Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / James Smith: National Road Carriers Policy manager comments on $1.2billion road infrastructure investment

Transcript

James Smith: National Road Carriers Policy manager comments on $1.2billion road infrastructure investment · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Government set aside a combined total of one point two billion.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is to get key projects moving in the roads
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of National Significance. Program includes half a billion to buy
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: up houses. Tolls will be the default. James Smith is
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with the National Road Carries with me this morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: James, good morning, Good morning, Ryan.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Does the toll I mean, how do you feel about
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the tolls? Does that cancel out the efficiency or the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: benefit from the fast and newer roads or is there
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a net gain?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: There's normally a net gain, Ryan, So normally you get
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the increased productivity cancels out the cost of the toll.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: What do you expect with the roads that we have done,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Like I'm thinking North of Auckland, I'm thinking Kapity Expressway.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: What have you seen? How significant has the midshift been?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: It has been significant. So what we've seen is not
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: only slightly faster times, but it's more the consistency, so
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: the fact that the route is now a lot more dependable.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: It's a lot more reliable. So what you need in
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: our sector is consistency. So you need to know that
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: if you leave it X, you're going to arrive at
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  Speaker 2: Y and you're going to do that on a consistent basis.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: So we're seeing that with all of these projects that
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: brought much needed resilience, safety, and productivity to the network.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Does that make stuff cheaper for us because you're carrying
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: our goods, aren't you?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, and it slows down the rate of
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: rate of increase, so everything else is still going up.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So sorry, but yes, you still expect rates to rise,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: but it helps soften that blow.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Do we need do you need some sort of reassurance infrastructure?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: New Zealand came out as they saying we want to
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: see more bipartisan buy in on this kind of stuff,
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  Speaker 1: especially if it's rons.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Do you agree, Oh, absolutely, and we've actually seen that already,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: so Labor Transport spokesman and have actually already said that
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: if the pros are actually up and honking, if there's
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a change of government, they will honor the projects. So
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: that's why it's absolutely mission critical. These projects, some of
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: them we'd be wanning for since the nineteen fifties for
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: them to say can actually get shovels on the ground
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  Speaker 2: and get moving.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time this morning. James Smith's National Road Carriers
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: with us for more from early edition with Ryan Bridge
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
• 2:29
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