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About investing for the future
Saturday, October 20, 2012 • Bill Meek of Wairoa
I WISH to express my absolute dismay and disappointment at the closure of the east coast railway line.

This is an important area for New Zealand’s economy where the Government should have come to the party and made some sort of arrangement with KiwiRail to keep it open — $4 million is not much to come up with to keep an operation like this, when one considers the benefit to the region.

The closing of the railway has huge implications, particularly for the growth of the forestry industry which is in its maturing stage.

There are millions of cubes of timber about to be milled in this region. I seriously doubt there are enough trucks available to accommodate the transport which will be required. With the ever-increasing costs of fuel and damage to roads, transport of such huge volumes by trucks will become less and less viable.

A few passing lanes on an already heavily-used highway is no solution to the problem (for the same cost as re-instating the rail link; $4 million).

As for the upkeep of the railway line; it is either maintain the line or repair and maintain the roads to the extent necessary — seemingly a similar expense.

Then there is the danger to smaller vehicles using the roads with the heavier volume of increasingly larger trucks. We need the rail to be open to relieve the congestion on roads that were never built to cope with such traffic.

The Government has no problem finding millions of dollars for Treaty payments. Just think; most of the forestry workers on the Coast are young Maori. These young men will have to join the dole queue instead of earning a wage as forestry slows down, perhaps even disappears in some areas.

I find no problem in central government subsidising things like rail when this provides work and growth in manufacturing. To say it is not profitable is a nonsense. It is an essential service in this area and as such must be maintained. It will result in more employment and hence less outgoings in benefits and/or exodus to Australia, and therefore will be almost self-funding. In a few years it may have paid back the original amount.

It is not the responsibility of private enterprise to look after the welfare of such areas, it is the Government’s. They must contribute to this as a huge number of jobs are tied up with its closure.

Our rail must be saved; it is up to the Government.

It was built by the government of the day so East Coast goods could reach the markets. Nothing has changed; the rail is still every bit as necessary to the Coast as reinstating the Manawatu Gorge highway is to central New Zealand. The money is not going down a black hole; it will repay the investment with export returns and provide the essential link between the ports of Gisborne and Napier.

When built, this railway was an investment in the future. It is now more so than ever.

Should we lose our rail I for one will not be voting National at the next election.

If enough voters change, Messrs Tremain, Tolley and co will also lose their jobs. I do not think these people, who are supposed to represent us, tried very hard to retain this railway line.
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