Our aim is to move more people with fewer vehicles. To get there, we will deliver a series of projects in three phases.
Our region is home to over 500,000 people, with more than 200,000 living in Wellington City.
Over the next 30 years we’re expecting up to 31,000 more jobs in the central city, and our population is expected to grow by up to 80,000 people.
We need to prepare for that growth and make sure we deliver a transport network that is resilient and reliable for all modes, making it easier for people to get around with less congestion, fewer emissions, and more liveable places.
More than 30% of the people who work in the city live elsewhere and many local businesses rely on customers who travel from other parts of the region, so we need to get it right.
Let’s Get Wellington Moving is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver that future focused transport network. It will provide more attractive travel choices and reshape how we live and get around. It will help reduce carbon emissions, make our city and region more compact and sustainable, and make Wellington a better place to be.
There will be better walking facilities, connected cycleways, and high-quality mass rapid transit, along with more reliable buses, improvements at the Basin Reserve, and an extra Mt Victoria Tunnel.
These improvements will go hand-in-hand with planning and urban development changes, and links to wider regional transport projects, to ensure we make the most of the $7.4 billion Let's Get Wellington Moving investment.
We’ll be working closely with our partners, our stakeholders, and the community as we design each project.
Our plan has two broad phases:
- Transitional Programme
- Transformational Programme
Projects in each phase are interlinked with the others. The earlier work in the Transitional Programme is critical to support the Transformational Programme. The phases get larger as we go.
What happens in each phase?
Transitional Programme
Projects include:
- Golden Mile Revitalisation
- Cobham Drive Crossing and Safer Speeds
- Thorndon Quay Hutt Road
- Johnsonville/Ngā Ūranga
- Miramar to City Connection
- Featherston St and Southwest Te Aro
- John St to Taranaki St Connection
- Bowen Street
- Central City Walking Improvements
While we investigate and plan for the larger projects in the wider programme, we are making a start on moving more people with fewer vehicles. Some projects will begin construction within the next three years and will help change how people move into and around the city. The projects will help reduce carbon emissions and make our streets better places to be. They will make travelling by bus to the central city a faster and more reliable choice, and create a better environment for people walking and on bikes. They will improve transport options ahead of the major construction work to come.
Some of our other projects will support the wider programme by improving ways for people to bus, bike or walk on 19 key routes between the central city and suburban centres. The package incorporates earlier work from the 2019 Bus Priority Action Plan and will help complete the city’s cycleway network.
We're preparing Wellington for future growth, making our city a better place to be, and providing options for people to get around without using their car. We’re working on reducing carbon emissions as we work towards becoming a net-zero carbon capital by 2050.
Transformational programme
The major projects in our longer-term programme will substantially change how we get around, help shape future growth, and transform our city over coming decades.
Projects include:
- New Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) through the central city will connect communities from the railway station to the southern and eastern suburbs. MRT will provide higher-quality public transport and more reliable travel choices, and encourage more housing near transport hubs.
- Basin Reserve improvements will support MRT, improve walking and cycling connections, enhance the use of the Basin Reserve and improve amenity around the reserve.
- An extra Mt Victoria Tunnel will improve public transport, and walking and cycling connections between the central city and eastern suburbs.
Investigation and planning work is underway on these projects. Once consultation, detailed design, and consenting is complete, construction is expected to begin towards the end of this decade.