KEY POINTS:
Auckland political leaders are eager for the Government's big rail buy-back to simplify the highly complex way in which the region's passenger trains are run.
"The Auckland rail network and service is extremely complicated - it is Byzantine in its complexity," regional council chairman Mike Lee said of the existing system in which national operator Toll has been one of an array of participants.
"What the Government buy-back of Toll will mean is there is one less player on the scene, and we can therefore look forward to a much more integrated, coherent rail system."
Council deputy chairman and Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett said transport governance in the region, whether about roads or rail, had been made "so complex there must surely be opportunities to simplify things".
Although Auckland is the only part of the national rail network where Toll does not operate passenger services, the company holds key roles in maintaining its trains and carriages and in leasing its locomotives and their drivers to the regional transport authority.
The authority, which is bankrolled by its regional council parent and Government subsidies, then makes the locomotives and drivers available to French-owned Veolia Transport to run these and the region's own multiple-diesel units to timetabled services.
Veolia, which directly employs staff to drive those units and to manage the trains, depends both on Toll to keep all its elderly rolling stock in working order and on Government agency Ontrack to guard against malfunctions to the tracks and signals.
Although such failures are becoming less frequent as work progresses on the western railway line duplication project, a serious signals breakdown yesterday morning made trains up to 45 minutes late between Waitakere and Britomart.
Mr Lee said that although he believed Toll did "overall a pretty good job", the involvement of so many participants produced a system which was "too crowded, barely functional and ramshackle".
That made it difficult for the public to know who to blame for train breakdowns or delays.
Although the Government has yet to decide whether to set up a new state enterprise to operate trains, or establish a separate operation within Ontrack to do so, Mr Lee said his strong preference would be for as few organisations as possible.
He hoped yesterday's buy-back decision would ultimately lead to the reintegration of Auckland into the national network.
He also acknowledged a possibility that Veolia may eventually have to be "phased out" of Auckland rail operations for the sake of recreating a "vertically integrated" system, although he emphasised such a decision was not his to make.
Veolia country manager Arthur Bruce said his company welcomed the new certainty the Government decision was offering the rail industry, and believed it had plenty more value to add to the Auckland network.
* WHO OWNS WHAT
Tracks and signals owned by the Crown and operated by Government agency Ontrack.
Multiple diesel-units and carriages owned by Auckland Regional Council; maintained by Toll.
Locomotives owned and maintained by Toll.
Train services contracted by Auckland Regional Transport Authority and run by Veolia Transport.
Locomotive drivers employed by Toll, managed by Veolia.
Multiple diesel-unit drivers and all other train staff employed by Veolia.
