An extract from an article on the Wairarapa Times Age site is below. Everyone else who doesn't want to see the country's roads turned into a congested stream of big trucks should also make their voice heard.
......
A fight to save the northern Wairarapa rail line from 'mothballing' by the Government is 'winnable', says Pahiatua Railcar Society president Don Selby.
'I think [Transport Minister] Steven Joyce is just being provocative to see what the reaction will be and to see if someone will come out and fight for it - and that person is me,' Mr Selby said.
In March KiwiRail was asked to review its spending in a round of belt-tightening prompted by Mr Joyce's proposal to shut lines that had little or no traffic like the section from Napier to Gisborne and the Masterton-Woodville link.
'The National Government is on the wrong track. This is a misguided ministerial proposal, which threatens a unique tourist initiative,' Mr Selby said.
He hated the term 'mothballing', and said the minister had misappropriated the term as a cloak for future action. 'In politicalspeak what "mothballing" means is, "We are going to rip (the track) up later when the news media have forgotten about it, but meantime limit the political fallout by pretending it's only temporary," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment