The one good thing is that they failed to take it private. Imagine how bad it would be with the current maintenance backlog and no public funding.

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tonyedgecombe an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Rail journeys in the UK doubled after privatisation. The service was dire under public ownership because it never got enough investment.

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robocat 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The New Zealand government sold their rail system, then Toll didn't make a success of it, so the government bought it back at a massive loss.

Now rail is just a nightmare moneypit. But older voters love rail "it's efficient" so the government panders to them and wastes more expenditure on it.

Edit: Currently for every $1.50 tax income from road user taxes and petroleum taxes: $1 is spent on roads, and 50 cents is spent on "rail". Crap. Rail is paid for by cars but is mostly waste.

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Gud 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I don’t know much about New Zealand but I do know that a functioning rail network is amazing(I live in Switzerland and frequently travel by public transport).

My native Sweden had an amazing rail network as well, we even made our own locomotives, but unfortunately it has also been neglected, though not as bad as in Germany.

Don’t diss rail, it can be great.

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robocat 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Rail can also be awful.

New Zealand is largely coastal so ships mostly beat rail. The 3 largest cities have their own ports. Cook Straight separates the South Island from the North Island, which complicates rail down South (apart from the Kaikoura Earthquake totally stuffing it). We don't do many bulk goods (unlike Australia which loves mining).

NZ overall has much less dense population - e.g. Auckland has insanely more urban sprawl than Zurich.

Sweeping statements about rail are a problem here (especially if incorrectly comparing against other populous or landlocked countries), and the biased love of rail makes for wasteful expenditure.

	▲	eqvinox 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Auckland has insanely more urban sprawl than Zurich. Auckland: ca. 1000 people/km² in 30km radius Zürich: ca. 800 people/km² in 30km radius People severely underestimate how sprawly Zürich is.