KEY POINTS:
The Government's buy-back of the railways might just prove to be a winner, but for a reason certain to raise a head of steam among train enthusiasts.
The best use of the railway system might be converting it into roads. The purchase, if nothing else, provides an opportunity to seriously consider this.
The railway network dates back to 1863, peaked in 1952 with 5700km of track and now has 3898km of track with 150 tunnels and 1780 bridges, more than half of which are between 80 and 90 years old and approaching the end of their normal life spans.
Running along these tracks are 140 locomotives, mostly built in the 1960s and 1970s, pulling about 4000 freight wagons. About 900 freight trains and 52 inter-city passenger trains run each week, according to track operator Ontrack.
Set aside and retain the tiny portion of track used for the increasingly successful 2200 passenger services a week in Wellington and 1300 a week in Auckland.
On a tonne per km basis railways shift about 18 per cent of freight within New Zealand. The remainder is moved by about 90,000 trucks pulling 25,000 trailers around the country's 10,895km of State Highways (including a paltry 170km of motorways) and 82,000km of local roads.
Since the removal of protection of rail freight in 1982 trucks have steadily increased road's share of freight movement. The number of heavy trucks on the road grows at around 3 per cent a year and over the past decade heavy truck travel has increased by around 25 per cent to 2900 million km a year.
The motivation of those lauding the Government's purchase of the railways appears largely to be the prospect of getting heavy trucks off the road. Without a return to rail protection, this is an unlikely prospect.
Although some railways are increasing freight volumes, truck volumes are increasing more rapidly and rail's share of total freight movement is declining globally.
Even if the volume of freight on New Zealand's railways doubled the impact on truck numbers would be negligible, thanks to expanding total freight volumes and the two modes' respective shares of them.
Its now estimated that between 10 per cent and 40 per cent of the cost of most goods is in what's called the supply chain. Walk to the local market and buy an organically grown lettuce and the freight component is modest. But pick up a T-shirt for a grandchild and its a different story. The T-shirt was probably made in China, from cotton possibly from Uzbekistan and elastane made from Middle East oil and the dye to colour it from Germany. That's a lot of freight movement.
New Zealand's rail network is constrained by more than its ageing bridges and locomotives. Its 3ft 6in (1067mm) narrow gauge tracks limit the speeds at which trains can operate and its 150 tunnels are too small to accommodate double-stacked containers, which have boosted rail efficiency overseas.
There's a constraint, too, in where trains can go. The advantages of rail are its dedicated corridor, a lower number of drivers needed per tonne of freight and, in the past, lower emissions from trains per tonne moved.
Taking the last of these first, the introduction of Euro 5 emissions standards in Europe this October and inevitably eventually in New Zealand will mean that in some urban environments the truck exhaust will be cleaner than the air entering its engine. Truck noise levels have also reduced significantly.
While the fuel used by an efficient train will be less than that used by trucks carrying the same weight, this ignores the fact that freight is invariably carted by trucks at one end of the train trip and often at both ends. And at the transition, fuel is used by forklifts or container cranes and increasingly used to maintain the temperature of freight while its waiting to be moved.
The laws of physics determine that it takes the same amount of energy to shift the same amount of freight the same distance in the same time. Differences arising from the mode of transport, whether its an aircraft or an ox-cart, are relatively minor.
As far as driver efficiency is concerned, change is on the way. Most of the major automotive manufacturers are working towards driverless vehicles and some are predicting that they are less then 20 years away. All of the technology exists now, and some of it is already appearing in production vehicles.
An example is active cruise control, which automatically applies the vehicle's brakes if radar detects its getting too close to the vehicle ahead. It's conceivable that within a generation the truck driver will complete his freight pick-ups, head to a freight route terminal, key the truck's destination and send it automatically on its way. He or she will then take over an arriving truck and drive it on its delivery route.
That leaves the dedicated corridor and the question of how best to use it. Ontrack looks after a total of 18,000ha of land and leases. Operation of 140 trains a day doesn't seem like a particularly efficient use of the land.
Ripping out the tracks and building a freight road would certainly get trucks off the existing highway system. The remaining railway lines have survived because they service major freight routes. Without exception they run parallel to the busiest highways for the same reason.
Structures designed to accommodate 100-tonne locomotives should have no difficulty in handling 50-tonne trucks. The cost of conversion to roads would be high as it would include new access points, removal of at-grade crossings and widening of some tunnels.
However the taxpayer would have to fund only the infrastructure in contrast to the case with rail, the rolling stock would be paid for by carriers. Tolls paid by truckers would meet much of the construction cost over time.
Getting the majority of trucks off the existing parallel highways would also reduce maintenance costs on them and would greatly extend their operational lives. The billions of dollars needed to upgrade the railway system, even without widening the gauge or removing level crossings, would obviously be saved.
There would be a major social advantage in getting through-trucks off the streets of places like Wellsford, Tirau and Ashburton. Locals could be confident that any truck in town is working there for the benefit of the local community.
The overall transportation of goods would be faster and probably more efficient through the elimination of inter-modal handling with its cost, time, breakages and losses.
Under almost all circumstances it is more efficient to move freight on a truck than on a train, which is why road transport claims an ever-increasing share of the market worldwide.
It may well be that ultimately the cost of building a national freight road is too high when compared with the cost of rebuilding the railway network. But this is surely an ideal time to take a thorough look at the issue.
* Jon Addison a former editor of the 8 O'Clock Saturday sports newspaper admits to "some bias". He was founding editor of New Zealand Trucking magazine and ran it for 15 years.
