KiwiRail has no value: English

KiwiRail as a business is just about worthless, Finance Minister Bill English said yesterday when he accused the previous government of failing to fund the commitments it made to the network.

He said the Labour Government, which bought the railway from Toll and renamed it KiwiRail, had made a string of commitments which added up to about $3 billion but it allocated only about $120 million.

"The Government is now the owner of a business which probably has no value, in fact negative value, having just eight months ago paid almost a billion dollars for it," Mr English said in Parliament.

Mr English said the Government had decided to invest $39.9 million on 29 new passenger carriages for the Tranz Scenic route and $75 million for 20 new locomotives.

- NZPA