Port rail plan upsets roads lobby

By PAM GRAHAM

The road transport lobby is "jumping up and down" about the prospect of a rail link to Northland's port getting money from its funding body.

"If the Government wants to waste their money, it can take it out of everyone's funds, not ours," said Craig Turner, a Northland director of the Road Transport Forum.

The Northland Regional and Whangarei District councils this week received an $822,000 Government-funded report on the feasibility of building 16km of rail to connect Marsden Pt with Tranz Rail's North Auckland Line at Oakleigh.

It put the cost at $86.5 million, double previous estimates, and the money now has to be found for buying land if the 30-year-old idea is to progress.

Turner said the rail link was not viable.

But Whangarei Mayor Craig Brown said: "I think what the road transport people mean, is 'Don't spend money so that I can have competition'."

He will apply to Transfund, the road funding body, but also cited private equity and local government as fund sources.

The rail link would carry logs but also, ultimately, allow Northland's port to challenge Ports of Auckland.

If the North Auckland line was upgraded for heavier trains and the floors of tunnels lowered to accommodate new high-sided containers, Northland could compete with Ports of Auckland in the same way that its shareholder Port of Tauranga has.

Northland has moved its port to Marsden Pt, southeast of Whangarei. The port is deep and able to accommodate the next generation of large container ships.

It has only two wharves but has plans to expand.

The region has a limited roading network and Brown said that even though bypasses around the city had been given priority there were bottlenecks.

Residents and tourists share the roads with freight movers, which will increase in volume as forests in the region are harvested.

"I have no qualms in taking money and spending it to the benefit of all road users," Brown said.

Under the track buyback deal between Tranz Rail bidder Toll Holdings and the Government, Toll does not have to operate a new line, though it has first right of refusal.

The 16km line and another short line linking Timaru's port to the Clandeboye dairy factory have long been studied by Tranz Rail.

"The Government is keen to shift more freight from road to rail where possible," said Transport Minister Paul Swain.

"This is why the Government wants to invest in rail infrastructure as part of the proposal involving Toll Holdings and Tranz Rail."