NZ | Rail + Freight

[kegan]

Here's the KiwiRail press release on the new locos and carriages. Contains some bits not in he Beehive press release.

New funding recognises rail’s importance to the economy

The Government’s announcement today of funding for new locomotives for the rail freight network and Tranz Scenic carriages is recognition of the important role rail plays in the New Zealand economy, the Chairman of KiwiRail, Jim Bolger said today.

The Government announced funding of $115 million for 20 new locomotives and 17 passenger carriages for KiwiRail’s Tranz Scenic Fleet.

"The Government’s decision is timely and welcome," said Mr Bolger. "The new locomotives will enable us to make considerable efficiency gains on key freight routes such as Auckland-Tauranga-Murupara and on the ‘Coal Route’ between the West Coast coal mines and the Port of Lyttelton.

"The key to lifting KiwiRail’s revenue and profitability is improving customer service. We have locomotives that are at or near retirement age and we also have a contractual obligation to supply locomotives to Auckland Regional Transport Authority later in the year.

"The new locomotives will be more powerful and reliable than those in our existing fleet and in some cases, will be able to do the work of two existing locomotives."

Mr Bolger said the new passenger carriages would enable Tranz Scenic to provide the kind of travel experience that passengers, particularly overseas tourists, expect.

"The role of long-distance passenger services is evolving into a high quality tourism experience," he said. "It’s essential we have the carriages to complement the magnificent scenery that draws people to the Tranz Alpine, Tranz Coastal and Overlander.

"Between them, Tranz Scenic long distance passenger experiences and the Interislander ferries represent an important but underrated element of the New Zealand tourism industry."

Mr Bolger said he was encouraged that the Government understood where rail can make the most effective contribution to the economy.

"Apart from tourist rail experiences, it has a fundamental role in carrying bulk goods, containers to and from ports and urban passengers in large cities. In all these roles, it takes thousands of vehicles off roads that are already congested.

"We firmly believe that investment in rail significantly reduces the amount of money that would need to be spent on roads to achieve the same result."

KiwiRail’s Chief Executive Jim Quinn says the new locomotives, which will arrive progressively during 2010, will be lighter, more powerful and more fuel efficient than the models they replace. They will be fitted with a German-built engine that is approximately six tonnes lighter than those fitted on locomotives in the current fleet.

"They also provide superior fuel economy and improved running times, meet EU III emission standards and are likely to require less maintenance.

"They’ll enable us to make a ‘two for one’ replacement on many services that run in the Auckland –Murupara corridors. Services that have previously required two locomotives running ‘back to back’ will be replaced by a single locomotive.

"We looked closely at the merits of building the locomotives locally but on cost, performance and importantly, delivery time, the Chinese option was superior."

Mr Quinn said the new passenger carriages had been allocated to the South Island services, the Tranz Alpine and Tranz Coastal because they were the more heavily used and tourism oriented trains.

"We have a number of options available to us for the Overlander and we are actively looking at these, including mounting a business case for new carriages."

Mr Quinn said building the carriages in New Zealand would provide a fillip to Hillside Engineering in Dunedin which will carry out the work in conjunction with a large number of New Zealand suppliers.

"Today’s announcement is a combination of a great deal of hard work and careful planning by many people. It is important that we acknowledge the contribution they have made," he said

Interesting that new carriages are for the South Island only at this stage. To me, that suggests the Overlander is pretty marginal (doesn't justify the investment atm).

[KaneD]

An insider who works at the railway workshops in Chch (passenger carriage maintenance) says that the Tranzalpine is the only real money making long distance service in the country. The Picton-Chch route is OK in summer and very marginal at best in winter.

Not sure on the overlander as he didn't have anything to do with that, but at beast I'd say it would be similar perhaps to the Picton-Chch route maybe slightly worse.

What will be good is that these new carriages will mean the other existing carriages can be used as trial start up services on other regional lines, perhaps a new southerner and a new service to the bay cities, whangarei, rotorua and others.

[kegan]

I believe this is a drawing of the new KiwiRail loco design:



Image credit: bjmate on photobucket

[NZ1]

Originally Posted by KaneD

Not sure on the overlander as he didn't have anything to do with that, but at beast I'd say it would be similar perhaps to the Picton-Chch route maybe slightly worse.

My informants tell me that it has now improved to marginal profitability since the outcry over closing the service.

[Moveax]

http://www.times-age.co.nz/localnews...ondsubsection=

Railway milk tankers may ply 'old' line

12.03.2009
By Don Farmer

A fleet of railway milk tankers running milk from Waingawa to Hawera via the Manawatu Gorge could be the saviour of the threatened Masterton-Woodville rail link.

Although KiwiRail Group is remaining rather coy about the idea, the company has confirmed it is looking at the milk train proposal along with several other "bulk milk opportunities" throughout the country.

Public Affairs manager Kevin Ramshaw said yesterday no decisions have yet been made regarding the infrastructure that would be needed to support the Waingawa-Palmerston North-Hawera venture.

The working details of the venture have not been disclosed but it is believed, by sources who spoke to the newspaper, the milk train could involve at least 20 new tank wagons and operate daily, similar to a run already under way between Oringi and Hawera.



The Masterton to Woodville line has become virtually redundant since narrow, low-ceiling tunnels in the Manawatu Gorge have been done away with.

This has allowed containers to be railed from Wellington through the gorge to Napier.

In recent times the Waingawa rail yards have been tidied up and new track laid.

Further along the Masterton-Woodville rail link work has also been done with new culverts installed at Opaki and further north at Jackson's Line, Mauriceville.

The milk train would be expected to have some impact on Fonterra's arrangements for Wairarapa.

Milk collection by road tanker extends throughout Wairarapa with milk from vats on dairy farms being trucked daily to Pahiatua, where it is manufactured into milk products and milk powder for consumption in New Zealand and also exported.

Manager of Fonterra Pahiatua Bill Boakes yesterday referred comments on the likely introduction of new rail milk tankers to the company's media relations staff but no responses had been received by the time this edition went to press.

It is not known what impact, if any, the rail milk proposal would have on Fonterra's present collection system, or staffing.

I really hope this does happen, the Wairarapa line is underused and also under threat of closure (At least north of Masterton). If you combine this milk train proposal and the log freight then it would become a very well used piece of rail.

[KaneD]

Does that mean that the only real trains using the Upper Hutt to Masterton Line are the passenger trains?

It would be a shame to see any more line closures in NZ... Even if lines do get closed, they should only be mothballed so that at least some point in the future, it can be reopened if circumstances allow.

[Moveax]

There is a weekday freight between Wellington and Masterton for a sawmill, and another (but I'm not sure how often) between Pahiatua and Palmerston North for the dairy factory. There is one train a week that uses the whole length that goes to Palmerston North from Wellington.

[KaneD]

Well isn't this a bit of an unusual turn for a right wing government.... I bet ACT's Roger Douglas would have a word or three to say about it hehehe.

Govt considering new electric trains - report
Last updated 07:16 16/03/2009
The government is considering buying new electric commuter trains for Auckland and Wellington in a move that would avoid councils having to increase rates to pay for them, it was reported today.

The New Zealand Herald said it had obtained a letter from Transport Minister Steven Joyce to Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee in which the minister said it "made sense" for KiwiRail to buy and own all new passenger trains planned for the two cities.

It would allow the Government to ditch a regional fuel tax, which would have paid for the electrification of Auckland's system, without forcing councils to raise rates.

The letter was in response to Mr Lee's concerns about how electrification would be paid for without the fuel tax, which would have raised $496 million for the Auckland project.

The Government is expected to confirm this week that it is abandoning the plan for a regional fuel tax.

- NZPA

[jarbury]

Yeah very surprising really.... the petrol tax money was needed for other stuff too though - like integrated ticketing and the Penlink Road. Wonder what happens with them now?

[KaneD]

I do agree in principle with Stephen Joyce that increasing the national fuel tax is administratively far easier to manage than having various councils all doing "their own thing"

But note that much of that extra money is going to Auckland and Wellington...

Yet again, Christchurch, which was also very close to pushing ahead with regional fuel taxation, will largely miss out since their projects will have to be contested along with all others in other regions - which, as has been proven previously, will mean Christchurch will actually get nothing, and Auckland will get it instead.

[jarbury]

I'd be hacked off too if I lived in ChCh. Don't blame us Aucklanders though, we were quite happy to pay for the Regional Fuel Tax. Consultation undertaken by the ARC clearly showed that.

We're getting pretty screwed here too, potentially losing integrated ticketing and the like.

[NZ1]

Integrated ticketing could still quite easily happen, with the debt require d to implement the project serviced by a small increase to ARC rates.

Although I don't like the idea of paying more rates (as I still own property in Auckland), this is a worthwhile cause on the whole.

IMO, ARTA are using this as an opportunity for political grandstanding. They just need to get on with the job.

[Svartmetall]

The thing I find irritating is that local and regional governments are effectively having their power taken away from them by interference by the central government. This is something that National accused Labour of, and now they're actually being worse than Labour in this regard!

[jarbury]

Indeed.... this is tremendous stomping of local/regional government. Perhaps Wellington is really really worried about the power a super-city would have, so is looking to chop local/regional power off at the knees ASAP.

[Richard7666]

That's weird. They're cost-cutting all over the place, but when an acceptable means of funding something without digging into their coffers pops up (regional fuel tax), they go and say they'll fund it from the (recession-hit) government kitty instead?

[deepred]

Originally Posted by jarbury

Indeed.... this is tremendous stomping of local/regional government. Perhaps Wellington is really really worried about the power a super-city would have, so is looking to chop local/regional power off at the knees ASAP.

Especially if a Ken Livingstone-type candidate obtains the Greater Auckland mayoral chains.

[jarbury]

I dunno deepred. Auckland has swung towards the right in recent years, sadly. It is the only large city in NZ to probably have a centre-right majority. Hopefully we don't end up with John Banks as supreme ruler of us.

[KaneD]

Originally Posted by jarbury

I'd be hacked off too if I lived in ChCh. Don't blame us Aucklanders though, we were quite happy to pay for the Regional Fuel Tax. Consultation undertaken by the ARC clearly showed that.

We're getting pretty screwed here too, potentially losing integrated ticketing and the like.

Agreed jarbury - I'm not mad at Auckland for the predicament we're in here in Chch... I blame it on previous governments (local and central) on the mess that Auckland's transport system is in which, is resulting in this massively expensive catch up programme when some would argue, is at a time we can least afford it.

I wonder how much money collectively around all the councils has been wasted progressing with projects under a regional fuel tax scheme, only to be undone by central government? I would say quite a few million dollars - enough to build the Kopu Bridge, the Rotorua Eastern Arterial, the Katikati bypass and possibly more.

The one saving grace in all of this for the rest of the country is that the two geographically ideal locations for toll roads are in Auckland and Wellington - so hopefully this will be used extensively in those areas so that it frees up money for the rest of NZ.

[Moveax]

Funding for the Wairarapa log freight project has been approved, according to this: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/newsroom/fun...ltp-table.html .

I've found other stuff about the "Central Log Rail" project, it seems to include more than just Masterton, also Marton and Wanganui. There is also some other interesting bits from this website; http://www.wwcl.co.nz/projects/central_log_rail.htm

This proposal was for a project that met the Government’s, Transfund’s and the Regional Councils’ aims for the land transport system by removing a significant quantity of freight traffic from two key State highways.

A large increase in forest harvest volumes in the southern North Island in the very near future will result in large increases in the quantity of both logs and timber products to be transported for export. A shortage of onshore processing capacity and the lengthy lead times required to establish new processing capacity results initially in a large percentage of the increased harvest being exported as logs, however, over time, an increasing proportion of the increased harvest is expected to be exported as processed wood product as new processing capacity is progressively established.

The proposal was to transport logs and processed timber products in the southern North Island (from Masterton, Marton & Wanganui) by rail rather than road. Logs and processed timber products would be trucked to log yards and transferred to rail. Three log yards would be created at existing railway stations at Masterton, Marton and Wanganui. The logs (and other wood products) would be railed to CentrePort (Wellington) for export.

A window of opportunity existed to establish the log rail operation for minimum subsidy cost. Considerable benefits can accrue in terms of economic development, assisting safety, improving access and promoting environmental sustainability through transferring the transport of increasing volumes of logs from road freight to rail freight. In order for the benefits to be achieved an investment was needed from central government for three years. The analysis demonstrated that the investment would be amply repaid in the returns achieved - principally to road users.

Warwick Walbran Consulting Limited was engaged by the Wellington Regional Council (Greater Wellington) to detail the background, strategic consistency analysis, capital requirements and the economic analysis of the investment proposal.

[john-ston]

Originally Posted by Moveax

Funding for the Wairarapa log freight project has been approved, according to this: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/newsroom/fun...ltp-table.html .

I've found other stuff about the "Central Log Rail" project, it seems to include more than just Masterton, also Marton and Wanganui. There is also some other interesting bits from this website

It is nice to see that the Woodville to Masterton section would be able to get sufficient freight trains to keep it viable. The only issue now is where we get the wagons from; aside from the hundred that came in last year, we haven't had any wagons since a large number of them were scrapped in the Beard era.