CEAC has received devastating shocking evidence about Kiwirail Management apparently allowing destruction of public assets from reliable sources earlier last week as to the mishandling & destruction of Kiwi Rail rolling stock of relatively newer wagons needlessly cut up and others sold to foreign Government when our Government and citizens need them to finally increase rail freight services to begin to lower our transport climate emissions, caused by overuse of truck freight, so we are again calling for government control of Kiwirail.

These public owned new wagons are only three years old without any public knowledge or notification as owners of the asset. The info contained is yet more confirmation that KiwiRail is "out of control" and needs to be reined in by Government, showing that Kiwirail needs to be back under direct control again as it was for 100 yrs until it was wrongfully sold under a National Government in 1992.

We have already requested this in a letter to the government in January this year 11/1/21 and was post here on Scoop as;

“CEAC wants Kiwirail's future to be NZ Government Railways, again under direct ministerial control as it was for 100yrs”. (See below)

Couple this to information received separately, that over 100 IH Container Wagons (one of the most modern wagons in KiwiRails fleet, built since 2011) have and continue to be modified into FIH Log wagons at the Wagon Depot in Mt Maunganui and you scratch your head.

FACT; - There is unprecedented demand for container wagons across the country according to our sources, yet modern container wagons are being converted to Log wagons.

Surely if KiwiRail needs more Log wagons it would make sense to convert less useful older wagons.?

KiwiRail cut up 57 Uk type wagons at Hornby less than 2 years ago and has sold another 40 to Martinus Rail for export to Australia for use with the exported DC Locos.

Why KiwiRail continues to cut up wagons and Locos (some examples being CF and CW wagons, DC Locos) with the potential for reuse continues to baffle our rail expert advisors..

This reckless destruction of public property needs to be now investigated and clearly explained to the public owners of that property from the Minister of Transport and the Minister of climate change as the minimum.

This wanton destruction of rolling stock MUST stop.!

Surely putting rolling stock into store (be it a short or long term thing) makes far more sense than cutting it up.!!

Fact; - In Australia, Locos and Wagons are regularly stored then reactivated.

One of our sources advises us that as a registered locomotive engineer he recently in Australia drove a Loco built in 1989 that had been in store for almost 2 years and then reactivated and a lot of the grain wagons I'm loading have similar stories.

“CEAC wants Kiwirail's future to be NZ Government Railways, again under direct ministerial control as it was for 100yrs”.

Kiwirail’s future as a commercial state-owned enterprise (SOE) may be numbered in the wake of the impact of the Covid pandemic, a government document suggests. Ministers have asked the Treasury and the Ministry of Transport to consider Kiwirail’s “entity form”, a briefing paper released by Treasury on Tuesday Dec 15 2020 stated.

The report states “Public benefit expectations and public funding of KiwiRail are increasing and so the SOE Act may not provide sufficient levers to achieve ministers’ ownership objectives for KiwiRail,” the department advised.

Treasury said it wanted to engage with ministers about its objectives and priorities for Kiwirail, “including its corporate form.”

KiwiRail Chairman Brian Corban remined us that It was its own government department, as New Zealand Government Railways, and under direct ministerial control for more than 100 years, until it was “corporatised” in 1982.

CEAC supports rail as it has the best way to lower the climate emissions and make our roads safer and far less expensive to maintain.

Kiwirail holds vital important evidence called “The value of rail in NZ” produced by Ernest Young (EY) as an economic study proving rail is vital for our future protection of our economy and public safety.

CEAC encourages Ministry of Transport, Government, & Treasury, to consider the report called “The value of rail in NZ” and to take our public railway back under New Zealand Government Railways, and place it back under ‘direct ministerial control’ again as it was for more than 100 years, until it was “corporatised” in 1982 and failed by a lack of maintenance of the asset.

‘Kiwi Rail is off the rails and we demand the Government take it back & get it back on track’

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