AUGUST 2010 JOURNAL ISSUE # 90 PUBLISHED BY FEDERATION OF RAIL ORGANISATIONS NZ INC : P O BOX 140, DUNEDIN 9054 PLEASE SEND CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDITOR BY E-MAIL : [email protected] Paul’s Progress 1 Track Materials Update 6 IN THIS Strand Station 1 Sad Day for FOTR. 6 ISSUE Saving Those Provincial Lines 2 Tramway Open Day At Waikino 7 Tower Wagon Update 3 Three Hours For Rescue Too Slow 7 More Bureaucracy 4 Air Quality Standards Being Loosened? 8 Adventure Tourism ? 5 UK Office Of Rail Regulation Report 8 An Apology – Our President, Paul Dillicar, had prepared a July Journal but was rushed to hospital before he could send it out.. This was not discovered until after a scratch Journal was sent out on 18 July. Much of this issue comes from Paul’s edition and we apologise that many of the articles are now a month late. PAUL’S PROGRESS Recent reports say that Paul Dillicar is making good progress in re-hab (though not greatly enamoured of the physio). He is more animated and understanding conversations. While he has a long way to go it is good to hear that he is now fighting back. To those who have sent mail to Paul’s post box, we have recently discovered that, in anticipation of his overseas trip, he had put his mail on hold. We hope that we will be able to retrieve this after the 17th. STRAND STATION Recently the Auckland Regional Transport Authority indicated that they were considering changes to the Strand Station in Auckland. As FRONZ members use this station we have written to the ARTA to register our interest. Below is part of an e-mail sent to ARTA. "FRONZ has a written agreement with an ARTA predecessor, ARTNL, for the use of the Auckland railway network for trains of our member groups. Our interpretation of this agreement is that if any changes are made to facilities such as the nature of stations, including but not limited to platform heights, or configurations, we should be invited to be involved in the planning process. The Strand is an important facility for us as it is used by a number of our member groups when running excursion trains to and from Auckland." For information on the proposal see http://www.aucklandtrains.co.nz/2010/08/05/strand-emergency-stop- confirmed/ SAVING THOSE PROVINCIAL RAILWAY LINES …… 2 The Taranaki Daily News [TDN] reported on 17 June that a combined visit by the Mayors of Stratford and Ruapehu District to KiwiRail and the Minister of Transport Steven Joyce, had failed to secure the retention of the Stratford to Okahukura (SOL) Railway. The TDN reported “The fate of the Stratford to Okahukura (SOL) line, which has been unprofitable for decades and closed since November last year after derailment damage, should be decided at a coming KiwiRail meeting, with final recommendations to be taken to Transport Minister Steven Joyce. At yesterday's Regional Transport Committee meeting, Stratford mayor Neil Volzke spoke of his trip to Wellington. He said they wanted to provide information in favour of keeping the line open, but the response remained the same. "The future of the line depends on whether or not there is a commercial future for it," Mr Volzke said. "They [KiwiRail] need to have a major user - long term, bulk major user. "They did point out they are not in the business of social handouts." The Government has committed $250 million to support KiwiRail's "turn-around-plan" to increase New Zealand's economic productivity and growth through rail. The plan indicates that "minor lines that carry little or no traffic will only survive if they have proven future and/or an imminent anchor customer." The four "minor lines" mentioned are North Auckland line, Napier to Gisborne, North Wairarapa, and the SOL. Mr Volzke said their party did point out the potential for the dairy, gold, and forestry industries to still use the line. In addition, as the turn-around-plan may mean parts of the rail network will have to be closed temporarily for renovations, the SOL line could be used as an alternative to move freight. He asked KiwiRail officials what exactly mothballing the line would mean. "It will remain but not in use. They were aware of the decommission costs,“ he said. KiwiRail also said the mothball period would only be for a certain amount of time however, and if the line did close, further improvements would be made to the Marton - New Plymouth Line, he said. (end abstract). =============== Commenting on the report, FRONZ President Paul Dillicar noted that there was clear concern amongst delegates at the recent 2010 FRONZ AGM, that too much of the KiwiRail Network was now under threatened closure and that was why Don Selby had been appointed by the AGM to act as a “Convenor for Retention of the KiwiRail Network”. This decision was not only driven by the need of the Heritage Network Operating Groups to retain as much of it as possible for operational purposes, but also because as various branch lines threatened over the years for closure had demonstrated, (Dargaville, Ngapara, Kapuni, etc) there was potential for them to rise again to play an important role in keeping convoys of trucks off the roading network in a fuel-efficient way. This was driven by a concern at the way Government was denying KiwiRail the capital required for it to not only improve existing track, but also retain the whole network. “The intention of the AGM was quite clear” Paul noted, “in supporting the work that Don Selby had already done in appealing for the retention of the Masterton-Pahiatua section of the Wairarapa Line, as well as other sections such as the Napier-Gisborne Line which potentially also threatens our member Gisborne City Vintage Railway”. =============== Don Selby has meantime contributed the following statement of how your organisation might contribute : “As reported in the last Journal I was elected FRONZ "Convenor for the retention of the KiwiRail Network". The seeds of this started earlier this year when Minister of Transport Steven Joyce announced that several under utilised rail lines faced an uncertain future unless traffic could be found, or in his words "communities could demonstrate why they should be retained". The North Wairarapa line was high on his hit list so this represented a serious threat to all our local communities and the Pahiatua Railcar Society in particular. 3 As President of the PRS I decided to start a campaign to save the line. This went really well and within weeks I had our (National) MP, both local District Mayors and Councils, all the newspapers in the area, and most of all the general public both aware and right behind me. Radio Stations, Reporters, and even a TV Channel were constantly ringing me (and still are). The news media rapidly became interested in all four threatened lines and to my surprise started quoting things I had said in reports about these others, notwithstanding I had said nothing directly about them. This caused me to realise that the rail heritage movement as a group had a role to play in trying to save all of them - not just our line. What was needed was a group approach to give us critical mass and consequently a louder and more authoritative voice. Knowing the FRONZ Conference was imminent I cast around in the lead-up for support and was sufficiently encouraged to arrange for the proposal to be placed on the agenda. My presentation caused a healthy debate and I'm pleased to say this resulted in a decision to appoint me to this new convenorship. My sincere thanks to all those who supported me - particularly my South Island friends. I am already working closely with Steam Inc and MLST executives and we were able to arrange for our voice to be heard at the recent high level Gisborne line talks. I am hoping other groups like Feilding and the R.E.S. will nominate someone to work with us. There have been some promising developments on our local line and I haven't given up hope on the SOL just yet. North Auckland is also on my radar screen. Be assured none of the four lines will be closed or "mothballed" without strenuous efforts to prevent it being made on your behalf. TOWER WAGON UPDATE Trevor Burling reports:- Western Springs Tramway at MOTAT have received a letter from the Department of Labour (DoL) explaining why they have banned the use of MOTAT’s tower wagons. Essentially they are saying the wagons do not comply with the current code of practice for power operated elevating work platforms and could not be made to comply because of their design. An officer of the department visited the museum to discuss the situation and the response was that the ban still stood even though the maintenance and care to original specifications were explained and operational practices covered. DoL’s response was that the standard they were built to was not acceptable and MOTAT should buy a modern work platform if they want to continue over head maintenance. DoL even said MOTAT were failing in their duty to “take all practical steps” to ensure the safety of their volunteer staff. Our response to that is these practical steps must be reasonable and the intention is to manage the risk, which MOTAT were certainly doing after all they are the experts, not DoL. Also it is not the intention of the law to close down an operation unless there was serious risk involved and that is hardly the case here.