Source: Stuff
Date: 6 April 2016
Author: Danica Maclean
State-owned enterprise KiwiRail says the cost to get the Northland rail network operating the same as other regions is somewhere between $700 million to a billion dollars.
Asset manager Dave Gordon provided those who packed into the April 4 Grow Northland Rail public seminar at Forum North with a breakdown of this estimate.
The meeting was organised following KiwiRail’s announcement in March that it was to mothball the line north of Whangarei in August because it is no longer viable.
Gordon says it would cost $240 million to bring the railway from Waitakere to Whangarei up to the same standard as the Hamilton to Port of Tauranga railway.
“If you’re going to change the signalling system, probably another $150 million, if you electrify… so you’re talking about a sum around about $500 million, there or there abouts.”
He says it would cost $109 million to do the same job on the line north of Whangarei.
“So you’re talking monies around about $600 million, that’s what the discussion is in Northland, before you talk about Marsden Pt [20km rail link].”
Gordon says if Northport is to become a major export port it will need to get products from regions south of Auckland such as the Manawatu.
“There is no efficient freight rail link through the Auckland isthmus. The rail network in Auckland is getting busier and busier, you would probably have to triple track the line from Newmarket or Avondale through to outside the Auckland isthmus area.”
He says that would cost another $2-3 billion.
“That is the scale of the investment required, if Northport is to become the equivalent of the Port of Tauranga.”
KiwiRail receives $200 million a year from the Government for the nationwide network.
Gordon says he has roughly 3500km of network to decide where that money is spent. He says the decision is driven by safety and then commercial opportunity.
Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter told the 400-strong crowd the transport budget needs to include the rail network.
She says a billion dollars a year is spent on new state highway projects.
“Putting a billion dollars into an 18 kilometre stretch of highway from Puhoi to Warkworth is not going to transform Northland’s economy,” Genter says.
She says that billion dollars would achieve enormous economic, environmental and safety benefits if it was spent on Northland rail.
Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis agrees the money is their “it just depends on priorities”.
He says a heavy laden truck causes the same amount of damage to the road as 1000 cars do.
“Do the trucks actually pay 1000 times more in road user charges?”
Davis says the trucks are being subsidised which is creating an uneven playing field.
“KiwiRail has to maintain the railway lines, they have to maintain the bridges, they have to maintain the infrastructure as well as buy their engines and buy their carriages and all that sort of stuff, I don’t think it’s a level playing field.
“How can rail possibly compete with road when it isn’t a level playing field?”
He says it makes sense to take as much of the heavy stuff off the roads as possible.
“Our lives are going to be jeopardised and the roads are going to be worse.”
Davis says Labour is calling for an integrated transport system which includes road, rail, and coastal shipping.
Better Public Transport spokesperson Jon Reeves raised a similar point, arguing that more funding should be given to the rail network.
“Because you know what? It doesn’t kill as many people.”
Whangarei MP Shane Reti says the Government is working towards an overall integrated land transport plan for Northland that includes road and rail.
He says the investment into roading is due to demand. A national freight demand study in 2014 showed 98.8 per cent of freight carried in Northland is by road.
Reti says rail has a place but getting the balance right is the challenge.
He reiterated recent Government statements that the line from Otiria to Kauri is not closing, but activity is being ceased on it as it is uneconomic for KiwiRail.
“If companies want to use the line in the future for transporting freight in commercial quantities and customers are prepared to pay commercial rates, KiwiRail will carry that freight.”
In regards to the link to Northport Reti says the Government understands the implications of logging truck movements to Northport, however the link remains an expensive project which includes 20km of rail over 20 hectares of reclaimed marine land.
“At this point in time, there is no sustainable business case for the Marsden rail link.”
NZ First Leader and MP for Northland Winston Peters says there is no shortage of demand for rail in Northland.
“But no-one is going to be putting their cargo on a train going five kilometres an hour countless times on the way to Auckland.”
Peters has been vocal about the future of rail in Northland and told those in attendance the topography of Northland and the damage already done to the roads makes the case for rail in the region.
Peters says the Government committed $1.25 billion towards a $2.5 billion Supercity road upgrade which covers 3.4km.
“For $220 million, 270km of track in Northland could be updated, lifting both speed and height restrictions so that high cube containers can be carried. That sum would fund a brand new line into Northport.”
Northland businessman Wayne Brown also spoke at the event, expressing his desire to use rail to transport products from the dairy factory he is building in Kerikeri to an appropriate port.
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