Spend Subsidies Elsewhere Than Rail

On page E2 of today's Press carries an interesting article by Andrew Gawith of Infometrics fame. He looks at the cost of propping up rail and concludes that in present form it is not viable in New Zealand. He suggests (as we have done) that we put emotion to one side and and ask a fundamental question - if we were starting from scratch today, would we build all the rail tracks we currently operate? Unlikely! Gawith concludes that we would be better to spend the money earmarked for subsidising rail to improve other aspects of land transport. Suck on that Frogblog!