Gisborne Rail link

There has been much recent agonising over the future of the Rail Link between Gisborne and Napier

Certainly one or two trains a week pulling just a couple of wagons, or a load of super phosphate fertiliser hardly seems sufficient to warrant the cost of keeping the railway going and some think it is time to close the line down.

Others want the line kept open because of an expected long term increase in wood products.

So are those who want to keep the railway line operating futuristic, or futile?

When the line was first envisioned in the 1920's circumstances were very different to the present. Gisborne was even more isolated than it now is with an over night ferry service to Napier while road transport was in its infancy.

Hawke's Bay had been connected to Wellington in the 1880's and the main trunk line from Auckland to Wellington opened in 1908. The Gisborne line was one of the last major rail links to be built in New Zealand and was severely restrained by Depression era finances. It did not reach Gisborne until 1942 during WW2.

War time needs and fuel rationing meant the line provided an essential link back then but now rail must now compete on price and convenience with trucks.

There was a time when many large manufacturers had their own railway siding for convenient access to the rail system, but now for many using rail means multiple handling transferring freight to the rail head the loading it onto wagons.

Rail can work but but for bulk loads such as Solid Energy shipping huge quantities of export coal from the West Coast to Littleton.

Like wise Fontera would struggle to transport the huge volumes of milk from Oringi near Dannevirke to Harwara if it could not load it onto several trains a day. In Australia rail lines are used to ship bulk products such as iron ore and coal from the mines to the ports.

The line to Gisborne simply isn't in this league. Heinz Wattie's tried shifting bulk tomatoes in the the 1980's but they soon found having trainloads of ripening tomatoes all arriving at once did not suit the continuous needs of their production line processing.

Even shipping logs means multiple handling, but much is being made of the so called wall of wood expected out of Gisborne in the next few years, and containerised loads of processed wood products may be a different matter. .

Internationally passenger rail is making a huge comeback but this involves specially engineered systems capable of handling speeds of 200mph (320Km) and more. Such services offer travel times that are competitive with flying for distances up to 1000Km .

Passengers traffic also seem unlikely to return to rail, even though travelling by train seems a much more attractive proposition than bus or even car. It seems highly unlikely high speed rail will ever operate on New Zealand's narrow gauge single track system, and even less likely such trains will ever link Gisborne and Hawke's Bay.

Additionally Gisborne does not have the same inter dependence with Hawke's Bay that it once had. Rail is no longer practicable for all those passengers travelling north to places like Auckland.

One thing a rail system needs is reliability and the line to Gisborne has suffered some major problems over recent years. During Cyclone Bowler in 1987 a major wash out just south of Gisborne put the line out of commission for well over over a year, and a few years ago a Bridge collapsed at Nuhaka again making the line unusable for many months.

On the other hand rail can be an important alternative. For a time after the main road bridge at Wairoa collapsed during Cyclone Bowler the only way the two halves of the town could be connected was by using some old freight carriages pulled by a freezing works locomotive then based in the town. .

Undoubtedly energy prices will keep rising and shifting freight by rail is very fuel efficient. This might eventually make rail competitive again though there are many other costs considerations that need to be taken into account. Electrification is also possible but unlikely.

There have also been calls to convert the line to a cycleway as happened in Central Otago. This could boost tourism but requires that the tracks be ripped up.

While there are occasional railcar and steam train excursions, these are not regular users. Even in Central Otago the heart of tourism country, the steam train powered Kingston Flyer seems unable to attract sufficient patronage to be profitable..

It is likely to be many years or even decades before conditions are right for rail between Hawke's Bay and Gisborne to be viable.

Unless Government is willing to keep propping up the line then closure seems inevitable.

The only practical solution seems to be if services are put on hold, the system should be left in place, because provided the tracks are still there, the line could be recommissioned. If the tracks are ripped up that will be the final curtain for the rail system, for ever.