TOP STORY: Rail jobs under threat

LAWRENCE GULLERY
Job losses are imminent and the Napier to Gisborne rail service could face closure if a major user of the line pulls out because of increased track access levies.
Awatoto-based fertiliser company Ravensdown was today reviewing its future use of the rail link pending a decision by Ontrack to increase track levies by 5 percent. Toll NZ, the operator of regional rail tracks, is looking at passing the increase on to its customers.
Ravensdown's media officer Helen Shorthouse said rail was the company's preferred option but if the levies were to increase, it would have to review the situation and look at shifting its fertiliser to road transport.
"Toll NZ knows our position," she said.
Toll NZ spokesperson Kay Foley said it was no secret the Napier to Gisborne line had always been commercially unviable but the company was working hard to keep the line open.
"We've had a meeting with staff to explain the increased costs we are facing and are talking to all key customers," she said.
Mrs Foley confirmed Ravensdown was its biggest customer on the Napier to Gisborne line but said Toll NZ understood why it and other customers were looking at other options.
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) general secretary Wayne Butson said Ravensdown was the only reason the line remained in use.
"If Ravensdown takes their freight off the rail and on to the road, that will be the finish of trains on that track," he said.
"The Government will have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading that road from Napier to Gisborne. Why don't they spend that money on rail?"
Transit New Zealand's regional manager Hilton Netterville believed the State Highway 2 stretch between Napier and Gisborne could handle any extra traffic generated if Ravensdown converted to road transport.
He said about 2000 cars travelled the road each day and the State Highway's capacity was about 10,000 cars a day. Toll NZ is under pressure to review all of its lines around the country and it is believed the Napier to Gisborne service could among those axed. Toll had increased its Napier to Gisborne service from one return trip a week to five.
The RMTU told the 30 workers at the Napier depot yesterday operations could cease by October 30, depending on Ravensdown's decision. Hawke's Bay regional land transport committee member Alan Dick said the rail link was essential.
"We have to have both rail and road. In 15 or 20 years time we will need the rail line because of rising petrol prices."