It also decided to end the North Wellington Public Transport Study.  Wellington City Council also came to these conclusions.  Greater Wellington decided to proceed with the purchase of 12 replacement rail units and the implementation of track improvements.  This is expected to take place in early 2008. 

The Rail Business Case includes the following works on the Johnsonville Line:

• Minor refurbishment of existing English Electric rolling stock to buy time to allow purchase of new units - $1.8 million (currently underway)
• Refurbishment of 12 Ganz Mavag units - $7.2 million
• Purchase of 12 new units - $36 million
• Tunnel improvements to allow Ganz Mavag units to replace existing English Electrics - $3 million
• Track improvements to allow for more reliable, and possibly more frequent peak period services - $5.5 million
• A programme of station refurbishments - $2.05 million.
• The timing for these improvements is being re-evaluated as part of Greater Wellington�s wider rail responsibilities.

In discussion with Wellington City Council (WCC), it was agreed to broaden out the review of the Johnsonville Line to include all public transport services in the northern suburbs of Wellington (the area bounded by Churton Park and Grenada to the north, Woodridge and Newlands to the east, Johnsonville to the west and following the Johnsonville Rail Line south to the Wellington Central Business District).

Transport consultants Sinclair Knight Mertz (SKM) were appointed to undertake the study which was to be done in three stages.

The top five issues were frequency of buses, the reliability of bus and train services, the route of the services, the need for new trains, and the rundown state of trains.

Stage 2 involved developing public transport scenarios to meet the needs identified in stage 1.  Four scenarios were developed:

1. Enhanced rail - new or refurbished units and improved timetable;
2. Bus with walking and cycling - replacement of rail with buses running on street, with the existing railway line converted to a walking and cycling track;
3. Busway - replacement of rail with buses running on a guided busway; or
4. Light rail - replacement of rail with a light rail service running on an extended Johnsonville line through to Courtenay Place.

All scenarios also included enhancements to existing bus services throughout the northern suburbs.

The scenarios were put out for consultation in June and July this year with 1606 submissions received.  981 supported the busway scenario (858 of these on a pro-forma distributed by the Bus and Coach Association), 589 submitters supported enhanced rail, 456 supported light rail, and 68 supported bus with walking and cycling.  Many submissions supported more than one scenario.

A feature of the consultation was the degree of involvement from interested parties.  In addition to the involvement of the Bus and Coach Association, Tranz Metro distributed their own brochure offering to help people fill in submission forms.

Stage 3 of the study involved the study consultants undertaking a technical evaluation and risk assessment of the four scenarios.  This was completed in November and concluded that none of the scenarios yields sufficient benefits to justify the additional investment and increased operating costs involved.  It  recommended adoption of the 'base case' in regard to rail, which is essentially a continuation of the status quo apart from new or refurbished rail units.  It also recommends incremental improvements to bus services and bus priority measures for parts of the northern suburbs not directly served by rail.  To view the reports, click on the pdfs to the right of your screen