50 Victoria Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
30 September 2019
Rowan Edwards
[FYI request #11119 email]
REF: OIA-5725
Dear Rowan
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email
of Monday 2 September. 2019 requesting the following information
under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
The current status of the project to electrify the rail line between Papakura and
Pukekohe. Please include any relevant business cases and expected start/completion
dates.
The current status of the Papakura to Pukekohe Rail Corridor Improvement project (the
Project) project is summarised as follows:
The Project is managed by KiwiRail with the oversight of Auckland Transport (AT). In
December 2018 the NZ Transport Agency approved $4.98 million of funding towards the
Project. Since then, KiwiRail has established a project team that is in the process of
developing detail designs and costings. An international consultancy has also been engaged
by AT to prepare a business case.
A full funding application for the project is expected to be submitted by AT, along with a
detailed business case (DBC), for consideration by the Transport Agency Board in December
2019. For more information about this process, and the DBC, please contact AT’s Str ategic
Development Manager – Rail, Damian Flynn, by email a
t [email address]. In terms of the key dates, I can advise that the Project began in earnest at the beginning of
2019. The Project is scheduled to be completed before the City Rail Link is opened in 2024;
however, until a DBC has been finalised, this timeframe is indicative only.
Please note that there are no documents that fall within the scope of you request at this time.
Accordingly, your request for documents, such as ‘any relevant business case’, has been
refused under section 18(e) of the Act as the information requested does not exist.
Under section 28 of the Act you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and
review this decision. You can contact the Office of the Ombudsman by phoning 0800 802
602 or through its website a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
If you would like to discuss this reply with the NZ Transport Agency, please contact Brian
Blackwell, Rail Advisor, by email to
[email address] or on 021 578 218.
Yours sincerely
Robyn Elston
Senior Manager, System Design