A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Re: Niall Robertson’s comments in the January 6 article, Questions about rail link.
Here we go again.
Niall, I responded to your letter to the editor of 13.12.2023 on 03.01.2024. In that letter I said I was calling your bluff. I want you and Gillian Ward to tell the taxpayers and ratepayers
how many kilometres of totally stuffed railtrack you have physically travelled. You have both been able to get full-page media coverage when all I can get is 350-word letters to the editor.
To James Pocock of Hawke’s Bay Today. James, come and see me. I will not pull the wool over your eyes. I will show you some of the damage that Niall tells everyone can be fixed relatively cheaply. I can show you 200m sections of railtrack that will cost $ millions to rebuild. Back in the day, Gillian stated in the Gizzy Herald that it was a repair, not a rebuild.
The article on Saturday said KiwiRail would apply for funding from the Government to repair the Napier to Wairoa rail line after Cyclone Gabrielle. The repairs will be cheap, according to Niall.
Rebuilding damaged sections will cost millions of dollars. Why would KiwiRail go ahead and spend millions of taxpayer dollars again on consultants and engineers, when the Government has ruled out investing from Napier to Gizzy? I say Christopher Luxon’s comments show he is using common sense.
James, it is easy for you to sit in an office and write a story for Niall to try to mislead the Government and taxpayers. If you want to report the real facts, come with a photographer to see me. You will need to stay the night at least, maybe even two nights. Please also see if you can get out of Niall and Gillian how many kilometres of railtrack they have walked.
I won’t bother responding to any more of Niall’s statements because they are just dribble, in my opinion.
KiwiRail has not got funds to carry on with the mothballed line from Gizzy to Napier and our Government can’t afford it either. The No.1 priority is the state highways and local roads.
Merv Goodley
