The head of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, Micheal Barnett says the Green Party’s latest proposal to plow more than $800 million into North Island rail freight, and coastal shipping shows it is dreaming big time and needs to get real.
“The time-cost of shifting freight by truck beats rail in most cases. Vast areas of the upper North Island don’t have a rail network, let alone a rail service,” says Barnett.
The Greens want to get trucks off Auckland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty roads, but Barnett points out that Billions of dollars of taxpayer funds poured into propping up rail did not prove to be efficient for short haul trips.
“Taxpayers won’t wear this proposal,” he says.
“Sure, rail can be efficient for long-haul freight. But trucks are needed at the start and end of every rail transportation or coastal shipping route to get the freight from the factory to the railhead and then to the customer,” says Barnett.
“Using rail and coastal shipping would not be attractive to customers against the one-day services many truck services offer. The Greens need to get real and focus on transport investments that will make a measurable difference,” says Barnett.
