Tranz Rail Committed To Negotiation Process

Tranz Rail Remains Committed To Negotiation Process

Tranz Rail Managing Director Michael Beard said today that he was surprised by the Wellington Regional Council’s breach of protocol in negotiations over the sale of the Wellington Tranz Metro Network.

Mr Beard said when he left negotiations yesterday (Monday) it was with an undertaking to discuss with the Tranz Rail Board the WRC proposal to remove the requirement for an indicative bid from the negotiation process.

“I had agreed to take that request forward to a Board sub-committee meeting and come back with a response,” said Mr Beard. “I was therefore a little surprised to see the Council’s statement today. Commercial negotiations of this kind are not usually carried out in a public forum and it is certainly not Tranz Rail’s intention to carry on negotiations in this way.

“However, in good faith, I will take the proposal forward to the Board sub committee.”

Mr Beard said Tranz Rail accepted that the Council felt it was under some pressure because of the public funds involved. He said Tranz Rail would try and find ways to work with the Council to address the pressures Council felt it was under within a normal commercial negotiation process.

“However, Council must also recognise that we operate under similar commercial pressures and there are certain protocols that we would expect to be rigorously observed in the course of any commercial transaction of this scale.”

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