Mr Butson acknowledged a suspicion that the fate of the Overlander may have become intertwined with a dispute between Toll and Government agency Ontrack over access fees to the national rail network.

Toll has warned staff in Napier it may have to stop running a daily freight train to Gisborne from late next month if fertiliser company Ravensdown continues to oppose a price rise the rail operator is blaming on an increase in its access costs.

That has led to speculation Toll may be considering the future of services elsewhere in a bid to reduce such costs, and may hope to negotiate an access fee cut for the main trunk line if it abandons the passenger service in favour of freight trains only.

But Ontrack spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said his organisation did not believe Toll could negotiate any such discount, as a national rail access agreement signed in 2004 covered access to the entire network “on the basis of providing nationwide services”.

“This was a trade-off for [Toll] gaining exclusive access to the network for 66 years,” he said.

Mr Ramshaw said Ontrack was disappointed Toll was reportedly considering the future of rail services, and warned that his agency would look at how this was compatible with provisions of the national access agreement.

Looks like Toll has just provided multiple grounds for the immediate termination of their exclusive track usage agreement.

Terminate it and kick these rent-seeking monopolists back to where thay came from.

Disregarding the current state of the line and the antiquated rolling stock it still wouldn’t be a level playing field because beyond electrification there hasn’t any major improvement to the basic infrastructure of the line since it was opened. Its still the same narrow gauge No8 wire railway that it always has been.

The original idea of major public works of this type was to open up NZ’s heartland and provide a way of getting goods to market. The narrow gauge and tight curves were a straight out cost saving measure designed to provide an adequate rail link at a point in time when rail was the transport revolution. Fast forward a hundred years and that same budget infrastructure is expected to compete. Yet the government bailed out Air NZ. Go figure.

Basically, if the service is to run viably it has to get me to Auckland in the same time or LESS than it might take me to drive there and it has to get my FAMILY there at the same price or less, than the cost of the fuel for the car.

I am prepared to substitute some degree of money vs time. Cheaper rates for less convenience does help me accept the lost time, but not if I am running on a tight business schedule. I would imagine that this is going to be true of almost every “professional” whose time is worth more than the minimum wage.

Working out how to fix the track so the trains can go as fast as the rolling stock permits and adjusting, tuning and fixing that rolling stock to move along at a pace rather faster than I might drive on NZ roads will cost some money. Part of that cost is the neglect of the past couple of decades, and part of it is just needed improvement in the rail link.

I find it very EASY to believe that this link is currently not viable. I agree that the promotion has also failed miserably, but the necessity of actually doing work to improve the system has not yet been driven home to this government.

respectfully
BJ

Even with the considerable investment made in promoting public transport by the labour - green government rail will never compete when hundreds of millions are being spent on squeezing a few more cars onto Auckland’s motorway. By comparison rail hasn’t had that much spent on infrastructure since Vogel’s era.

Perhaps its time to look closely at partial regulation of ‘other’ transport to help rail to compete for the next couple of years until peak oil forces that decision. I’m not suggesting a return to the days of rail being continually bailed out by the government, but something must be done to ensure that rail is preserved as a viable alternative against the day we need it. And in my opinion that requires at least a semi regulated environment to achieve.

Toll bemoan the diminishing patronage of the Overlander, but how long since the service was actually promoted by them? How many people have seen a tv advert or cinema advert for the Overlander in recent years? The cruel irony is that media coverage of Tolls decision has resulted in the service being booked solid until it finishes.

I find it hard to believe that a train service running in both directions each day between NZ’s major cities wouldn’t be viable – provided it was promoted properly.

Our National Railway system was sold off for “Private Enterprise will do things better” reasons.
Later we had to “buy back the tracks” (which were not being maintained adequately). Now it seems we will have to buy back the rollingstock on any lines that are not currently profitable.

No doubt if and when the Railways are up and running, revamped and succcessful, (at “taxpayers expense”) a National etc Govt (or whatever Right of Centre group is around at the time) will sell them off again …

I’ve obviously been around fore too long!

… Instead of ceasing serices we should provide customers with more train services. The more trains the less time customers have to wait for the next train when they missed one. Its all about CUSTOMER SERVICE, thats what is happening all over in th world bur nor in New Zeland.

Again New Zealand, Shame for that decision !