Rail talks back on track

Paul Little

Tense negotiations between rail operator Toll and Crown track manager Ontrack have made some ground this week.

Toll New Zealand chief executive David Jackson said talks would now push forward quickly after the two parties "aligned their objectives more", but would not comment further.

The Australian company's managing director, Paul Little, warned earlier this week that lack of progress with the Government was delaying Toll's capital-spending decisions and hampering the shift of freight from road to rail - a Government objective.

Under a deal last year, the Government agreed to spend $200 million upgrading the national track and Toll agreed to spend $100 million on trains.

But talks were shunted into a siding over the level of track access fees Ontrack wanted to charge Toll.

Little said the Government was asking Toll and, therefore, the rail industry to pay overnight for a 20-year track maintenance "deficit".

He said Toll would spend a lot more than $100 million on rail operations in New Zealand, but it would not commit to any capital spending until the business environment was stable.

Jackson said discussions would be "fairly compressed" in the next week.

"We are hopeful we can progress discussions promptly to get to a resolution so we can finalise some of our capital plans."