Rail Funding Applications To Benefit Communities

27 June 2002

RAIL FUNDING APPLICATIONS TO BENEFIT COMMUNITIES

Tranz Rail has welcomed applications from five Regional and District Councils seeking Government support for six projects that, if approved, will have considerable benefits for local communities.

Four of the projects provide potential rail alternatives to tens of thousands of truck movements in communities in Southland, Timaru, Manawatu and the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Regional Councils and Tranz Rail have worked together to identify a total of six projects for funding from the Government's Alternative to Road and Regional Development funds established in the new Land Transport Strategy announced last March.

"While we need both successful road and rail industries in New Zealand, the Government announced its intentions in March to encourage more freight off the road and back onto rail," said Tranz Rail's Managing Director, Michael Beard. "Government said it wanted a system that recognised land transport was more than just roads and it wanted Land Transport Strategies to link into Government's social, environmental and economic goals.

"It wanted Transfund to reflect those policies in allocating funds for alternative to roading projects. Each of these projects will make that happen with ongoing environmental and safety benefits for those communities."

Mr Beard said the Government had made it clear during the March announcement that it wanted to make roads safer for the public by encouraging more freight onto rail and Government said it wanted Transfund's application of criteria for funding to reflect that policy.

"We regarded that announcement as a first but significant step in levelling the current playing field between road and rail transport. If successful these applications will provide a cost-effective alternative to roading and assist in achieving Government's goals of safer roads and lower CO2 emissions in keeping with its commitment to the Kyoto protocols.

"Providing a rail alternative is consistent with those commitments as trucks use five times more energy (therefore producing five times as much CO2) per tonne kilometre than diesel powered trains and are involved in about 20% - almost 100 - of road fatalities per year.

"Wear and tear on roads would also be reduced, a further benefit to motorists and ratepayers who share in the costs of road maintenance."

Among the applications being is support for work on the East Coast Main Trunk Line between Murupara and Tauranga that will also ensure that 1.5 million tonnes of logs remain on rail.

If that volume were to shift to trucking it would create an additional 142,000 truck movements on what is often a single lane state highway.

The dairy boom in the South Island has also prompted applications for project funding at the massive Edendale (Southland) and Clandeboye (Timaru) dairy sites.

Altering access to the Edendale site will remove the need to shunt across State Highway One and allow trains to travel direct from the factory to the Port Chalmers export facility near Dunedin, an alternative to 5,400 truck movements.

Adding a 10 kilometre rail link from the main trunk line to the Clandeboye factory will remove the need to truck coal, currently railed from Ohai in Southland to Temuka, from Temuka to the plant. It will also mean raw milk from North Canterbury could be railed to the plant while finished products from Clandeboye could then be railed directly to Timaru's export port facility, providing another option to 47,500 truck movements.

The last of the projects that would provide an alternative to significantly reduce trucking movements is a request for funding assistance in upgrading the Manawatu tunnels to allow the passage of hi-cube containers on the route through the gorge to Napier. The tunnels were built before the hi-cube 9 foot six inch containers came into use and they currently have to be trucked from Palmerston North to Woodville. There are an estimated 1800 truck movements annually through the gorge.

None of these projects would go ahead without this funding as they are not currently economically viable - one of the criteria for funding.

The final two projects seeking funding support under the Regional Development Fund are for assistance in upgrading the Wairio Branch Line that services carries coal from the Ohai Mine in Southland and to replace the ageing Cobden Bridge on the West Coast.

ENDS

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