Wagon

Wagon is a Whangarei local group that established mid last year to

work on local issues that will improve our living environment for the

people. The rail network is something we have identified as a really

important piece of infrastructure that we must keep operational, to

ensure we have a diverse transport network and Wagon has decided to

divert most of its energy to this over the coming months.

We think at this point that the next step is to put pressure on NRC to

respond to Kiwirails proposal and hold them to what they have already

invested and promised to Northland residents and businesses, that

being the rail link to Marsden. It was less than a year ago that

Kiwirail and NRC were full steam ahead with this rail link. We hope

to meet with certain key individuals in the council staff to discuss

this in the near future.

We need support from the existing users of the rail and in particular

the potential new clients, especially the log transporting companies

that will be doubling their capacity over the coming years. Without

rail, this will all be on the roads.

I have lots more to share, but not appropriate to write to words.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to reading the minutes and

hearing the outcomes of this meetings.

Kindest Regards

James Bellamy.

28th of February 2011

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Memo

To: The meeting at Eco solutions 4th March 2011 (please can someone read out)

From: James Bellamy - as a spoke for Wagon.

Hello all,

I am sadly unable to make it to the meeting as I am currently in the

South Island, but do want to inform you all of what we have been

working on.

I attended the NRC council meeting recently, where Jim Quinn, the

chief executive for kiwi rail was presenting their current commercial

review of the national rail operations and in particular the reality

for them in Northland, from a commercial perspective.

I had some time to talk with him after his presentation and although

he never stated this, it seems clear from my perspective, especially

with their selection of certain biased statistics that they are

presenting, that Northlands rail is not a priority for Kiwirail and

they would want it to be shut down.

Jim has made it really clear that they are not looking at the social

issues surrounding northlands rail, and in many ways they were

presenting this to NRC in the hope that they can provide this

information. They are also seeking investment funding to bring

Northlands rail to a higher standard than it currently is, and again

NRC is a target for Kiwirail for this.

The Marsden Point Rail link is the key to this equation from my

perspective. As of a few months ago, ALL of the land has now been

purchased. It now sits in NRC’s hands.

If this rail link had been put in when it was proposed, Northlands

rail network would not be discussed in this manner that we currently

are. The rail would be a lot more profitable as it would have much

higher use, but currently huge amounts of freight is on the roads as

we all know, therefore showing rail as less profitable.

One question that I have not been able to answer or find any evidence

of, is if the rail link was a requirement as part of the consent

process for the Port at Marsden. If anyone can provide this, that

would be fantastic.

Kiwirails time frames:

Over the next few months they will look at the commercial

opportunities for Kiwirail as this is the weighting for their

decision.

Kiwirail will make a recommendation on the future of Northlands rail

in the second half of 2012, but the research for this decision is

happening now.

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