Hawke's Bay environmentalist and rail proponent Ken Crispin has described the idea of turning the mothballed Napier to Gisborne rail link into a cycleway as "another way" of justifying the National Government's failure to fund an efficient rail system.
Napier's National candidate Wayne Walford has launched a Facebook page called 'Sunrise Rail Trail' to promote using the line, which has been closed since December 2012, as a cycle trail.
The site has been set up to gauge support for the idea and Mr Walford said if interest was strong enough he would establish a trust to "champion the idea" and seek funding for a feasibility study.
But the idea was rejected by Mr Crispin. "Napier is a port city with a regional import-export freight service that is the lifeblood of the region and our economy will suffer dramatically if we all just take the view of not having a rail service to our northern East Coast area and Gisborne region," he said.
He said the regions produced significant exports which relied on land transport options. "Road based only freight movement is not efficient, or as environmentally friendly as rail is."