Aotearoa New Zealand's regions power the national economy, but too many depend on fragile transport links that can fail without realistic alternatives, the paper finds.
Rethinking Regional Connectivity calls for transport decisions to start with the outcomes each region needs: stronger productivity, greater resilience, reliable access to essential services and improved wellbeing outcomes.
Unreliable connections do more than delay journeys. They can disrupt freight and tourism, raise costs for businesses, and make it harder for people to reach healthcare, education, employment, and family. These impacts are felt most sharply in regions with few alternative routes and limited resources to maintain large networks.
The paper identifies strengths and vulnerabilities across every transport mode:
- Roads remain the backbone of regional connectivity, but many regions are heavily reliant on a small number of critical routes.
- Aviation remains a vital lifeline for remote communities, but the viability of many key routes is under pressure.
- Ports and coastal shipping carry almost all our exports and offer back-up when land routes fail, but are rarely considered as part of a connected national system.
- Rail can move freight and people with lower emissions and less pressure on roads, but much of its potential remains underutilised.
Author of the research and WSP Fellow Kali Mercier says regional connectivity should be treated as a national economic and wellbeing issue, not simply a transport issue.
"With increasing pressure on national finances, the country can't afford to think about roads, rail, ports and aviation in isolation. The question shouldn't be whether we start with road, rail, air or sea. We should start with the outcomes regions need and then consider which mix of transport connections is best placed to deliver them."
The paper says transport planning and decision-making are often undertaken through separate modal systems, each with different remits, objectives and planning frameworks. This can make it difficult to consistently compare options across modes or identify the combination of investments that delivers the greatest regional and national value.
Tairāwhiti shows what's at stake. The region's primary-production economy relies heavily on roads built across young, unstable geology. Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread network failures, while later slips again closed key state highway connections. With no functioning rail alternative and limited air and coastal options, simultaneous road closures can effectively isolate the region, disrupting freight, healthcare access and essential supplies.
Resilience doesn't mean guaranteeing every route will always remain open. It means reducing the risk of total isolation, restoring connections faster, and considering practical alternatives where they provide value.
The paper highlights the importance of:
- Taking a long-term view of the transport connections that regions already depend on.
- Comparing options across modes against shared outcomes, rather than assessing each mode in isolation.
- Considering where additional capacity, alternative routes or complementary transport options could improve resilience and reduce the risk of communities becoming isolated.
WSP Head of Transport Infrastructure James Koudounis says maintaining and strengthening existing transport routes should come first, alongside targeted investment in practical alternatives.
"Better-connected regions are one of the country's biggest untapped opportunities. When a slip or storm hits, stronger existing routes and better planning are the difference between disruption and isolation. Get that right, and there's real scope to improve productivity, strengthen resilience and deliver broader benefits for regional communities and the country as a whole.
"Regional air routes, rail connections, ports and coastal shipping all play important roles in different parts of the country. The opportunity is to consider them together and understand the value they create for businesses, communities and the people they connect to hospital, school, work and whānau."
Kali and James say they are encouraged by a recent Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee report, which called for port infrastructure decisions to take a whole-of-system view of road, rail and coastal shipping connections.
The paper is intended to start a national conversation involving central and local government, transport agencies, infrastructure providers, businesses, iwi and regional communities.
"If we plan around the journeys people and freight need to make, limited investment can work harder, regional economies can be more productive, and communities can be better prepared for the next disruption," they say.
With major reforms under way across transport, local government, infrastructure planning and climate adaptation, now is the time to have a national conversation about what good regional connectivity looks like, how different transport modes work together, and the outcomes New Zealanders expect from the system.
Download Rethinking Regional Connectivity here.