Court Simon; Wood MichaelSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. I went to visit the Let's Get Wellington Moving project consultation team a few weeks ago at the Basin Reserve. I'm interested in that project Minister. Four options have been proposed by Let's Get Wellington Moving. A couple of them involve putting a tunnel through Mount Victoria and relieving the congestion around the Basin Reserve. That's a similar outcome to a project put forward by a previous Government and unfortunately shot down in 2015. What I am concerned about though Minister is the amount of time that the project management team believes it will take to start the project. They're proposing with additional rounds of consultation in between design and consenting that they won't put shovels in the ground till 2028.So my question to you Minister is: what on earth could be done to get any mode any project of Let's Get Wellington Moving's four options up and running sooner than 2028? And has the Minister taken any actions to designate protect any of those routes or to acquire the land that will be needed to build that project? Thank you Minister.Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): A few quick points there. The first is that I would have to point out that the proposals put forward in this round of consultation are significantly different to the 2015 proposals which were roundly rejected by the people of Wellington which would have had a fly-over structure that would have destroyed the ambiance of the Basin Reserve. This proposal focuses on a grade separated solution around the Basin Reserve and it's focused on mass rapid transit as compared to the previous proposals.I take the member's point on board about the need to advance solutions more quickly. It's not a bad position for us to be in with this programme where the main criticism is that people want us to do what's proposed more quickly than is there. What I can indicate to the member is that across the partners—being Greater Wellington Regional Council Wellington City Council and the Crown—I've initiated discussions with the chair of Greater Wellington and the mayor Andy Foster about steps that we can take to bring that forward and we'll consider that further as a part of the consultation process. We obviously wouldn't get into designation and acquiring land until we have made final decisions on the preferred option.SIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you. So it's seven years since Let's Get Wellington Moving was proposed as a grouping of council and the New Zealand Transport Agency and the regional council. It's quite shocking that even though there are many options available they all seem to follow the same route or series of routes and yet no work has been done to designate or protect the route or acquire land. I think the people of Wellington would like the Minister and the Government to at least make that commitment even while all of the other planning and design matters are worked out because in the end it doesn't matter to the people of Wellington whether it's a bus or a train or where the trees are planted along the route they just want to get Wellington moving and to be on a bus or a train. So is there anything that the Minister or this Government could do to get Wellington moving?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): As I said to the member before designation and land acquisition wouldn't occur until parties have decided preferred options and there are actually some quite important differences between the options that are chosen including in terms of the route. The other point I'd just make to the member is that Let's Get Wellington Moving to a large extent is publicly focused on the mass rapid transit options but actually other work is already under way. Improvements to pedestrian facilities are currently being carried out in the Wellington central city at the moment and quite good work in terms of advancing improvements to the golden mile" and Hutt Road and the quays is advancing with expected delivery before the end of this term. So there is progress that we will see before we get into the really big piece around mass rapid transport."