New Zealand First will continue to deliver the goods for rail by maintaining and improving the national network, removing bottlenecks, strengthening regional connections, and putting existing rail assets to better use, Leader Winston Peters announced today.
"New Zealand First has always backed rail, and unlike the other parties that sold it off, ran it down, or talked about it without delivering, we have the track record to prove it," Mr Peters says.
"We have spent years rebuilding the foundations, and our ten-point rail programme locks in what we have already delivered and funded, then takes the next practical steps."
The policy commits New Zealand First to delivering the $1.35 billion Rail Network Investment Programme, building the Marsden Point Rail Link, and introducing the two new Cook Strait ferries, Kupe and Cook, in 2029.
New Zealand First will make Te Huia permanent, support passenger rail in Christchurch if the trial proves its worth, remove dangerous level crossings, and increase Golden Triangle capacity through the Kaimai Tunnel for freight and passenger trains.
New Auckland Rail and Wellington Rail companies will be established to bring metropolitan rail infrastructure and passenger services under clear, accountable council/government shared ownership, while protecting freight, inter-regional and heritage access.
The final commitments are to begin planning Auckland's third and fourth main lines and protect the Avondale-Southdown rail corridor for future passenger and freight services.
"Rail contributes $3.3 billion to New Zealand every year, moves a quarter of export freight, and supports more than 24 million metropolitan passenger journeys annually," Mr Peters says.
"The national network is now in its best condition in decades because we changed the law to fund rail infrastructure in the same way as state highways, and put the priority back where it belongs - maintaining and renewing what we already have.
"Rail freight volumes are growing faster than road freight volumes, KiwiRail has exceeded its earnings target for the second year in a row, and brand new locomotives and wagons will shortly ply the national network in the service of our economy - that is our record.
"We invested more than $2 billion in Auckland to prepare it for the City Rail Link, and rebuilt and upgraded Wellington's network as well as committed the thick end of a billion dollars to new regional trains for the Wairarapa and Palmerston North.
"Across the regions, our investments rebuilt tracks, bridges, tunnels, and workshops, including Hillside in Dunedin where the 1,000th new wagon recently rolled off the production line where 50 Otago locals have been trained and employed.
"We believe in getting more out of what New Zealanders already own, not spending $1.5 billion electrifying the Golden Triangle to save just $15 million in fuel each year in an already low-emissions technology - that sort of ideological idiocy is best left to the Greens.
"We are the Commonsense Express, and we have always delivered for rail and New Zealanders and we will keep doing so," Mr Peters says.
Read the ten-point plan here
