Archive - this information is for reference only and no longer maintained.

This page relates to the 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

This section provides an overview of the requirements for approved organisations and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (for its own activities) to prepare their programme of transport activities for input to a regional land transport plan (RLTP).

This is general information about developing programmes of activities for the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP). You can find specific information about development of the forthcoming NLTP at the Waka Kotahi planning and investment news page. This includes information on timelines and key dates.

Latest NLTP news

Preparing a programme of activities for the RLTP

All local and regional activities proposed for inclusion in the NLTP must also be included in an RLTP. This requires:

  • approved organisations, including regional councils, territorial authorities and approved public organisations (section 5 and section 23 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 ((LTMA)) to develop their transport programmes, through which they propose activities for inclusion in an RLTP and submit these to the appropriate regional transport committee (RTC) (sections 16 (3)(a) or (b) & (c)(i)
    Land Transport Management Act 2003(external link)

Setting of requirements for activities submitted for inclusion in an RLTP

Under the LTMA, we (Waka Kotahi as investor) are required to set the form in which RLTPs are to be submitted for consideration for the NLTP. This, in turn, prescribes the form in which approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) need to submit their proposals for inclusion in an RLTP. We set these requirements and provide the tool to submit transport programmes through Transport Investment Online (TIO).

Transport Investment Online(external link)

Criteria for NLTP inclusion and funding approval

The criteria that apply to activities proposed for inclusion in an RLTP and the NLTP are less stringent than those that apply to activities for which funding approval is sought.

Activities proposed for inclusion in an RLTP or the NLTP are often at an early stage of their development, when limited information is available. The minimum requirements for activities submitted for inclusion in an RLTP/NLTP are to provide enough information to profile and prioritise the activities against available funding in each activity class.

Minimum requirements for inclusion in 2021-24 NLTP [PDF, 124 KB]

Activities proposed for funding approval need to be sufficiently developed to enable approval under section 20 of the LTMA. The information required for an activity to be considered for funding approval at the time of NLTP adoption is set out in the respective TIO template for that type of activity, include a fit-for-purpose business case, its readiness to proceed and enough information to profile and prioritise the activity against available funding in the appropriate activity class. 

Land Transport Management Act 2003, section 20(external link)

Transport Investment Online(external link)

Requirements for programmes and activities 

We expect that approved organisations, NZ Police and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) meet a range of requirements when developing their transport programmes.

Planning and investment principles

Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) are expected to apply our  investment principles in developing their transport programmes and activities.

Investment principles 

Use of the Business Case Approach

We expect approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) to use the principles of the Business Case Approach for all activities proposed for funding from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).

Business Case Approach guidance

Evidence based justification

All activities that are proposed for funding from the NLTF must be supported by appropriate evidence.

Evidence is to be provided in the TIO fields and uploaded as supporting information, including strategies, business cases, activity management plans, regional passenger transport plans, economic evaluation worksheets, etc.

Transport Investment Online(external link)

Information requirements for activities

When developing activities, approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) must ensure they complete the required fields in TIO with the information relevant to the activity's business case stage and its readiness for either NLTP inclusion or funding approval at the time of NLTP adoption.

Transport Investment Online(external link)

We expect approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) to monitor the impacts of their land transport investments with either centralised data, or local data when centralised data is not available. Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) need to select benefits and measures from the benefits framework. The benefits management section of InvestHub provides links to guides and manuals to provide instruction on how to fulfil the benefits requirements. 

InvestHub(external link)

Safety audits

We require that approved organisations, KiwiRail and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) apply the Safe System audit procedures to the development of any improvement or renewal activity that involves vehicular traffic, and/or walking and/or cycling, proposed for funding approval from the NLTF. The road safety audit page provides details of when the audits must be undertaken or how to declare an exception.

Safe System audit procedures for projects

Safe System audit

Optimisation

We expect approved organisations, NZ Police and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) to optimise their programme of transport activities when they develop them for RLTP and / or NLTP inclusion.

At a programme business case level, this involves determining the best mix of interventions, the sequencing and scheduling of their components and relative scale of the components to achieve efficient allocation of resources over time and best value for money.   

For activities, programmes and packages generating and assessing options as part of business case development has the following requirements:

  • The intervention hierarchy should be applied to optimise existing and proposed new investments.
  • The Multi criteria analysis tool and its critical success factors is recommended for use.

The appraisal summary table (AST) is required at the short list and preferred option stage. The AST summarises non-monetised and monetised benefits and the whole of life costs.  This information assists decision makers to optimise trade-off decisions. 

Consultation and engagement

Programme consultation is handled by the RTC when it consults on the RLTP. However, we need to consider the views of affected communities under the LTMA, to give early and full consideration of alternative options. This implies a need to consult or engage at the activity level in the course of activity development. This may also be required under other legislation, eg Resource Management Act. 

Profiling and prioritisation

The Investment Prioritisation Method (IPM) is used to profile and prioritise activities.

2021-24 NLTP Investment Prioritisation Method

Investment profile

Approved organisations, KiwiRail and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) are required to use the  IPM to determine the investment profiles of their improvement activities, and to inform their decisions to submit activities for inclusion in an RLTP.

We will also profile each activity, using the IPM. The resulting investment profile will help ascertain the activity’s priority for inclusion and programming in the NLTP.

Prioritisation

Our prioritisation of activities for programming in the NLTP uses the IPM priority order, which sets out the priority order assigned to each of the 3-factor investment profiles developed through the rating assessed for each of those three criteria.

2021-24 NLTP Investment Prioritisation Method

Process

For the high- level process steps on developing programmes of activities for inclusion in an RLTP or NLTP please see

Process for inclusion of activities in regional land transport plans