Plea to MPs: get Dunedin its fair share for rail

FOLLOWING Dave Kearns’ Opinion piece (ODT, 4.5.20), there has been a flurry of letters in these columns in support of his suggestion of the reinstatement of a ‘‘lowfare commuter rail to Mosgiel and Port Chalmers’’.

Mr Kearns refers to the costs of reinstatement, which would include staff employment, and infrastructure upgrade such as doubletracking on some of the line. He rightly advises that the cost for this should be a Government, not a local, expense: I would guess a sum of a singledigit number of millions.

Given the apparent lack of imagination of Dunedin Railways management, can we pass the ball to our local MPs?

They need to make the case to their northern colleagues that a few million for Dunedin rail would be about onetenth of 1% of the $4 billion for the Auckland City Link railway.

A fair share locally, please; and, who knows, this could be the beginning of something big, not to mention getting 50 railways staff back at work.

R. Gardner

Waverley

Council frustrations

ISN’T it great, the way different people in different circumstances react to serving those who use their services?

Those in business, who depend on paying customers, leap into action and make their services available one minute after Level 2 is reached. A gymnasium was open to customers at midnight.

Then there are the bureaucratic dinosaurs such as the Dunedin City Council.

When I phoned to inquire when I may be able to change my library books, I was told, ‘‘probably about the middle of next week; our manager is just waiting for clearance and sign off’’.

Of course, the city council hasn’t lost its revenue — it’s still sending out rates demands — so obviously maintaining its cumbersome processes is more important to it than going the extra mile for the ratepayer.

Pam Warren

Mosgiel