Labour promises to cancel Steven Joyce's $1.7 billion motorway and fund railway link instead

The $400 million Orewa-Puhoi Motorway has been shown to have done nothing to alleviate congestion north of Auckland, instead it has simply shifted the bottleneck from Orewa to Warkworth. (transportblog.co.nz)

Labour Party leader Phil Goff said today the party would halt the $1.7 billion ($US 1.4 billion) plan to upgrade State Highway 1 between Puhoi and Wellsford. Announcing the policy in Auckland, Mr Goff committed Labour to providing $1.2 billion towards the rail link, representing half the cost of the project.

The Labour leader says the rail investment would get Auckland moving and is the next step in building a modern public transport system for the city. The rail link is favoured by Auckland Council and Mr Goff says Aucklanders overwhelmingly support the project.