A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Re: IwiRail launched on public empathy and a wild dream, July 13 editorial.
Commendable as it is that a political party should wholly endorse investment in rail, that support needs to be ?based upon a sustainable reality and not political expediency.
The route from Gisborne to Kawerau is basically a
non-starter as the line to Motu would need substantial investment in lowering the tunnel floors to accept modern freight containers, and repair/refurbishment of the tunnels and previous track bed. Furthermore, the route onwards from Motu is prohibitively uneconomic to build.
To reach either Auckland or the Bay of Plenty then, a new the line from Napier via Taupo and Rotorua needs to be built for both freight and especially passenger traffic. That investment would be sustainable.
There are also a number of rail lines on both islands that could be brought back into commercial viability, given that central government funds such essential strategic reinvestment in the infrastructure, as many other nations are currently doing.
