A Government suggestion that new locomotives may be assembled locally for its new KiwiRail concern has been panned by National but backed by the political head of Auckland's rail upgrade.
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard told Television One's Agenda programme yesterday that a local assembly operation was "probablya very logical thing to do from a currency perspective" and that the Cabinet was being asked to approve a scoping study.
He said the location for such an operation was likely to be KiwiRail's Woburn workshops in his Hutt South electorate, a point not lost on National's SOE spokesman, Gerry Brownlee.
"This smacks of pork-barrel politics," Mr Brownlee said.
"New Zealand's economic well-being will not be served by returning to the glory days of NZ Railways, which everyone knew was a huge waste of taxpayer resources."
But Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said last night that rocketing fuel prices were forcing an acceleration of the "renaissance" of rail, and he appealed for political consensus on ways to equip New Zealand and its workers to meet that challenge.
He said his council had led the way by sponsoring the rebuild of a fleet of rolling stock at KiwiRail's Hillside workshops in Dunedin.
"It's already happening, it shouldn't be controversial," Mr Lee said. "As we tackle our traffic congestion and transport problems in Auckland, we've been providing jobs in Otago and rebuilding industrial capacity - and what's wrong with that?"
