A guest blog from Malcolm Eves who appeared before the Transport Select Committee this Thursday. Thanks Malcolm for all your hard work in support of The Sunrise Rail Trail.... On Thursday I was interviewed by teleconference by the parliamentary Transport and Industrial Relations Committee about the petition that was presented to parliament signed by 1,808 people requesting that the house of Representatives inquire into the feasibility of developing cycle pathway using the existing rail corridor between Napier and Gisborne. The committee listened to my general outline of the proposition, its opportunities for employment, benefits of feeding into the already fantastic Hawkes Bay cycleways and attracting more international tourists. The balance of the 20 minutes they had allocated were questions about this. Questions were diverse and some committee members sounded enthusiastic about the idea. Others, I sensed by the questions asked, seemed to struggle to follow what was really being requested. The main emphasis came down to why would private investment not participate in completing a feasibility study to which I replied with the obvious, that the link is currently a Crown asset that as I understood it the Crown was reluctant to relinquish ownership of and that in this state its the responsibility of the Crown to decide what are the viable options, if any, for the link while retaining ownership. Once this is decided then private funding of options could proceed. Another question was in regard to approaching the local mayors about doing such a study to which I replied that while there has been discussion between local mayors that in Hawkes Bay getting agreement from them is a different story! This appeared to be generally understood! Similarly, a question arose about approaching the Hawkes Bay Regional Council to do this and I replied that the HBRC has been approached but appeared to be more supportive of the rail reopening idea. Comments about the amount of logs due to be harvested around Gisborne also came to which I reminded them that most of these already leave out of Gisborne, not Napier and will continue to do so. Questions about the bridges and tunnels being a hindrance were considered but these I said would be a positive feature of a cycle way although acknowledging that some tunnels would definitely need lighting and bridges/viaducts made safe for cyclists. Another question related to using a charitable trust and having donations made to it so that a feasibility study is completed. Once again this comes down to seeking private funding to assess the viability of a Crown asset and that is the wrong way around. It was generally a positive interview but it is hard to know how the outcome will play out. Malcolm Eves
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 02:50:07 +0000
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