Mayor says money better spent on roads than Overlander

Patronage of the Overlander has dropped by 40,000 over the past two years. Picture / Greg Bowker

Government money would be better spent on roading than trying to keep the Overlander train running, Rangitikei Mayor Bob Buchanan has said.

Mayor Buchanan was speaking after Green MP Sue Kedgley yesterday passed through the Rangitikei district on the Auckland-Wellington train as part of her party's campaign to save the service.

The Greens want a two-year stay of execution so the Overlander can be better marketed and made profitable.

Wanganui Green Party convenor John Milnes met Mrs Kedgley at Marton station and presented her with 847 signatures of people wanting to save the train.

But Bob Buchanan told the Wanganui Chronicle he believed as well as being under-utilised the train was a "commercial risk".

"The amount of people you see coming on and off the train is ridiculous," he said.

"If they're going to do it up it's got to actually be used. Financially it would be a commercial risk that I wouldn't take myself and I certainly wouldn't want to see any ratepayer money going into it."

Toll announced its plan to withdraw the service after the Government rejected a request for a $1.75 million operating subsidy and a $500,000 one-off capital grant for rolling-stock upgrades.

It said annual patronage had dropped in the past two years from 90,000 to 50,000 passengers.

Horizons Regional Council, Auckland Regional Council, Environment Waikato and Greater Wellington Regional Council have joined forces to save the service, saying its demise would have a severe economic impact on the towns it passes through.

But Mayor Buchanan said the Overlander was the responsibility of central government rather than local and regional government.

"It's hard enough for us small councils to get our roads up to scratch as it is," he said.

- WANGANUI CHRONICLE / NZ HERALD STAFF