Both National and Labour are hoping to ease traffic scenes like this with election promises on transport. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
Political appetite for major transport projects in Auckland and Wellington has waned as pre-election jostling ramps up.
National has said it will bin plans for Light Rail in Auckland and the Let's Get Wellington Moving project if it gets elected.
Labour was also now wavering on it's commitment to the project, despite former leader Jacinda Ardern making it an election promise in 2017.
RNZ spoke to residents in Wellington and Auckland today, to see what they thought of what the parties were pledging.
Wellingtonians were frustrated by political flip flopping on a transport plan that's already been drawn out.
"I'm not happy about it because I'd have liked the light rail," Wellington resident Deirdre said.
"I understand that it's expensive, but it's only going to get more and more expensive if we don't do it sooner rather than later."
Another resident told RNZ Let's Get Wellington Moving had been dragging on for a long time, "I think a lot of people just want to see some action now".
It was a sentiment shared among other Wellingtonians.
"Let's Get Wellington Moving seems to have taken quite a while to get moving," another resident said.
Resident Kate meanwhile was not surprised by the debate, "I think both parties have to play with something and they're choosing this right now."
Business owner Nicola Cranfield said the city had changed with people now working from home, and hitting pause was a good idea.
"I think it would make sense to really go back to the drawing board and reevaluate all those old assumptions that I don't think hold up anymore."
However, she hoped to see a second Mount Victoria Tunnel remain as National was promising.
"That would make a big difference to people's ability to move around Wellington," she said.
But resident was not so keen on more roads.
"All the evidence for the last 30 or years or longer suggests that more roads just lead to more congestion."
Meanwhile in Auckland light rail could be on the way out and resident's opinions were mixed.
"I think it's a big mistake to not do the light rail project," one Aucklander told RNZ.
Mt Albert resident Anthony Read said it was not practical to have light rail in places like Dominion Road, which was one of the city's major arterial routes.
He said if the country had thought about it 40 years ago "a lot of these things wouldn't be issues, but unfortunately we didn't future proof ourselves."
Shift worker Liz Harvey said Auckland's public transport for those working outside the 9am to 5pm hours was not up to scratch and light rail would provide more options.
Lee Griffiths also felt public transport was unreliable. She said with the buses and the trains there was always something that was not working.
But the one thing residents in Wellington and Auckland were all in agreement on was that something needed to change.
