Tony loves the fact that the Goverment’s bought the trains back.
(He doesn’t love the price though)
A modern and efficient rail system will be as crucial to our future as fiber to the home broadband. So I’m extremely pleased to see that the Government has secured this crucial rail infrastructure.
Point 1: We already owned the rails.
Point 2: How exactly does buying old trains after already owning the rails they run on create a “modern and efficient rail system”?
As petrol prices go up and up and up public transport (rail and buses) will be increasingly important.
Given this move only buys trains in Wellington (Auckland’s are run by another company) and has nothing to do with buses, this move doesn’t exactly go very far towards any improvements in public transport especially as opposed to leaving the trains in private ownership.
Update: I didn’t mind the goverment owning the rails. But having split the infrastructure, it means that complanies like Veola now have to deal with a rail company that has the same owner as one of it’s completitors.
That’s not good. Better to have the goverment own the rails and have any private companies try their luck running profitable services. That way the government acts as a referee, not as the referee and the biggest player.
