14th July 2019 was a great day for HB/Gisborne, giving us all a real deep feeling of hope for our future health,
wellbeing, safety, security and environmental sustainability for all who call HB our home.
This was the first train to travel the whole length of the track from Napier to Wairoa full of supporters thanks for
your support to the many who have quietly been fighting for this day.
Question now is; - when do we reopen the Gisborne line as Gisborne as it is the most isolated City of its size in NZ
today without a rail service?
We have the picture and the words spoken by the ‘Minister of rail’ (Robert Semple) as the first train leaves Gisborne in
mid-1942 while 10 000 wave them off, as the ‘Minister of rail’ (Robert Semple) says it was justified to spend 6000
pounds to complete the rail service to Gisborne as it was an “isolated” region.
Interestingly PM John Key also come to Gisborne and Wairoa on week of 24th August 2012 to open a new wing of a hospital.
Then he was asked, ‘what about the $4 million cost of repair to a ‘one km track’ washout on the Gisborne (34 km section)
of the Napier Gisborne line as the majority of 186 kms was inside the HB boundary’?
PM John Key Was quoted in the Wairoa Star on 28th August 2012, - saying “Gisborne was isolated and had a lot of vehicles coming out and he did not want the only option to be road” unquote.
It seems like Robert Semple and john key had similar views about the difficulty Gisborne faced with being “isolated now
with only the only option to be road.”
So, since we all have collectively already spent the money in 1942 to get the rail services to “isolated” Gisborne, then
we need this line properly maintained and upgraded to 21st century standards, as Honourable Winston Peters said in
Parliament after the budget was delivered, ‘all regional rail need to be brought up to, under this Coalition
Government’, so it will be used well into the future for our future health, wellbeing, safety, security, economic and
environmental sustainability for all who call HB our home.
Ken Crispin.
Secretary.
CEAC.