Books ‘Cooked’ on Electric Trains Despite Denial
Books ‘Cooked’ on Electric Trains Despite Denial
New Zealand First believes KiwiRail
“cooked the books” to get rid of electric trains on part
of the North Island main trunk
line.
“They manipulated information
for presentation to Ministers to favour Chinese diesel
trains, but claim they did not ‘cook the books’, says
New Zealand First Transport Spokesperson Denis
O’Rourke.
“From Official Information
New Zealand First discovered that:
“For the
first six months of 2016 the Mean Distance Before Failure of
the Chinese locomotives was 33,353km for the DL fleet and
51,924km for the DL Gen 2.2 fleet.
“However, in the
presentation made to the Cabinet KiwiRail ‘massaged’ the
numbers. The DL fleet was around 40,000km and the DL Gen
2.2s exceeded 80,000km.
“KiwiRail will not publicly disclose the day-to-day cost that each class of locomotive costs to run.
“However, according to
KiwiRail’s own business case electric locomotives have
‘lower service and maintenance costs due to less moving
parts’.
“According to their business case, the
Chinese diesel fleet costs $1.77 a kilometre while the
electric fleet costs $1.22/km. The Chinese diesels should be
running at their optimum cost as they are relatively new,
while the componentry inside the electrics is much
older.
“A properly maintained, upgraded or new electric
locomotive will achieve a much improved result which will
increase the gap between low cost electric and high cost
diesel.
“In some ‘binned’ internal and external
reports we have seen, a rebuild of the current electric
fleet or the purchase of a large number of former Queensland
electric locomotives is acknowledged to be substantially
cheaper than the Chinese diesels.
“Also, they have
lower operating costs, better reliability, equivalent 30
year lifespan from re-build, and are available in six to 24
months,” says Mr O’Rourke.
ENDS