But they do not have to take my word for it.
The Greens campaigned for an Auckland-to-Hamilton passenger rail service that Labour agreed to.
In 2023/24 the taxpayer and ratepayer subsidy was estimated at $92 per passenger. Today the lowest advertised bus fare is about $20. A free bus service would have saved money.
Green transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter says:
“These tracks are already there, so we should use them.”
And that is the issue. It is a single-track railway and we already use it.
New Zealand has a freight railway. Ninety-three per cent of the network is single track.
A container does not care if its train waits in a siding for an oncoming train.
Passengers do.
Passenger trains need timetables. They need speed. They get priority.
KiwiRail itself says the single-track limits its capacity.
The Greens propose passenger trains through the Kaimai tunnel on our busiest freight track. Their plan says the line can take a passenger service by “scheduling adjustments for freight”.
In English: stop the freight train and let the passenger train through.
Do that often enough and shippers will send the freight by road.
We would be nuts to spend $4 billion to divert freight from rail to road to create a heavily subsidised passenger rail service.
The Honourable Richard Prebble CBE is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004. This article was sourced HERE
Green transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter says:
“These tracks are already there, so we should use them.”
And that is the issue. It is a single-track railway and we already use it.
New Zealand has a freight railway. Ninety-three per cent of the network is single track.
A container does not care if its train waits in a siding for an oncoming train.
Passengers do.
Passenger trains need timetables. They need speed. They get priority.
KiwiRail itself says the single-track limits its capacity.
The Greens propose passenger trains through the Kaimai tunnel on our busiest freight track. Their plan says the line can take a passenger service by “scheduling adjustments for freight”.
In English: stop the freight train and let the passenger train through.
Do that often enough and shippers will send the freight by road.
We would be nuts to spend $4 billion to divert freight from rail to road to create a heavily subsidised passenger rail service.
The Honourable Richard Prebble CBE is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004. This article was sourced HERE
5 comments:
The Greens policy is like a lot of nonsense being promised in this election, nonsense!
They are making up sound bites and trying to push it as policy.
It gets the non thinkers all very excited, similar to let’s ban oil and gas in NZ.
The non thinkers went ahead and the country is now in the grip of an energy crisis,
To give an example.
Let’s make the country 100 percent renewable and ban all fossil fuel.
Pair that with renewables are cheaper.
The reality, we produce 93 percent of our electricity by renewables and our electricity is unaffordable.
Why is it ok to spend billions of $$ on renewables by fleecing everyone with high electricity prices but not let companies explore for oil and gas at their own expense?
If you want a reliable energy network for the future we will need all options on the table.
So nice to see common sense does exist. Thank you Richard
Might be cheaper to pay all the current users an unemployment benefit the value of their current wage than to run the train for them!
The CRL is laughing at you, Roger. And we’re laughing with it.
Actually most of the railway between Auckland and Hamilton is double track, but it needs much straightening to enable acceptable sppeds for commuter transport.
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