Railroad Forums 

  • new traffic in New Zealand

  • Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.
Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.

Moderators: Komachi, David Benton

 #68886  by David Benton
 
yet more opportunities , and again , very short distances involved . Masterton for example is only 90 km form wellington port . but a 8km tunnel gives rail a big advantage .
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewssto ... on=general

also a proposal to moe imported cars , a distance of around 30 km

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay. ... ID=3610646

note the mention of the inland container port , this also is a similiar distance .

 #68983  by Sir Ray
 
Not totally on-topic, but I remember reading on several sites that NZ used to restrict truck haulage after a certain distince (it may have been 50-100miles, don't think it was km), and as it raised this distance (so that trucks could haul over 100mi to 150mi - 150 stands out), it resulted in a large number of branch lines of that 150mi distance being put out of service - (and when the restriction was completely removed, I think the only branch left of size was the Hokkidika branch).
Ironically, it seems that it's sorta coming full circle with these proposed services.

 #69021  by David Benton
 
thats correct , sir ray , i think it was 150 km , for all freight except livestock and furniture removals .
although the railways lost alot of traffic when it was lifted , it also gianed efficency in not having to carry anything and everything over that distance . Also , it lead to some wierd trucking operations , and paperwork to get round the restrictions .

 #69081  by Sir Ray
 
Well, so clearly exceptions could be made to that 150km haulage limit - now, what if the rules had been modified to continue to restrict haulage of bulk/heavy goods to rail (e.g. lumber products, chemical and fuels, plastic pellets, steel, paper rolls and products, waste material, cement and stone, coal, etc. - in my mind, the very definition of what should be rail freight), but allow (lcl/ltl) less-than-carload/truckload and high-value, low density items (example: home electronics, or clothing) to move via whatever transport mode desired (which could very well include container haulage by rail). Yeah, I'm sure there would have been grey areas at first, but after things settled down you might have had the best of both worlds (a lot of dedicated rail freight traffic along branches now long abandoned, along with JIT service via truck of the little loads it seems the railroad didn't want anyway).

 #69085  by David Benton
 
when the 150 km limit was lifted , the labour political party ( then in opposition ) launched a save rail camapign , touring the country by train .
they later swept into power , in what was to be the start of the liberlisation , privatisation and "govt hands off "period of government . Basically anythng to do with govt control of any business practice was discouraged , and rail was on its own .Save rail became sell rail , and 100's of railway workers lost thier jobs . However few would disagree that change was necessary , for rail to survive . The leader of the save rail campaign later became the leader of the ultra right wing act party , to be especially hated by ecx rail workers . The save rail promises are still brought up to haunt him , and he recently retired form politics , with the act party stuggling to get 2-3 % of the vote . ( political parties need 5 % to make it to parliament ) .
i dont think we will see any restrictions on road transport , rather the govt buying the rail network will help the rail operators , and some funding is avaliable to assist "aslternatives to road transport " where it can be shown to have social , enviromental and economic value .