Wednesday, February 03, 2021

Steel Wheel Dreaming

 The eternal 'boost Rail' mantra runs into a lot of awkward spatial facts in Godzone.

No rail ever to:

    • West coast SI south of Hokitika, north of Ngakawau
    • West Coast of NI between Helensville and Waitara
    • The entire East Cape region between Gizzy and Opotiki
    • Most inland regions of Marlborough, Tasman, Mackenzie, Queenstown

Rail used to exist but is now gone in:

    • All inland parts of the SI except the Christchurch-Stillwater line
    • Northland north of Whangarei
    • Wairoa-Gisborne
    • Stratford-Ohakune

So 'getting freight onto rail' runs into a lot of Capex, if the objective is to run a spur line to within X km of all population centres having more than Y residents. Which objective, of course, was the original Vogel scheme, a century-and-a-half ago. Most of the discontinued lines never made Cent One over their entire life, and this was at a time when road transport alternatives were traction engines or horses.

It's just a dream (disclosure - I luv choo-choos).....

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