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Regional Land Transport Plan Regional Land Transport Plan

The Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) is the 10-year investment proposal for Auckland’s transport network.

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Overview

The Regional Land Transport Plan 2024–2034 (RLTP) proposes a $63 billion investment in public transport services, renewals, maintenance and operations, and new projects. The programme includes completing the City Rail Link (CRL), Eastern Busway and Penlink as well as rolling out low-emission ferries and more electric buses.

It includes the use of more technology, like dynamic lanes, to maximise our existing transport network and ranks an extensive list of new land-transport projects each agency has put forward for funding.

A key purpose of the RLTP is to set out and prioritise the land-transport activities that Auckland Transport, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and KiwiRail seek funding for from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF). As such, it is a ‘bid’ document.

Delivery of the full RLTP investment programme would require around $41 billion from the NLTF. Auckland’s RLTP will be submitted to the NZTA Board on 31 July.

The NZTA Board will consider the plan and must take it into account when making funding decisions for the National Land Transport Plan. We look forward to these decisions reflecting the clear guidance Aucklanders have provided, through this RLTP, about their priorities for the future of transport in the region.

Final RLTP 2024–2034

Following public consultation, the RLTP was endorsed by the Auckland Regional Transport Committee and Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee before being approved by the Auckland Transport Board.

The RLTP has been approved with the following items regarded as mandatory. They should receive funding under all circumstances:

  • existing public transport services, along with improvements such as more rail services enabled by the CRL and the expansion of the frequent bus network
  • projects that are already committed to and in progress, for example, the Eastern Busway and CRL
  • renewal and maintenance of local roads and rail and state highway networks to ensure they remain fit for purpose into the future.

The following capital projects are also a priority, especially over the next 3 years:

  • larger rapid-transit projects that will provide high-speed public transport links across Auckland but will cost more and take longer to deliver
  • smaller projects that can be delivered quickly to improve the speed and reliability of our bus network, optimise traffic movement on our road network and motorways, and encourage more sustainable travel from key growth areas
  • major state highway projects that will improve resiliency, reliability and travel times on the motorway network and enhance our links to other regions
  • cycling projects that will increase the size of the cycling network
  • investment in safety infrastructure to reduce transport-related deaths and serious injuries.

The total value of investment proposed in this RLTP significantly exceeds likely funding. Consequently, a key role of the document is to signal Auckland’s priorities for funding over the next decade, particularly for new projects where there are choices over what to fund. Individual project ranking is set out in Appendix 7 of the document.

The overall ranking of new ‘discretionary’ projects within this RLTP reflects the feedback of more than 13,000 Aucklanders who submitted during consultation – more than twice the amount of feedback received during the Draft RLTP 2021 consultation. They saw investment in faster, more reliable public transport as the highest priority, followed by projects on the local road network, state highway capacity improvements, walking and cycling, and safety.

Public engagement

We sought public feedback from 17 May to 17 June 2024 and received 13,108 submissions. The consultation process also included public hearings on 26 and 27 June 2024, where we received 34 verbal submissions. Thank you to everyone who took the time to have their say.

A summary of the public feedback is provided in the final RLTP (PDF 5MB).

All of the feedback received was analysed and collated into the following public feedback report: 

The consultation process was supported by an awareness campaign that included 20 drop-in events, a flyer drop to more than 550,000 households, and media and social media advertising. We focused on seeking input via a short survey with 4 main questions. We received more than 13,000 survey responses (more than twice the number received in 2021) plus 120 written submissions.

Summary of feedback

Most respondents were supportive of the direction of the draft RLTP. There was strong support for investment in public transport as a key priority. 

Survey results saw strong support for the challenges, priorities, and projects and programmes outlined in the RLTP:

  • challenges: 79% of respondents thought the Draft RLTP correctly identified the most important transport challenges in Auckland.
  • priorities: 70% of respondents thought the Draft RLTP identified the right priorities.
  • projects and programmes: 72% of respondents thought that the Draft RLTP correctly proposed the right projects and programmes.

Respondents were also asked about their priorities for additional discretionary projects and investment. Investing in public transport was seen as the highest overall priority by respondents, based on average ranking, followed by local road improvements. State highway improvements received strong support from many, but also opposition, with an overall average rank of third. Walking and cycling improvements also received mixed support but received a lower average rank, equal to safety improvements.

Changes to the RLTP after public feedback

Key changes in response to the public feedback are as follows:

  1. Change ranking scores to elevate state highway improvement projects to third overall amongst discretionary projects. This aligns with the public feedback overall ranking and does not change ranking within activity classes. It also helps alignment with the 2024 Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS).
  2. Confirm the $503 million Level Crossings Removal Takanini Stage 2 project and an additional allocation of $92 million to the Park and Ride programme.
  3. Bring forward small amounts of funding in years 1 and 2 for the Unsealed Roads Improvement project, Bus Access and Optimisation programme, Bus and Transit Lanes programme, and a deferment of the Ferry Decarbonisation Stage 1 project.