On February 17th, 2011 there was a worrying article in yesterday’s NZ Herald about the future of the North Auckland Railway Line:
The Whangarei/Auckland railway line could be mothballed for an indefinite period from next year, after talks KiwiRail plans to have with the region’s businesses and local authorities. KiwiRail CEO Jim Quinn delivered the facts about the route to yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Northland Regional Council. A final decision on mothballing the route or keeping it open is up to a year away. He told councillors the cost of running the trains on the route was almost exactly the same as the service was earning ($8 million to $9 million) and that the route was “a barely used asset in terms of the amount of investment”.
So it’s not even losing money. It’s actually breaking even – not bad compared to other parts of the rail network I would suggest.
“We are working through these issues with the four ‘most stressed’ routes in the country. Northland is one of the four,” he said. The Auckland/Northland line presented the most complex issues although the Dargaville line was “less robust”. There were 13 tunnels between Auckland and Whangarei and six needed work space for larger containers. “These containers just won’t fit through the holes in the hills,” Mr. Quinn said. There were two return week-day freight services and occasional passenger charter services between Auckland and Whangarei; and local services within Northland for forestry and dairy customers. He confirmed the obvious – mothballing the route meant the Marsden Pt rail link was out of contention as well. KiwiRail was at “the bread and water stage and we can’t even think about jam and cream yet.”
Some of the other potential rail line closures around the country are unfortunate, but somewhat understandable as the amount of traffic they carry is tiny. But the North Auckland Line isn’t like that – it’s breaking even money-wise, it has regular traffic it just needs its tunnels upgraded so that it can be brought up to modern standards.
I really do get suspicious whether closing this line is another tool being used to promote the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway”. If the railway line is closed then the argument for Puhoi-Wellsford as the “only real freight link” will be strengthened. But I reckon that’s a dumb reason to close a railway line.
