2000: Clark Government seeks to improve funding for public transport

The 1999 General Election saw Labour win sufficient seats to form a coalition government with the Alliance Party, supported by the Green Party for confidence and supply.  The first Transport Minister under the Clark Government was Mark Gosche.  This article from the NZ Herald on 25 March 2000 reports on reforms he was proposing to change the mix of funding from Transfund New Zealand between roads and public transport. Key points from the article are:

• Officials asked to review funding rules, this included lifting limits that had been placed on capital and operational spending for passenger transport, and reviewing cost/benefit criteria (the cap was removed).
• The Northern Busway was expected to obtain funding following changes (not mentioned was a key issue as to what elements of the project were funded by Transfund vs. the three local government agencies relevant to the project).  (The Northern Busway was funded over the coming year.)
• Negotiations between ARC and Tranz Rail (then privately owned for access to the track in Auckland for expansion of passenger rail services.  (ultimately this would result in the Clark Government buying the Auckland rail network from Tranz Rail for $81m, which was later superseded by nationalisation of the entire rail business).

The outcome of this work was ultimately the Land Transport Management Act, which enabled funding for public transport to be significantly expanded, but also the subsequent merging of Transfund with the Land Transport Safety Authority, and ultimately Transit New Zealand into the NZ Transport Agency.