Subsidies may save Kaimai Express, says Gosche

Transport Minister Mark Gosche is confident the Tauranga-Auckland Kaimai Express can by saved by subsidising the service until it can stand on its own feet.

Mr Gosche yesterday met with the new owners of Tranz Scenic, Australian-based West Coast Railways, feeling "very positive" about the future of the five threatened long distance railway passenger services - including the Kaimai Express and Rotorua's Geyserland Express.

"The attitude I got was these guys want to run a rail business and if they can keep things going, they will," he said.

Mr Gosche said West Coast Railways indicated it would get "stuck in" providing it got a hand up: "What they've raised publicly and with us is the idea of subsidies. What we've indicated both publicly and to them is that subsidies for passenger transport services are available through Transfund.

"We're happy to sit down with all the parties and facilitate that. Such subsidies had never been given before for transport services spanning more than one region but that didn't mean it wasn't possible. I'm told that it is possible.

"We're confident that should the parties concerned apply to Transfund, Transfund are able to make monies available and do have monies available."

West Coast Railways indicated that the Kaimais Express and the Geyserland Express had very low patronage, Mr Gosche said.

"Obviously there's a lot of work needed to be done to keep them as rail services. That's not to say they won't have a passenger service of some sort," he said.

"It seems pretty clear to me that they will probably conclude a deal in the next three months. They have indicated that they would want to work with local government, central government and business interests in those areas to see what can be done," Mr Gosche said.

Industry and Regional Development Minister Jim Anderton told Parliament yesterday the Government was ready to work in partnership with local authorities, communities and regions to secure a future for viable rail services.

West Coast Railway director Gary McDonald said the next two or three months would be vital because once a service stopped it was extremely hard to re-start.

They were talking $600,000 and maybe a bit more to keep the Geyserland and Kaimais Expresses going, together with the Auckland-Hamilton Waikato connection: "We are not talking huge money or a great burden on the taxpayer."

With this level of support for the next couple of years it would be possible to get a package going to make the services self-supporting again. It looked like there was a solution if everyone pitched in, and that included local communities, he said.

At the end of the day it would still a case of "use it or lose it", Mr McDonald said.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES