July 15, 2015
Rail recipe for regional recovery
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says investment in rail would be a shot in the arm for regional centres and for Maori there.
She says Kiwirail costs the government a fraction of what it spends on motorways, and it is expected to both be self funding, with no access to fuel levies or road user charges, and to make a profit.
Increasing rail services also has benefits for freight, tourism and domestic travel.
Ms Turei says a good start would be reopening the Napier to Gisborne line, with concern growing about the number of truck movements on the region's roads.
"For Maori communities it opens up those rural areas that are losing services as we speak. Heaps of them have lost schools, medical centres, some have lost banks. The more services we can put in place in those regional areas the more likely they can be engaged in their own economic development. You need to have those services for economic development to happen," she says.
Metiria Turei says lack of investment in the regions is one of the factors driving the Auckland housing bubble as people seek opportunity there.
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