The Ministry of Transport Te Manatū Waka has proactively released a range of documents relating to the Auckland Light Rail process.

These documents are avaliable here.

In response to the release, NZ Infra put out the following statement:

NZ Infra put forward a world class, innovative and fully-funded proposal to deliver light rail from Auckland’s city centre to Māngere and the airport. The project was backed by extensive global experience and expertise in delivering light rail, and had the potential to transform how Aucklanders travel around their city and significantly lift both Auckland and New Zealand’s productivity .

We were pleased NZ Infra was recommended by the Ministry of Transport to be Government’s preferred delivery partner for the project. The proactively released documents demonstrate just how robust the assessment process was.

The release should assure the public the proposal we put forward in November 2019 was of the highest quality, including meeting the Government’s objectives as outlined in the Government’s response requirement document:

• accessing employment, education and communities;
• integrating and enhancing Auckland’s current and future rapid transit network;
• improving the environment;
• enabling quality integrated urban communities, and;
• providing a high quality service that is attractive to users with high levels of patronage.

We remain disappointed we didn’t get the chance to engage Aucklanders in our proposal and ultimately to build something transformational for the city.

The final proposal remains the valuable intellectual property of NZ Infra, which is a 50/50 joint venture between the NZ Super Fund and CDPQ Infra. The Government has the option of engaging with NZ Infra to see how the proposal NZ Infra has prepared can support the next phase of the project. We are happy to have these discussions when the Government is ready to do so.