Rotorua Rail service

[Rolls-Royce]

Some worrying news about the Rotorua line being mentioned recently on another rail forum:

http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p1256370.htm

[Rolls-Royce]

Does anyone else know what is happening with the Rotorua line?

[eurokiwi78]

becoming part of the national (party) cycleway?

[Rolls-Royce]

One option KiwiRail could look at is if they were to reopen the Rotorua line for freight eg container and general freight traffic between Auckland-Hamilton-Rotorua-Napier/Hastings, and log and timber traffic, they could perhaps look at utilising some of the current Tranz Alpine and Tranz Coastal carriages to start a new service between Auckland and Rotorua. The track would need to be relaid into the city centre together with building a small attractive passenger station and installing a turntable to make a passenger service attractive and a success.

[Jonthekiwi]

That seems like a viable idea. MInd you, opening the Rotorua line IS via. The consultants report earlier this year states the costs will be about $8.3 million to take it out of moth-balled state to operating railway ( approx 34 kms from Putaruru to Koutu yard).

Can anyone tell me what you can do for State 5 to Rotorua for $8.3 million?

[eurokiwi78]

Couple of passing lanes maybe

[Kevyn Miller]

Oh dear, you'll never be able to successfully fight the roading lobby or it's Parliamentary puppets if your're that poorly informed. Start with NZTA's NLTP allocations to Improvement of state highways in Bay of Plenty region. It includes $800,000 for eight passing lanes, ergo $8.3m should be enough for 80 passing lanes, except it won't because the big money is still being spent building more motorways in Tauranga. Alternatively $8.3m should be enough to bring 80 bridges up to modern seismic standards, or maybe to provide touring cyclists with 2m wide hard shoulders to ride on for the whole length of SH5, possibly with rumbles strips to remind car drivers of their place on the road.

But they're no more likely to be funded than the re-opening of rail line. I haven't been able to find the consultants report online. From the streetview screenshots I've seen of the tracks the project looks like a better employment boosting project than any of SH5 improvements.

Unfortunately the news in today's Daily Post isn't positive.

Actually, the only thing NZTA is going to spend $8.3m on in that SH5/railway corridor is to fix the damage done over the next 14 years by the 40 trucks a day that will continue using SH5 if the line isn't reopened to daily freight trains.

[Jonthekiwi]

Kevin, sorry mate, that link you quote in "todays" Daily News is an old one from Sept 2008.

Hmmm... I think we all know a passing lane on the hill SH5 will cost more than $800,000.... more like a couple of million at least.

The report was commissioned by the group using a section of the line, and they wanted to know the full cost to reopen it, so they hired private consultants to review it.

[eurokiwi78]

how much did the consultants cost

[Kevyn Miller]

The old newspaper report (the website puts todays date at the top of every page, trap for new players) I linked to earlier provided this much info.

Maunsell AECOM is expected to work closely with Ontrack during the investigation. Ontrack provides the rail infrastructure and has contributed $10,000 towards the study.

Seems to be good value for money. Maunsell AECOM have a good reputation, judging from what I saw when I was Googling to see if the report was available on line. It's not there but most of Transit's aren't either and there's really no reason why reports of preliminary investigations should be placed in the public arena. It would've been interesting to see what sort of work has to be done to reinstate a mothballed line, but not essential.

[Kevyn Miller]

jon, There was one connection to the trucking lobby I forgot to mention before.

An email to the The Standard regarding the RTF's hidden motive for seeking to replace RUCs with a diesel tax that became a guest post:
http://www.thestandard.org.nz/the-rtf-tries-a-ruc-rort/

The comments from someone calling themselves "trucker" are what I would expect from someone who actual believes what Friedlander is saying. Notice how he ignores the info from NZTA's NLTP refuting Friedlander's $100m cost of administering RUCs. Like an AGW denier confronted with an inconvenient truth.

[Rolls-Royce]

With the Rotorua District Council planning to rebuild Lake Road into a four lane road and demolish the current narrow two lane road overbridge at Koutu in the process, one would hope that KiwiRail will have the foresight to insist that a level crossing be put in for Lake Road at Koutu so that rail access into both the Koutu rail freight yard and a potential future passenger line into Rotorua central is preserved.

It has been mentioned that some of the options being considered for the railway as part of the Lake Road four laning project, are to remove the track back to Rainbow Springs. This would be a bad move, just as bad as when NZR took up the track between Rotorua central and Koutu in 1989/90 and then started the twice daily Geyserland Express in 1991 and had it terminating in the Koutu freight yard! Had they left the track in or relayed the track back into the Travel Centre, the Geyserland service would have run right into the heart of the Rotorua CBD and would have been a lot more attractive to use and successful.

To rip the track up now from Koutu to Rainbow Springs would be like terminating the NIMT coming into Auckland at Papakura and saying to passengers, make your own way into the central city from here.

With Lake Road, KiwiRail should lay some new track across where the level crossing will be and lay the crossing in thick concrete up to the rail head, which will make a nice smooth but durable level crossing.

KiwiRail could also make access into the Koutu yard more truck friendly by purchasing the one property between the rail yard and the intersection of Biak and Waterford Streets on the west side of the rail yard, as Waterford Street leads to a large roundabout intersection with Old Taupo Road (SH5).

In terms of ensuring any future rail shunting movements in the Koutu yard don't affect the new Lake Road level crossing, KiwiRail could just simply build a new backshunt at the south end of the Koutu yard, along the old rail formation that leads towards Rotorua central, as far as the Utahina Stream rail bridge.