KiwiRail

So what is the kind of appetite for broader political rise? Not just like, you know, this is in five years time, but 10 years, 15 years within the Greens and having that kind of regional rail emphasis.

I think we really have to grapple with the fact that KiwiRail wants to be a freight provider and not a passenger provider.

And I think that that just has to fundamentally change.

You brought up my list of things that are very frustrating about Te Huia that I overlook because it's better than no train.

It's highly compromised.

At the same time, we can tidy it up and we can put a bun to Kiwi Rail.

to lock up these contaminants and feed them into the existing water care system so it gets cleaned up.

Eventually it'll finish up in the Manukau Harbour, but at least feed people into this at the moment, okay? How they did the rubbish dumps in the last 100 years have been pretty disgraceful.

Do you know where the really dangerous crossings are, where there are frequent or just obvious risks?

I don't know the location of those, but I do know that KiwiRail has a very robust assessment tool for determining risk associated with their level crossings, and they prioritise attention to those based on that.

What makes a difference? Do the warning lights make a difference? What makes a difference?

Absolutely.

Um, the part that we want to work on next is technically easier except for there's some switchbacks we need to put in, um, to go under the Abbots Creek Bridge.

Um, we have to work with Kiwi Rail for, um, to go along some of their land, and that is always fraught because they have a much higher regulatory framework than working with NZTA, because they operate trains on the lines as well as operating the actual service, um, or the, the l- l- land.

Um, so we've got some gnarly issues there.

But yes, we've been...

Yep, you just talked about, um...

Yeah, it's interesting.

So did you, I don't know if I heard this right, um, say that, uh, some of the land is, like, owned by, um, Kiwi Rail?

Yeah, some of the land, yeah, it's, uh, the Kiwi Rail still own f- uh, parts of the land, and we may want to go alongside the Kiwi Rail land, alongside their railway line.

The Wairarapa train line in Wellington is set to be replaced by buses for a month from December 26 to carry out rail upgrades.

Kiwi Rail says the upgrades will include new level crossing barriers and signaling systems.

The bus ride will include a very windy and hilly segment through Remutaka Hill, which one councilor describes as vomit-inducing.

Greater Wellington Councilor Quentin Duthie says that bus replacements are challenging due to, due to the long journey between Masterton and Wellington, and that the council would endeavor to make the coaches as comfortable as possible.

Longer term funding, not just every, you know, depending on the budget every year.

And the government have done that with KiwiRail, actually starting next year, they'll have three years, which allows them to plan ahead, get better value for their spend.

We actually think it's got to be kind of like a decade to 12 years.

And it doesn't mean governments can't change.