Electric rail will mean more jobs

Within the 2020 Budget, KiwiRail was allocated $400 million for new Cook Strait ferries, with a further $421m earmarked for the replacement of older locomotives.

Surely, if the focus of this post-Covid-19 Budget is to create new jobs, then perhaps spending all this money offshore misses the aim.

With the imminent Tiwai Point smelter closure likely to leave a surplus of electricity for redistribution, the option of electrifying the main trunk line would not only generate jobs within all regions, but would also align a little closer to the Government’s own environmental policies and stated goals.

Replacing older locomotives with further diesel-electrical units does little to help meet the Government’s emission targets. However, making the bold decision for a future of total electrification would mean any replacement locomotives should now be ordered as fully electric units.

This is the time for a complete review of our rail network and, until then, we should be putting the purchasing of these diesel-electro locomotives on hold.

Included in this review should be the role that Dunedin’s promised refurbished Hillside Workshops (with a proud history in railway manufacturing) will play in any future KiwiRail upgrades. Retaining as much as possible of our rail manufacturing needs within NZ will obviously create many of the much-needed new jobs the Government is seeking.

Graham Dickson, Dunedin