Southern Infrastructure Ltd chief executive Ross Copland confirmed on social media over the weekend that Acting Minister for Infrastructure Shane Jones had accepted the Fast Track Approvals Act referral application.
In his post, Mr Copland thanked the Queenstown Lakes District Council and Otago Regional Council for supporting the early stages of the proposal and ‘‘build the case for investment in offline mass rapid transit through multiple business cases over the past decade’’.
It is expected that the Queenstown Cable car would take up to 3000 passengers an hour each way and be located only 20 minutes’ drive from the airport.
‘‘The Queenstown Cable Car won't solve every transport problem and won't replace the need for effective bus, ferry and cycleway networks as Queenstown continues to grow,’’ Mr Copland’s post said.
‘‘But it will provide a high capacity spine, reliable trip times and an express connection between Queenstown's busiest transport nodes freeing up our roads for the people who need them most.
‘‘It will liberate the public buses stranded in the Frankton Road parking lot and perhaps most importantly for locals, we don't need to disrupt existing roads while we build.’’
Mr Copland said there had been a lot of behind the scenes work with successive governments and interest groups to get the proposal this far.
‘‘The Fast Track Approvals Act is a two-step process,’’ Mr Copland’s post said.
‘‘The next stage is where we will provide the finer details of the design, a detailed assessment of the effects and propose suitable conditions necessary for a consent to be issued.
‘‘We've received plenty of robust feedback through the referral process and some good points were raised that our team will address in the substantive application.’’
His post also paid tribute to politicians Phil Twyford, Shane Jones and Christopher Bishop for their ‘‘unrelenting focus on the critical role of infrastructure for unlocking housing supply and shaping urban form’’.
The resort town has been beset by rapid increases in population, leading to some of the worst congestion in New Zealand.
A website promoting the proposed cable car said traffic volumes increased by more than 20% in Queenstown since 2018, and population growth continues to be among the strongest in New Zealand.
Queenstown Mayor John Glover welcomed the proposal.
‘‘It's great that there's people looking to bring transport solutions, which are much needed, into the district.’’
He said council staff would advise how the proposal ‘‘lines up with our various plans, policies, strategies’’.
‘‘I imagine the Otago Regional Council will make their views known ... as with all of these things, the devil is always in the detail.’’
Mr Glover said they had been working with the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi about classifying new public transport modes.
‘‘At the moment a gondola or other mass rapid transport cannot be funded as public transport because it doesn't count under the approved definitions, which is crazy.’’
