The Daily Blog Open Mic – Wednesday – 15th June 2016

1. Planet Key/Joyce is out to wreck our regional rail by starving any maintenance funding for badly need drain cleaning!!!!!!!!!

   So they want to destroy our public asset!

   This by a corrupt government which is a crime against our state.

   READ THIS!

   http://gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/2346305-135/lets-work-with-hbrc-on-rail

   gisborneherald.co.nz

   Lets work with HBRC on rail
   by Tony Robinson Mayoral candidate Published: June 14, 2016 10:49AM

   Tony Robinson

   In 1983 I travelled on the railcar to Hawke’s Bay on an Ilminster Intermediate School exchange. I have never forgotten the many tunnels, fantastic views of the ocean and the way the train seemed to float out over the water at Waikokopu.

   Three weeks ago I met two extraordinary local retirees who have taken it upon themselves to maintain the Gisborne to Mahia section of the rail line. Initially they modified mountain bikes to run on the track. They cycled the line with their shovels and chainsaws clearing debris. For the past three years they have quietly worked away trying to keep the culverts clear from forestry slash.

   Every main watercourse along the track has a culvert. These are not round concrete pipes as one would imagine but formed tunnels cut through the bedrock. Every culvert had a concrete entrance which was originally protected by a gatehouse made from rail track. The gatehouses were designed to keep debris from entering the culvert yet still permit water to flow over the debris. The gatehouses were up to six metres high which would allow for significant debris build-up but still allowed the water to enter the culvert and flow away without risking damage to the track. Regular maintenance used to ensure the debris was not allowed to grow too high.

   These men invited me to travel the track with them and inspect it firsthand. We initially headed south from Maraetaha to the main washout and later headed north to the washout from Mahanga Beach.

   Apart from the three washouts, the rail line is in very good condition. However, the majority of the culvert gatehouses were missing or severely damaged.

   The gatehouse at Wharekakaho was gone and the culvert entrance covered by several feet of silt. A lake has formed and threatens to blow out the track. I saw clean-cut pine logs jammed in gatehouses.

   The three washouts on the track were the direct result of three factors — a manifestly inadequate preventative maintenance programme by KiwiRail, a cavalier attitude by forestry owners, and an unwillingness by the council to enforce conditions of resource consent. This must change if the line is to be protected from further damage.

   Two years ago Meng Foon decided the rail is dead and stopped fighting for rail for our region. By contrast the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council continued negotiations with KiwiRail and this week will announce plans for the Napier-Wairoa line. Meantime our council is about to destroy their offices valued at $6.9 million to build another office building costing $11.5m. The cost to the ratepayer will exceed $20m. Imagine what could have been achieved if our council had put a quarter of that towards reactivating the rail line?

   The reports prepared by KiwiRail and BERL identified break-even freight movement targets. In the months leading up to the washout that closed the line, freight movements were exceeding those break-even targets. Local squash freight alone could account for six months of movements in a 90-day period.

   If the Government/KiwiRail refuses to reopen the line then they should sell it to us for the nominal price of $1.

   Internationally, local line operators have been very successful. If we owned the line we could determine our destiny. It would make sense to build a strong and efficient joint venture with HBRC, providing economic benefits to both regions.

   The recent Herald poll chose a steam rail excursion as the top potential tourist activity for the region.

   The rail line offers massive freight and tourism opportunities. Will Tairawhiti miss out again? It is time for real change.

   End.

   Regular ‘Nash Notes’ column –

   Rail work needed before rain … (“Wairoa Star” – Thurs 19th May 2016)

   (by Stuart Nash – Labour MP for Napier/Wairoa)

   Last Sunday my son and I donned sturdy shoes and joined a couple of locals to walk the stretch of mothballed (not abandoned)

   rail track a couple of miles north of Opoutama to the major section that was washed out and caused the closure of the line in 2012.

   There were two main objectives of the trip.

   * The first, and perhaps most important, and certainly most pressing, was to better understand the risk the stretch of line between

   Wairoa and Gisborne faces from lack of maintenance to key culverts.

   A big downpour, let alone a major storm, would almost certainly see further sections of the track destroyed to the point where it really does become too expensive to fix.

   * The second objective was to better understand the track’s potential – both as a tourist route and as a commercial transport link between Gisborne, Wairoa and the port of Napier.

   * Both objectives were achieved.

   KiwiRail has always said it is not permanently closing this section of track but just not repairing it at this point in time. They always

   promised to continue to maintain the line’s infrastructure to ensure that washouts, like the 2012 event, didn’t happen again.

   Well I can assure you, the maintenance hasn’t occurred and there is a significant risk that blocked culverts will cause major and

   irreparable damage at some point over the next six months if urgent repairs and maintenance are not undertaken.

   Such a work programme would be inexpensive, easy to implement and provide a couple of jobs. All that would be required is to

   have a two-man permanent team solely responsible for ensuring the track was maintained and the culverts cleared and kept in good

   condition (the engineering of these is incredible considering they were built nearly 80 years ago).

   The most pressing task is to clear and repair culverts to ensure no further washouts occur and what is left is kept in good

   operational shape.

   I have argued in this column before that from an economic development perspective, an integrated transport infrastructure

   encompassing both road and rail is vital to maximise any economic development opportunities.
   Letting the line become a footnote in our region’s history would be a grave mistake.

   Ripping up the lines and turning it into a cycleway is not feasible as the cost would never justify the benefit. Innovative tourist

   adventures utilising the track are a possibility (the history of the track is amazing).

   For example, the single largest loss of life in New Zealand from a flood occurred when building this track and a monument seen

   from the track still exists to the victims of this disaster.

   I have written to the chief executive of KiwiRail and respectfully requested that he urgently put aside some money to ensure the

   track is maintained.

   I have also written to the mayors of Wairoa and Gisborne and to the chair of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council requesting support

   for such a proposal.

   It looks like we have saved the Napier-Wairoa line, but letting the Gisborne-Wairoa link fail should not be an option because we will

   regret this in the long-term.
   -ends-

   • +100…can there be demonstrations in Gisborne about this?….can it become an Election issue in this area?

     I am convinced this jonkey Nact government wants to run down rail on the advice of Goldman Sachs ( to Treasury)and then sell it off

     ..privatise NZ Rail , which Goldman Sachs excels at…ie flogging off state utilities to their mates…this when Britain i s seeking to take back state control back of its railways away from private ownership

     • THIS WILL BE AN ELECTION ISSUE NO DOUBT, AS WE SAW STURAT NASH WHO IS THE NAPIER MP FOR LABOUR IS HOT ON THIS AND FIGHTING HARD.

       THE GREENS HAVE JUST RELEASED A NEW RAIL POLICY TO SAVE THE GISBORNE RAIL.

       AND NZ FIRST HAVE THE BEST RAIL POLICY SETUP BEFORE THE LAST ELECTION, AND THAT HAS BSET GISBORNE TO NAPIER AS ONE OF THE FIRST RAIL LEGS TO RESTORE TO SERVICE, SO NOW ALL THREE OPPOSITION PARTIES ONBOARD HERE, WHO WANT THIS SECTION SAVED.

       NOTE; THE NORTHLAND LINE WAS WASHED OUT AT THE NORTHERN END EARLIER, AND THEY QUIETLY CLOSED THAT ONE TOO.

       I AM WONDERING IF IT IS A DELIBERATE SABOTAGE BY NATIONAL, AS THE ROAD TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION (RTA) GIVES BUCKETS OF ELECTION MONEY TO THE NATIONAL PARTY SO MAYBE THEY WANT PAYBACK CHOOKY?

2. The rail line needs to be fixed people need to fight the government on this issue otherwise they will sell all our valuable assets they did this to NZ Post. NZ Post was one of the best postal system in the world. they ran it down, got rid of thousands of workers many who had work for more than 10yrs. They stripped the assets and sold these and they set up a postal system in Auckland where they have a cheap pool of foreign labour taking advantage of their immigration policies of providing cheap labour at the expense of many NZers. The sad part about this is the TPPA has the potential for big corporate companies to bring their own cheap labour into our country NZ rail are doing this now with locomotives using cheap Chinese labour as is cafes, restaurants, call centres, farms, orchids, retail outlets to name a few. The Korean trains we have in Wgtn are always being replaced by buses wouldn’t it have been better to go for quality and have them made at our now disestablished Dunedin Rail workshops. What has this done to our manufacturing capabilities very very damaging. If you look at our they destroy our assets who does this effect? us as tax payers and our children and their children but they don’t care they are all wealthy and its every man for himself under there rule. We need to invest in our regions like Wairoa and Gisborne we need to get those trains up and running now.

   • +100 M.Gray..where are the Greens, NZF and Labour on this?!

   • 1000% M.GRAY.

     WE HAVE THE DUNEDIN FOKS WHO RUN THE TAIERI GORGE FOLKS HELPING TO GET OUR RAIL LEASED SO THE COUNCIL CAN RUN OUR REGIONAL RAIL, AS GOVERNMENT ARE NOT INTERESTED.

     AND WE HOPE GOVERNMENT SEE THE PPP OFFER TO LEASE THE LINE AS IN LINE WITH THEIR PPP POLICY OF EVERY BUSSINESS THEY NOW OPERATE. IF THEY DONT AGREE WE WILL FIGHT HARD DURING ELECTION TO DEFEAT THEM.

3. Another staggeringly high daily CO2 result:

   June 13, 2016: 407.36 ppm

   June 13, 2015: 402.58 ppm

   Up 4.78 ppm (versus 2005-2014 average of 2.11 ppm per annum).

   https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2

   Extinction of most life on Earth by 2040 via industrial CO2 emissions and planetary overheating is looking ever more likely.

   The most pressing issue of the times remains more-or-less completely unaddressed, and most official policy is geared to making the predicament worse faster.

   • +100 …scary alright

   • Afewknowthetruth
     THE CO2 EMISSIONS ARE THE DRIVIMNG FORCE AS IS OUR HEALTH TO USE RAIL.

     TYRE DUST POLLUTION IS ONE OF THE MOST FILTHY SOURCES OF OUR TIME AS IT POLLUTES OUR WATERS AND CAUSES CANCER,

     RAIL TRANSPORT DONT UISE TYRES, AND TRUCKS USE MANY LARGE TYRES SO ONE TRUCK CAN POLLUTE 100 TIMES WORSE THAN ONE CAR NIWA TELLS US IN REPORTS.

     WE WILL DIE IF WE HJIT A TRUCK AND THEIR POLLUTION WILL KILL US ALL QUICKLY OR GIVE US STROKES OR CANCER AND WILL SPEED UP CO2 AND OUR PLANETS DESTRUCTION.

   • The pricks that got rich doing the most damage to the planet and preventing meaningful progress to fixing it up will all be dead by then, so why should they give a f…?
     You know the wise and true saying that we don’t own the planet, we are just its caretakers for our children and grandchildren.
     Well the rich pricks who have f…d our planet obviously don’t give a s…t about their children or grandchildren.
     We have some of them in our country and in our government.

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