Keep community in rebuild loop
So far, the attempts at normalisation along the upper east coast of the South Island have followed a similar pattern to what happened in Christchurch - bursts of reconstruction punctuated by aftershocks and misgivings about the daunting scale of the rebuild.
As in Christchurch, normality for the likes of Kaikoura may take years to achieve, not weeks or months.
As the immediate task of repairing and re-opening SH1 around Kaikoura begins, the configuration of rail, road and shipping likely to emerge in the longer term remains uncertain.
Reportedly, about 200 jobs were involved in providing and maintaining the pre-earthquake rail link between Lyttleton and Picton. After an initial flurry of comments by the likes of Prime Minister John Key and Transport Minister Simon Bridges, things have gone relatively quiet on the planning front.
Apparently, fixing the rail link between Seddon and Cheviot will be a longer, harder and more expensive task than the reopening of SH1, which will be difficult and costly enough.
Interim freight measures will probably involve a direct ferry link between the North Island and Christchurch.
Last week, Kiwirail was busily constructing a business case to that effect.
Once implemented, interim measures have a tendency to harden into semi-permanent solutions.
That new ferry link – if it happens – would displace some of the existing jobs in rail.
Among other things, a direct ferry link would also have an impact on Picton, a town that’s already been taking an economic hit from the demise of Solid Energy’s planned operations on the West Coast.
Inevitably, Kiwirail’s footprint in Picton would diminish, the longer the rail link between Lyttleton and Picton remains out of operation, or under-used.
Across Cook Strait, Kiwirail’s business is largely based on its freight operations, given how competitive Bluebridge is with respect to passenger traffic.
Any transport re-configuration that’s based – even temporarily - around a North Island to Lyttleton direct ferry link would have economic and employment repercussions across the region.
Presumably, more big trucks would also be running up and down the affected parts of SH1, to help pick up the slack from the missing rail link.
Some telling statements were issued in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
On November 15, Bridges confirmed to the House that a direct North Island ferry link to Lyttelton was being investigated.
The previous day, Prime Minister John Key’s ministerial statement appeared to include a firm commitment to the restoration of the pre-existent road and rail links :’’We will repair our roads, rail, and other infrastructure, and we will help our affected communities…The financial cost will be significant but we will bear that.’’
Of course, Key also made similar ‘‘bear any burden/meet any cost’’’ noises in the wake of Pike River, and those commitments turned out to be a lot more nuanced and conditional than they’d seemed at first blush.
Given the impact the looming transport decisions will have upon jobs and businesses from Lyttleton to Cheviot to Kaikoura to Seddon to Picton, perhaps those communities should be being consulted right now by government about the options being contemplated.