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Wake up Northland voters!
This National Party electioneering hype around the highway of significance is a nonsense as we know all it will do is push the same problems further North.

We need a leadership that does not just keep feeding the trucking lobby and the bottomless pit of roading.

What would be good for the North and Auckland and NZ is the rail link to Marsden Point into West Auckland.

The Ports of Auckland move their container port to West Auckland, the Marsden Port becomes the point of entry, thus saving the controversial expansion of Auckland Harbour Port, enabling growth for Northport and naturally jobs for our region. A more wise spend of $1.66 billion.

The John Key types are not brave enough for this !

Warwick Bell
Waipu


Road versus Rail

I know nothing changes until change is desired – and that people have got what they voted for – but I can't let Northland/National's MP Mike Sabin go unchallenged over his 'take' on the Puhoi to Wellsford highway extension.

Understanding that he and his party are in thrall (and possibly more) to the trucking lobby, does not engender clear thinking.

In the recent storms it became apparent that, when Northland highways infrastructure fails, secondary roads are all that are left for the overweight (obese) trucks to damage.

There is a rail corridor stretching further into Northland than the proposed expensive motorway will ever achieve. In fact, as already pointed out by another of your readers, the Puhoi to Wellsford motorway doesn't reach Northland at all. It simply shunts the "roading problem" further north.

On the other hand, what Labour and the Greens propose is a rail upgrade and a spur line running into Marsden Point/Northport. Unlike the RONS (Roads of National Significance) this corridor runs East and West – into Dargaville and Whangarei – and further North. In a modern country it would have already been upgraded and double-tracked. In a modern country it would also have quick and efficient passenger services running on it. Don't hold your breath waiting for that one.

As for knocking those of us who'd rather see a proper transport system than pouring money into his mates’ coffers, by asking "Would those people rather drive around SH16... than use the Auckland to Puhoi motorway?’ I'd reply ‘Yes.’ When the toll road opened we were told that seven minutes would be saved, and then more traffic lights were installed in Warkworth and those seven minutes disappeared again! I'll challenge Mike Sabin on any weekday morning; you drive from Wellsford to Auckland struggling to cope with trucks and the aimless down SH1. I'll do SH16. I'll arrive first, and less stressed. No question about that.

A train hauls the equivalent load of 100 trucks. A truck does the damage of 10,000 cars. Look at the figures. A single train saves the damage equivalent of

1,000,000 cars. Roads for trucks are a nonsense. Give us a properly functioning railway in tandem with roading at least.

Mike Sabin's promise of $1.66 billion makes it sound as if it's his own largesse, as if he's Northland's personal Santa Claus. It's our collective money he's squandering. And all the while we become more dependent on imported oil. And the weather. Less and less efficient. More and more polluting.

Go figure.

Barry Read
Wayby
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