A Queenstown bus company manager says he cannot see how the proposed $150 million Milford Dart Tunnel will be a profitable venture for the company behind it.
The man, who did not want to be named, told the Otago Daily Times he had never spoken to Milford Dart Ltd director Tom Elworthy about his plans, but believed it was unlikely to ever "get off the ground".
"I would have thought if you were investing $150 million, you would have come to see the bus companies. No-one has ever come to knock on my door.
"The company behind it should give up now and find something else to do. The numbers do not stack up. If it's only tour buses [the tunnel will cater for], they have a big problem."
The man did not intend to lodge a submission with the Department of Conservation on the proposal - if the tunnel was constructed it would become an option for tour groups, with the price quoted to anyone looking to charter a bus.
The man's company ran up to 10 coaches a day into Milford Sound in the peak summer season and the majority of those were chartered.
Inbound tour operators who chartered buses to Milford Sound were looking for the "cheapest option" for transport and if tunnel fees were more than $150 or $200 each way, "it would be cheaper for us to go via Te Anau as part of a South Island tour", he said.
In winter "the tunnel would be lucky" to have eight buses through it in a day. "At the maximum price we would pay of $200, this would give a daily turnover of $1600. Even in summer they would be lucky to turn over $10,000 a day in tunnel fees on the busiest day.
"With the tunnel cost of $150 million that is hardly a great return on investment - even before the cost of tunnel and access road maintenance is taken into account.
"It will make it a shorter day, but one of the problems is where it's going to come out, under the Hollyford Valley, we will miss half the photo stops, like the Mirror Lake [also known as Lake Matheson] and the Eglinton Valley, which is part of the Milford experience.
"It is interesting that no-one behind this proposal has approached the coach companies to see if we would use the tunnel ... we won't unless it's very cheap.
"The tunnel will not be financially viable and sooner or later the backers of this proposal will realise it." Milford Dart Ltd applied to build a single-lane commercial coach tunnel under sections of the Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks, linking existing public roads in the Routeburn and Hollyford Valleys.
The tunnel, first mooted in 2005, was designed to halve the nine-hour return journey for commercial tourist buses travelling between Queenstown and Milford Sound.
It would require the construction of about 150m of road in the Mt Aspiring National Park and an 11.3km tunnel under the Humboldt and Ailsa Ranges.
Earlier this month Doc announced it agreed in principle with the proposal and called for public submissions.
Doc spokesman Reuben Williams, of Wellington, said the Doc Southland Conservancy had received two submission so far, but the department was not doing any analysis on the submissions until the hearing for the proposal was scheduled.
Doc would only consider the impact of the proposal on land managed by the department - wider issues raised would be dealt with by resource consents required from the Southland District Council and Queenstown Lakes District Council.
