Winston Peters: Blunders over Brynderwyns as rail plans die

NZ First leader Winston Peters

The "tedious" process of sorting out Northland's roading problems continues at a snail's pace, according to New Zealand First Northland candidate Winston Peters, and he's not expecting much to change.

"We have had to endure the never-ending promises from National about what they would do," he said.

"They promised a super highway from Puhoi to Warkworth way back in 2008. We still wait. In March 2015 they promised a Warkworth-Wellsford super highway. Again not a metre has been built.

"National has represented Northland for decades. Now even their candidate says that lack of infrastructure has limited economic development. Well, whose fault is that? This inaction is a particularly bitter pill to swallow since in 2009 the National government cancelled rural roads subsidies and gave the money to Roads of National Significance.

"What has come out of this? Our rural roads are falling apart, and worsening by the day, while work on the North's Road of National Significance has barely started.

"Then we were told that theNZ Transport Agency wanted feedback on two options for sorting out problems associated with the infamous Brynderwyn Hills. NZTA said the hills had 'major resilience and safety problems,' as well as a high cost of travel for freight users in particular, due to steep hills."

NZTA calculated that a bypass and improved highway would save 280 deaths and serious injuries over 30 years, and would reduce the cost of travel, particularly for heavy vehicles, but the bypass option should have been sorted long ago.

"It should have been considered before two years was spent on the Brynderwyn project on the north side, which had a blow-out cost of $20 million," Mr Peters said, whileproviding an efficient rail service had been completely left out of the equation.

"There will always be a place for transporting heavy freight by truck, but it must work in conjunction with rail," he added.

"The volumes of freight being shifted between Northland and Auckland is increasing all the time - it's about two million tonnes per year at the moment, while rail in Northland has been run down.

"Three years ago National and KiwiRail shut the Dargaville-Whangarei line. Last year they shut the Kauri-Otiria line and the Portland connection. Then they slashed the rail freight service to Auckland line by half, from 20 trains a week to 10.

"All that has done is throw more trucks on to our further degraded roads, and made the trip over the Brynderwyn Hills more dangerous.

"Slow, disjointed, even illogical - that's an awful approach to roading and transportation."