New Zealand Railways Corporation
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The New Zealand Railways Corporation (NZRC), since 2004 trading as ONTRACK (Rere Totika in Maori), is a state-owned enterprise (SOE) that owns, manages and maintains New Zealand's rail infrastructure. Until 1990 NZRC operated New Zealand rail services. Like the New Zealand Railways Department that preceded it, it had a responsible Minister, the Minister of Railways. The office was dissolved in 1993.
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[edit] History
[edit] New Zealand's rail operator: 1981-1990
NZRC was created as a statutory corporation by the New Zealand Railways Corporation Act 1981 from the New Zealand Railways Department. Along with rail operations, NZRC inherited New Zealand Railways Road Services (bus and parcels services) and SeaRail (inter-island ferries).
During the 1980s it faced many tough challenges, such as the deregulation of the land transport industry in 1982 resulting from the repeal of the Transport Licensing Act 1931 and the resulting growth of competition from road freight operators. In 1984 international consultants Booz Allen Hamilton reported to the National government on how a viable rail network could be created. The report recommended, amongst other things:
- The reduction of staff numbers;
- Rationalisation of the locomotive and wagon fleet;
- Rationalisation of the railway workshops; and
- Re-focussing long-distance passenger services towards tourists.
This prompted the Opposition Labour Party to launch a ‘Save Rail’ campaign. Despite this, rationalisation of NZRC began with the election of the Fourth Labour government in mid 1984. Staff cuts were drastic, infrastructure was reduced and older classes of locomotives scrapped, and workshops closed. In 1985 NZRC began a major restructuring programme, eliminating the old branch structure of its predecessor. It was reformed into three core business groups:
- Railfreight Systems (later simply Railfreight), including all engineering functions;
- the Passenger Business Group, consisting of CityLine suburban rail and bus services and InterCity rail and bus long-distance services, the latter including Speedlink Parcels; and
- The Interislander, the rail and road ferry service between the North and South Islands.
[edit] Privatisation of the rail network: 1990-2004
New Zealand Rail Limited (NZRL) was established as a Crown Transferee Company under the provisions of the New Zealand Railways Corporation Restructuring Act 1990, and took over NZRC's rail transport and shipping activities on 28 October 1990, leasing the rail corridor from NZRC for $1 per year. Branding initially remained unchanged, except that suburban passenger services were rebranded CityRail.
NZRL was sold for $400 million to a consortium of Wisconsin Central Railway (40%), Berkshire Partners (20%) and Fay, Richwhite & Company (40%) in 1993. The company was renamed Tranz Rail in 1995, with urban passenger services rebranded Tranz Metro, long-distance passenger Tranz Scenic, and freight Tranz Link. Tranz Rail was purchased by Toll Holdings in 2004 and renamed Toll NZ.
Ownership of the rail corridor remained with NZRC, as did non-core assets prior to their disposal. Many of these assets were written down by the Government, for some $830 million. Speedlink Parcels was sold to New Zealand Post, and InterCity road services were sold in 1991 to Intercity Group New Zealand Limited [1], a group of four of the country's largest private coach companies - Ritchies, Tranzit, PTL Route Services and Nelson SBL. Railway stations in Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier and Oamaru were sold, along with substantial tracts of land previously used for rail operations. CityLine bus services were sold to various purchasers.
NZRC managed the lease of the rail corridor from the Crown to Tranz Rail from 1993 until 2004, when the Crown re-acquired the rail infrastructure from Toll Holdings.
[edit] Renationalisation of the rail network: 2004
From 1 July 2004 ONTRACK assumed the Crown's responsibilities under the rail access agreement with Toll, and owns, manages and maintains almost all of New Zealand's rail infrastructure. It also manages the upgrading of Wellington Railway Station. Recently it began major $600 million upgrade of Auckland's suburban railway network (See Project DART). These upgrades, along with other projects around the country, followed years of under-investment in the rail infrastructure.
[edit] Track access negotiations
ONTRACK and Toll NZ have been in dispute about track access fees since mid 2006 and an independent arbitrator, Bill Wilson QC, has been called in to resolve the issues between the parties.
Separate talks have continued between Toll and the Government on long term access arrangements. On 31 January 2007 Toll stated that [2] "...the discussions with the Crown on a long term sustainable access regime have generally been positive", but "Toll NZ is still concerned that the Crown appears to be unwilling to recognise the inequality of the funding support between road and rail and the need to adopt a more commercial approach to track access management".
[edit] Areas of Operation
ONTRACK has three main areas of operation:
- It owns New Zealand's rail infrastructure. It provides rail operators, primarily Toll NZ pursuant to its agreements with the Crown, with access to the rail network in return for the payment of track access charges. It is also responsible for the maintenance and development of the network.
- It is the rail network controller, providing services such as train control and signalling.
- It administers a substantial portfolio of land on behalf of the Crown, and derives income from leasing land and buildings on a commercial basis.
The ONTRACK network consists of:
- Route length: 3,898 km
- Tunnels: 149
- Bridges: 2,178
- Electrification: 95 km at 1.5 kV DC (Wellington area), 411 km at 25 kV 50 Hz AC (NIMT central section)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- ONTRACK (New Zealand Railways Corporation)
- Project DART - ONTRACK's Project DART
