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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------