Just a reminder: the reason the Auckland Harbour Bridge was under-specced with only four lanes and needed the clip-ons added within a decade was because of the very first National government. These people haven’t changed one iota in 60 years

#nzpol

Fun fact.

Until August 2025, 33% of the interislander fleet were rail enabled.

Between August 2025 and unspecified 2029 date, 0% of the interislander fleet will be rail enabled.

The iRex boats would have ensure 100% of the interislander fleet were rail enabled.

C O C taking the country backwards one step at a time

True story: I lived in Auckland in the mid-80s, and the city was talking about light rail and a second harbour bridge. I moved away and came back in the 2020s, and the city is still talking about light rail and a second harbour bridge

PPS: you know why I know I'm right about this fucking thing? The CRL. It's cost more than planned, taken longer, but the benefits are so manifestly obvious that it couldn't be scrapped (and they'd already got digging before this lot got in).

Also this govt is shit scared of losing Auckland.

Anyway I've said it before, for half of what the government is obsessively pouring into asphalt for the upper North Island, you could build 100 years of infrastructure for the entire fucking country not just it's god damned trucking companies - bsky.app/profile/oldm...

See also:

Dunedin Hospital, another incredibly important and necessary infrastructure project that was supposed to deliver a brand new bigger hospital for 400k+ Otago and Southlanders. Due to cuts, the new hospital will have FEWER BEDS THAN THE ONE IT IS REPLACING.

Saves money though so its good.

Were Kiwirail perfect? Nope. Will Ferry Holdings Inc and all the other shit that's been set up to fix it do better? Also nope. Over the time it takes to do everything iRex was meant to, will it cost more but take years and years longer. Yep. It will end up being cheaper to do it once, correctly.

The numbers staggering, the complete fucking failure to understand the consequences a disaster, the clear political revenge undertaken by Winston on the preceding Government and the economic incompetence of Nicola Willis in "cancel thing save money" baby mode - how this isn't being screamed about.

To save $2 billion dollars. Or LESS THAN THE money the Government wants to spend on about 7km of highway upgrades in Auckland, "which has investment envelope of between NZ$3.7 billion to $4.1 billion"

ARE YOU SMOKING CRACK WINSTON.

infrastructurepipeline.org/project/east...

Not to mention the other $450 million already spent on iRex, the civil engineering contractors dockside who got told to stop after they'd got onsite in 2023, the jobs that cost as tradies and engineers fucked off, the economic impact of fucking with the $44 billion dollar annual trade route?

Winston talking about "gold standard" when what it meant was due to port infrastructure works there needed to be a temporary terminal for rail freight so there'd be minimal interruption for CARRYING RAIL FREIGHT BETWEEN OUR TWO BIGGEST ISLANDS. His solution, NO RAIL FREIGHT FOR THREE YEARS.

This is my being annoyed specialist subject because the "savings" the government keep banging on about are

- worse infrastructure
- taking longer to build
- costs more for less
- will require more disruption
- doesn't do the whole job

Its a classic political fuck up of a project.

This means instead of a project to do The Whole Fucking Thing starting in 2023 and running to 2027-ish, the ports will be plagued with construction sites and closures and all that shit into the 2030's now.

Absolutely fucking insane

They have also promised the project won't go over $2 billion. That's because they're not doing everything iRex would have done, are trying to stretch out end of use life infrastructure, and there's eventually going to be a big bill to Do The Fucking Work That Needs Doing in later years.

The new ferries will cost $596 million and be smaller than the two ferries that were cancelled at a fixed price of $550 million.

That cancellation cost $222 million.

So really the two new smaller ferries have cost $818 million.

And will be three years late.