20111011
The Save Our Rail Northland meeting held at Forum North in Whangarei on Tuesday the 11th of October 2011
To read the article by the Northern Advocate Newspaper ,click here and by the NZ Herald, here.
To hear Radio New Zealand National's coverage, click here
Viv Shepherd and Moea Armstrong opened the packed out meeting of approximately 120 people at 7p.m.
Vaughan Cooper, Growth and Infrastructure Manager for the Northland Regional Council spoke on aspects of our 30 year Transport Strategy for Northland.
For more from Northland Regional Council's Regional Land Transport Committee click here
Teresa Moore presented her business case study here. for the North Auckland Line which you can look at based on Kelvin Taylor's' 'Turning the Northland Rail Network into a Sustatianable Business.'
Teresa Moore is the Green Party Candidate for the Rodney Electorate through which the railway passes Te Hana, Wellsford, Helensville and Kumeu on its way to Auckland.
Iain Hill KiwiRail General Manager Freight,spoke on the Turnaround Plan High Cube Containers on Low Rider wagons to get through these tunnels.
John Johnson from South Pacific Express/ Orient Express : Check out the Gondwana Express slide show on our web-site: here .
Kelvin Davis, Labour party spokesman on Tourism and Lynette Stewart, Labour's candidate for Northland reiterated Labour's support for retaining and improving rail in Northland.
Rick Bazely, Green Party candidate for Whangarei spoke briefly and mentioned the 2010 Bolland Report providing independant advice on the costs and benefits of rail vs road for freight transport and the 2009 Ministerial report on Oil Prices and Resilience in the transport sector which we have had released under the Official Information Act.
Bob Scott, a property owner threatened with the bulldozing of the proposed Puhoi-Wellsford motorway extension through his land, spoke on how long this project is now likely to take.
Ken Goodhue, candidate for Democrats for Social Credit , spoke on some of the reasons why funding for the Marsden Link to NorthPort has not (yet) been granted.
A member of the public questioned why there was no emphasis being given to using Northland's railway lines for passenger transport.
Alan Preston questioned the2009 Northland Region Council's 30 year transport plan's lack of a mention of resilience - with regard to the May 2011 announcement by the International Energy agency that governments urgently need to reduce their vulnerability to increasing oil prices.
The meeting closed at about 9 p.m.
Save Our Rail Northland has submitted an application to the Charities Commission to become a charitable trust.
For more , see www.saveourrailnorthland.org.nz and if you'd like to get in touch with suggestions, our contact details are listed below.
And remember , we are not the only community in New Zealand fighting the battle to ensure that we have appropriate, efficient, sustainable and resilient transport choices.
To find out about the others , go to: www.thewayforward2011.org.nz