The Government has made the rebuilding of the railway through to Wairoa and to Gisborne a “low priority”, indicating it has little idea about the needs of rail customers, regional development and how to fight climate change.
It has told these communities that rail is too expensive and the money needs to go to making State Highway 2 more resilient. This is no more than is expected from National, which has a history of prioritising road transport over rail.
TRAC (The Rail Advocacy Collective) has no problem with making SH2 resilient, but this should not be at the expense of rail.
Although the damage in the Esk Valley looks disastrous and spectacular, the actual cost to rebuild that line will be relatively cheap. Even the line all the way to Gisborne would be relatively cheap when all of the social, health and transport advantages are factored into the rebuild. NZTA would be saving millions each year on road maintenance costs too.
A lot of work north of the Esk Valley has already been completed by KiwiRail and beyond the Esk Valley, there is very little damage to the track now.
