The Daily Blog Open Mic – Friday 7th October 2016

True that Chooky, We will be releasing this evidence again to the Government Minsters and opposition MP’s this month and at a rail forum next month where Winston Peters will be attending to speak about it all as NZ Leader.

Labour appear to be lame so far, as Sue Moroney has said nothing about rail that impresses anyone yet, nor Andrew Little sadly.

The Green Party Transport Julie Anne Genter finally is stepping up now with their new Rail Policy.

NZ First has had for ‘RONI’ (Rail’s of National importance) for over two years now as the best rail policy of any party.

Interesting times we live in, as we finally had Port of Napier (on behalf of HB Regional Council) and the 92% port shareholders who are the HB people) has finally signed an agreement with Kiwirail on Friday 7th October to operate a log shuttle to the Napier port from Wairoa next year as the “wall of wood” finally arrives.

We with NZ First are fighting to get rail services restored all the way to Gisborne now also as it is now the most isolated city in NZ without a rail service with the most dangerous roads in the country now.

Hers a press release going out to Gisborne herald today.

6/9/16.

”The Wairoa to Napier rail line is back on track”

Over a month has gone since the meeting at Lytton High School to hear candidates for Gisborne Council speak to their position on rail.

Thursday we hear Allan Dick say options are available now HBRC & Port of Napier agreed to operate the rail from Napier to Wairoa was signed and will re-open after Kiwirail repair the line.

What is very clear is that the people of Gisborne want the rail back, so we are now moving to get the Gisborne section re-opened next.

We will pressure government in coming months to fix our Gisborne rail they broke by removing track maintenance funds. We need to work together to join both regions served by this rail for the good of all, as the establishment of the majority of the line will carry sufficient freight to make the line viable, we must utilise the rail for economic, environmental and social benefit for Gisborne as well.

As Winston said rightly today, “KiwiRail has succumbed to pressure, and with Napier Port will restore the line but it’s a job half-done, now KiwiRail must go to the next stage and reactivate the line between Wairoa and Eastland Port at Gisborne.”

http://nzfirst.org.nz/news/kiwirail-must-also-re-open-gisborne-wairoa-line.

We are not against trucks and truck drivers; when we raise the issue of rail it is because we want to balance the freight across all transport modes

At present the industry is so cut throat and competitive, the drivers get pressured to often work long hours for low wages and spend time away from whanau.

Geoff Simmons, senior economist at the Morgan Foundation, calls for a ‘rational comparison’ of the costs of moving freight by rail or road.

He suspects the way infrastructure costs are treated will be important factors

Geoff says;

“Until now, the public discussion has been limited to a bizarre joust between Steven Joyce, Bill English and Treasury on one side, with Mainfreight on the other fighting in Kiwirail’s corner.

Mainfreight’s directors and CEO have been calling for a more open-minded approach to funding rail, while Treasury and the Ministers (including Joyce who many believe is the champion of the road freight industry) have rebuked their calls as self-interested lobbying.

Who is right?

At the moment we can’t answer that question. The trouble is that we evaluate and fund road and rail in completely different ways, so we can’t compare apples with apples. We certainly shouldn’t write off rail as Treasury and the Ministers suggest until it is evaluated in the same way roads are.”

I agree with Geoff’s views as he is more qualified to understand the economic principals than I am, but those roads certainly aren’t much better than 40yrs ago, with many more much larger trucks now.

We often hear “nobody wants to pay for rail,” but Geoff has nailed it correctly saying we are paying significant taxes for the highways now as truck routes that we don’t use every day, right?

Most of us Gisborne folks use local roads we pay taxes 60% towards from our rates don’t we?

If we follow Geoff’s model and have our Council’s pressure Government to contribute a fairer share of adequate funding again into rail to;

• Reconnect rail –fix the Beach loop rail slips, (caused by lack of funding – Kiwirail admission)

• Replace the 16 rail sidings removed by Toll (after which rail freight dropped away while Tauranga placed sidings and doubled freight.)

• Place an inland port with rail services into our rail infrastructure.

We would then see our trucks feeding & pickup freight from the local rail inland port terminals and industry, all with a constant freight movement to keep the flow of freight to a smooth flowing system again, and give our overworked truck drivers a better life to spend family time with and regular sleep.

3 COMMENTS

CLEANGREEN October 7, 2016 At 11:05 am

The Paris Agreement Will Come Into Force On November 4.

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/the-paris-agreement-will-come-into-force-on-november-4/

NZ has signed up to it so how will NZ reduce road freight transport emissions since trucks carry over 90 % of our total freight now?

Will they now legislate to return half the freight task to rail as the only way to lower this 42% truck freight carbon emissions from our overloaded emissions statistic’s we have now or buy shoddy phoney Ukraine carbon credits to cover road freight emissions?

If we retain this government nothing will change here.
Chooky October 7, 2016 At 8:09 pm

yup…hope you have sent all this research/comments on this issue to the Labour spokespersons on transport and climate change

Greens should know this

NZFirst seems concerned about it
- CLEANGREEN October 8, 2016 At 8:01 am
  
  True that Chooky, We will be releasing this evidence again to the Government Minsters and opposition MP’s this month and at a rail forum next month where Winston Peters will be attending to speak about it all as NZ Leader.
  
  Labour appear to be lame so far, as Sue Moroney has said nothing about rail that impresses anyone yet, nor Andrew Little sadly.
  
  The Green Party Transport Julie Anne Genter finally is stepping up now with their new Rail Policy.
  
  NZ First has had for ‘RONI’ (Rail’s of National importance) for over two years now as the best rail policy of any party.
  
  Interesting times we live in, as we finally had Port of Napier (on behalf of HB Regional Council) and the 92% port shareholders who are the HB people) has finally signed an agreement with Kiwirail on Friday 7th October to operate a log shuttle to the Napier port from Wairoa next year as the “wall of wood” finally arrives.
  
  We with NZ First are fighting to get rail services restored all the way to Gisborne now also as it is now the most isolated city in NZ without a rail service with the most dangerous roads in the country now.
  
  Hers a press release going out to Gisborne herald today.
  
  6/9/16.
  
  ”The Wairoa to Napier rail line is back on track”
  
  Over a month has gone since the meeting at Lytton High School to hear candidates for Gisborne Council speak to their position on rail.
  
  Thursday we hear Allan Dick say options are available now HBRC & Port of Napier agreed to operate the rail from Napier to Wairoa was signed and will re-open after Kiwirail repair the line.
  
  What is very clear is that the people of Gisborne want the rail back, so we are now moving to get the Gisborne section re-opened next.
  
  We will pressure government in coming months to fix our Gisborne rail they broke by removing track maintenance funds. We need to work together to join both regions served by this rail for the good of all, as the establishment of the majority of the line will carry sufficient freight to make the line viable, we must utilise the rail for economic, environmental and social benefit for Gisborne as well.
  
  As Winston said rightly today, “KiwiRail has succumbed to pressure, and with Napier Port will restore the line but it’s a job half-done, now KiwiRail must go to the next stage and reactivate the line between Wairoa and Eastland Port at Gisborne.”
  
  http://nzfirst.org.nz/news/kiwirail-must-also-re-open-gisborne-wairoa-line.
  
  We are not against trucks and truck drivers; when we raise the issue of rail it is because we want to balance the freight across all transport modes
  
  At present the industry is so cut throat and competitive, the drivers get pressured to often work long hours for low wages and spend time away from whanau.
  
  Geoff Simmons, senior economist at the Morgan Foundation, calls for a ‘rational comparison’ of the costs of moving freight by rail or road.
  
  He suspects the way infrastructure costs are treated will be important factors
  
  Geoff says;
  
  “Until now, the public discussion has been limited to a bizarre joust between Steven Joyce, Bill English and Treasury on one side, with Mainfreight on the other fighting in Kiwirail’s corner.
  
  Mainfreight’s directors and CEO have been calling for a more open-minded approach to funding rail, while Treasury and the Ministers (including Joyce who many believe is the champion of the road freight industry) have rebuked their calls as self-interested lobbying.
  
  Who is right?
  
  At the moment we can’t answer that question. The trouble is that we evaluate and fund road and rail in completely different ways, so we can’t compare apples with apples. We certainly shouldn’t write off rail as Treasury and the Ministers suggest until it is evaluated in the same way roads are.”
  
  I agree with Geoff’s views as he is more qualified to understand the economic principals than I am, but those roads certainly aren’t much better than 40yrs ago, with many more much larger trucks now.
  
  We often hear “nobody wants to pay for rail,” but Geoff has nailed it correctly saying we are paying significant taxes for the highways now as truck routes that we don’t use every day, right?
  
  Most of us Gisborne folks use local roads we pay taxes 60% towards from our rates don’t we?
  
  If we follow Geoff’s model and have our Council’s pressure Government to contribute a fairer share of adequate funding again into rail to;
  
  • Reconnect rail –fix the Beach loop rail slips, (caused by lack of funding – Kiwirail admission)
  
  • Replace the 16 rail sidings removed by Toll (after which rail freight dropped away while Tauranga placed sidings and doubled freight.)
  
  • Place an inland port with rail services into our rail infrastructure.
  
  We would then see our trucks feeding & pickup freight from the local rail inland port terminals and industry, all with a constant freight movement to keep the flow of freight to a smooth flowing system again, and give our overworked truck drivers a better life to spend family time with and regular sleep.

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