Dublin St Bridge in spotlight as National’s Simeon Brown visits Whanganui

Simeon Brown spoke at Midwest Helicopters earlier this week. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui’s Dublin St Bridge is in the National Party’s sights, with the party’s transport spokesman saying it’s a “key priority”.

Simeon Brown was in town this week to host a public meeting, followed by a trip to Whanganui Airport.

Brown said National had committed to investigating options around replacing the Dublin St Bridge.

“Obviously, it’s a local road, but we will support the [Whanganui District] council to do that.

“We see that as a key priority, and Carl [Bates, National Party candidate for Whanganui] has been a strong advocate for it.

“We were just there this morning, waving signs and observing the issues. It’s got weight restrictions and significant congestion - a pinch point in the city.”

Last month, an open letter to all political parties was signed by regional and district representatives who wanted the return of passenger and freight services.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe and district councillors Peter Oskam, Jenny Duncan, Ross Fallen and Charlie Anderson all put pen to paper.

Brown said National had been sceptical about the Government’s proposals around investing significant amounts of money in regional passenger rail.

“I know there is a big push around that, but we don’t necessarily see the numbers stacking up.

“There is a case for further investment in the line between Palmerston North and Wellington and we’ll support that investment, but we do have commercial operators that already connect our regions.”

InterCity already had bus services right around the country each day, he said.

“That’s at a reasonable price and it doesn’t require a subsidy.

“Spending hundreds of millions to put regional passenger rail services in place, which then requires significant subsidies for a long period of time, doesn’t make sense.

“My view is that it’s based on nostalgia rather than common sense.”

It was important to have reliable, frequent options for public transport in provincial centres, he said.

Whanganui’s newest bus service - Te Ngaru The Tide - runs every 20 minutes.

“I’m not sure of details [in Whanganui] but, particularly in our urban centres, we’ve had significant bus driver shortages, leading to poor performing public transport services,” Brown said.

“Whilst it’s all well and good for the Government to talk about investing more in public transport, if you don’t have the drivers to have a reliable service, people aren’t going to use it.”

He said the vast majority of people still needed their cars.

Making sure the state highway network was more resilient would be a focus for National, along with improving the quality of roads.

“In electorates like Whanganui, state highways are critical to get people where they need to go and to move freight and goods, and all of the produce that comes from this region.”

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.