Focus on road building wrong for New Zealand

New Zealand’s two leading transport unions say that pouring public money only into roading and ignoring other transport infrastructure is a mistake.

Rail and Maritime Transport Union General Secretary Wayne Butson says in a time when we need to lower our reliance on fossil fuel powered vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, leaving out urgent rail and ports infrastructure investment is a mistake.
“We need to get goods and passengers out of gas guzzling, congestion creating road transport, and use high quality, low impact transport options like rail and coastal shipping.”

Mr Butson says rail was privatised by the last National Government and it appears that this ideological anti-rail approach is still around.

“Around the world, Government is investing in upgrading their rail industry, and we are noticing we are losing our skilled New Zealand workers overseas as rail operators expand their operations to meet the demand of growing business opportunities.”

Scoop