga-a-Hape CRL station. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
The aim is to enable the public sector to effectively plan, deliver and manage infrastructure, with earlier involvement from independent experts, clearer and more consistent advice to ministers, and stronger oversight of major projects from planning through to delivery.<\/p>\n
Part of that will ensure costs are appropriate.<\/p>\n
Wayne Brown repeated his view that the CRL was too expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt cost too much, it took too long, but it will be appreciated for generations,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll shift Auckland up a gear and along with the transport reform we\u2019ll get Auckland moving. Quicker to get across town, quicker to get into town, quicker, quicker to get across Auckland. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese things do work, look at the Northern Busway. It\u2019s so successful now there\u2019s no more cars going over the [harbour] bridge than there were 10 years ago,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no secret I\u2019ve had strong feelings about the cost of city railing, but there\u2019s no doubt it\u2019s an investment that will help Auckland keep moving and support our growth for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m determined we\u2019re going to get people to catch this bloody train.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CRL was funded by a 50\/50 split between Auckland Council and the Government.<\/p>\n
Asked where the plan was for the next big infrastructure project for Auckland, Bishop and Brown agreed the focus was on completing the North-West Busway.<\/p>\n
The CRL opening date announcement was bungled, with a billboard provider accidentally revealing the September 13 date early on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
![\"Auckland]()
Auckland Transport interim CEO Stacey van der Putten joins Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Transport Minister Chris Bishop at today’s announcement. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
Auckland Transport chief executive Stacey van der Putten called the mistake a \u201cbummer\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s really disappointing,\u201d van der Putten said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we wanted the opportunity to share that with our stakeholders and our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said AT had been in contact with the billboard company, which blamed a \u201ccontent loading issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
She confirmed the date had only been decided this week.<\/p>\n
Officials were confident there would be no issues on opening day \u2013 or the following days.<\/p>\n
Brown said the focus now shifted to ensuring the network was well used, with Auckland Council working to increase housing around rail stations through Plan Change 120.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want people to use the City Rail Link. That\u2019s our next step. That\u2019s our next challenge,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
Encouraging developers to build multistorey homes near stations would place more people within easy reach of public transport.<\/p>\n
Once the link is running, trains will run every five minutes through the city centre and, on average, about 10 minutes elsewhere on the network during peak times.<\/p>\n
Starting this weekend, AT is running three Saturday sessions <\/a>to showcase the project to the public.<\/p>\nThose with free tickets can visit the stations.<\/p>\n
Katie Bradford is a Senior Correspondent at the Herald. She has been a broadcast journalist for over 20 years and was based in the press gallery for 10 years. She specialises in politics, business and Auckland issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat does come with trade-offs along the way,\u201d he said. The first review is underway and being led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,3952,1052,250844,60780,2199,2223,1568,4187,16492,117583,3273,22772,1702,296,25336,58,178,19133,23949,111,43,139,69,5493,13578,3109,207,763,51519,8037,1529,61,1533],"class_list":["post-561044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-aucklands","tag-benefits","tag-blowouts","tag-builds","tag-city","tag-confirmed","tag-construction","tag-cost","tag-delays","tag-examine","tag-future","tag-holds","tag-infrastructure","tag-into","tag-lessons","tag-link","tag-longawaited","tag-looking","tag-mega","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-open","tag-projects","tag-public","tag-rail","tag-reviews","tag-separate","tag-september","tag-three","tag-to","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}