Strategy Overview
| Objectives | Priorities | Key initiatives |
|---|---|---|
| NZTS: Assisting Economic Development National Rail Strategy: To enhance rail's contribution to sustainable economic development |
| - Government purchase of rail network. - Retain existing rail network. - Government investment of $200 million to restore and upgrade network. - Investigate development of the network. - Operation of an efficient and safe ONTRACK. - Contribute to integration between rail and other networks. - Investigate options for better incorporating costs of transport modes into the pricing of the transport system. |
| NZTS: Assisting Safety and Personal Security National Rail Strategy: To improve rail safety and personal security |
| - Enhanced rail safety regime (Railways Act 2005). - Develop a rail safety strategy. - Develop effective and efficient interventions to improve safety. - Improve the safety and personal security of rail users. |
| NZTS: Improving Access and Mobility National Rail Strategy: To maintain and develop access to rail passenger services |
| - Funding assistance to develop urban rail passenger services and infrastructure. - Investigate options for better incorporating the social costs and benefits of transport modes into the pricing of the transport system. |
| NZTS: Protecting and Promoting Public Health National Rail Strategy: To promote positive health outcomes through the enhanced use of rail |
| - Encourage modal shift within a sustainable development context. - Investigate options for better incorporating public health costs and benefits into pricing of the transport system. - Investigate electrification of Auckland urban rail network. |
| NZTS: Ensuring Environmental Sustainability National Rail Strategy: To enhance rail's contribution to an energy efficient and environmentally sustainable land transport system |
| - Encourage modal shift from road to rail where appropriate. - Investigate options for better incorporating environmental costs and benefits into the pricing of the transport system. - Encourage better integration of services where practicable. |
Objective: To enhance rail's contribution to sustainable economic development
Data provided by the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA) for 2003 gives total freight movements of 36.2 billion tonne kilometres (t km), split 64% road, 25% coastal shipping and 11% rail. Adjusting to a land transport basis gives a total of 27.1 billion t km, with rail carrying 14% or 3.9 billion t km.An efficient and effective rail system is of critical importance to New Zealand's economic development; for example, around 25 percent of all inter-city freight is currently carried by rail. However, the full potential of the rail network has not been realised due to a number of factors including under-investment over several years.
Crown ownership of the rail infrastructure provides the Government with the opportunity to ensure New Zealand's rail network is maintained and developed to encourage more use of rail within a broadly commercial framework. This is particularly important in areas of regional growth or under-provision of transport infrastructure.
Priority: Upgrade the national rail network
While a 2002 review of parts of the rail infrastructure concluded that the rail network is generally 'fit for purpose'2 for current freight operations, there is a need for investment to address a serious backlog of deferred maintenance. This is constraining the ability of rail to compete for freight business in some areas.
In the medium to long term, economic growth, coupled with any increase in rail's market share, is likely to create a need for investment in the rail infrastructure to allow for changing and growing freight and urban passenger demands.Possible improvements include upgrading and strengthening tracks and bridges, lowering tunnel floors to allow 9'6" (2.9 m) containers to be carried, installing and lengthening crossing loops, improved signalling, and re-routing of circuitous and steep sections of track that restrict speed or load. Such changes would enable the rail operator to use locomotives more efficiently, or gain greater efficiencies if axle loadings can be increased, subject to ONTRACK's codes and standards for the network.
Beyond the initial Crown commitment to network investment, the capital funding for developments with commercial benefits will be recovered or partially recovered from users through TAC. Any improvements to the existing network, where Toll NZ has exclusive use rights, will be subject to agreement with Toll NZ that it will make use of the enhancement.
Priority: Improve rail's contribution to regional development
Transport is a critical factor in regional growth and development. Many industries identified in regional development strategies, such as forestry, place very high levels of demand on transport services and infrastructure. Growth opportunities have also been identified in the coal and dairy sectors, and in container traffic. Developing the rail network can support regional development by providing the infrastructure needed to access economic opportunities, and will also help to ensure that new or existing freight does not transfer from rail to road.
There may be scope to fund urban transport infrastructure by capturing a proportion of the increase in land values generated by the new infrastructure. A UK example is London's Jubilee Line extension, where the increase in land value was nearly four times the project cost.
Priority: Encourage more freight to be carried by rail
A key issue for New Zealand is accommodating anticipated growth in freight volumes, which are expected to expand at a faster rate than overall economic growth. Much of New Zealand's extensive rail network is relatively under-utilised, and substantial increases in the amount of freight carried on many lines can be achieved without having to develop significant new infrastructure. By contrast, some parts of the roading network would need to be expanded to handle substantial increases in traffic volumes.
There is potential to significantly increase the rail transport share of existing freight volumes. A proportion of freight traffic will be unsuited to rail, where the origins and destinations are not served by rail lines, or distances are too short and volumes too small.
Priority: Optimise the use, of the rail network within the wider transport network
The LTMA provides the framework for an approach to funding and management of land transport as a whole, rather than focusing on roads and motor vehicles. A more integrated approach to long-term transport funding, planning, and operations will help ensure the best use is made of the overall transport network. For example, increased capacity in one mode such as rail could be used to reduce the cost of providing additional capacity on the roading network.
Increased integration of transport modes includes the development of innovative and flexible approaches, for example park and ride facilities, ticketing and timetabling integrated between passenger transport modes, and 'inland ports' or transport hubs that can help ensure that passengers and freight can transition easily and conveniently between transport modes.
Rail stations can be natural focal points for commercial, industrial, or residential development, illustrating that integrating land-use planning with rail infrastructure operation planning is also important. Improving integration will require regular consultation with regional councils, industry, and other parties, and consideration of other land transport plans and regional development strategies.
In 2002 the Ministry of Transport commissioned an Investigation into Surface Transport Costs and Charges (STCC). This study examined the relationship between the costs (including economic, social, and environmental costs) of the use of road and rail transport and the payments users make for using each mode. The findings of the study were that:
These findings will assist government in making decisions on the absolute and relative levels of charges for the use of road and rail networks.
National Rail Strategy
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