No.1 priority is the roads

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Re: Rail benefits outweigh cost, December 13 letter.

Niall, I don’t know what part of the country you come from but I think before you jump in with your opinion about the stuffed Gizzy to Napier rail link, you should come here to look at the destruction and also get support from the Gisborne Rail Action Group.

You and your followers (I doubt if there are many) sitting at computers and trying to mislead the ratepayers, councils plus the Government seem to be able to attract consultants, engineers, surveyors etc. I see millions of dollars of taxpayer and ratepayer funds getting flushed out the window.

You have had a crack at the new National-led Government, Niall, but I didn’t see you criticising the Labour Government over the past six years.

You talk of priorities. The No.1 priority is the roads, full stop.

You say that rebuilding the line in Esk Valley will be relatively cheap and that beyond it there is very little track damage . . . easy to say, but to open up the Napier to Wairoa line you are into millions of dollars.

Don’t forget the HBRC was paying all maintenance on that section of line to take a few logging trucks off the road.

You also said even the line all the way to Gisborne would be relatively cheap. Explain, please, how do you know? Like all the other desktop experts, you haven’t got a clue.

The saying is “nothing is impossible”. Well, to open the mothballed rail link is impossible because as fast as the rebuild would happen, another section will drop away.

Merv Goodley