OPINION: When the Kaikoura earthquake obliterated the rail line between Picton and Christchurch and sections of State Highway 1 along the same route were submerged in rocks and debris, the fragility of the country’s transport network were fully exposed.
It was an embarrassment for New Zealand. It showed that the main transport connection between the North and South Islands was deficient, overly dependent on road transportation and along a route totally unsuited for big rig trucks.
Every year on windy road sections along the Kaikoura coastline heavy trucks roll over injuring and even killing the drivers.
On the notorious Hundalee Hills section south of Kaikoura, trucks create enormous problems for other traffic, causing delays and safety risks.
The earthquake presented the opportunity to have a rethink, to reassess the whole situation and come up with a better North Island-South Island transport strategy – incorporating road and rail and what has been run down over many years – coastal shipping.
New Zealand once had a vibrant coastal shipping service. In the 1980s a fleet of 40 or so New Zealand vessels carried freight around the country and across the Tasman. A roll-on-roll-off cargo service operated between Wellington and Lyttelton
All this faded away so that today we have only five interisland ferries and five other vessels carrying containers, oil and cement.
Following the earthquake, the government-appointed North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTR) looked at transportation possibilities for the future, one of which included beefing up shipping to carry freight.
If adopted this could have presented the chance to make the rebuilt road a heritage-scenic route.
However, NCTR gave shipping scant attention and plumped for one thing only – a rebuild of SH1 – making the road wider to handle bigger and even more trucks.
That means more truck roll overs; more problems in the Hundalees; the chances of having a revitalised coastal shipping service have disappeared and so too has the possibility of developing a coastal-heritage route to draw holidaymakers and tourists.
It is sad for the Marlborough and Kaikoura districts, as well as New Zealand, that the big truck lobby has won.
Foresight has gone out the window and a wonderful opportunity has been lost.
Winston Peters is the leader of NZ First and MP for Northland
– The Marlborough Express