Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
Source: Chris Leitch, Leader Social Credit, Whangarei Candidate
Social Credit is calling on the government to sack the board and the CEO of Kiwirail following today’s announcement that all its long distance passenger services are going to be cancelled.
We also want the government to put in sufficient funding to ensure these services remain in place.
The excuse offered by Kiwirail’s acting CEO, Todd Moyle, that people in a confined space for long periods of time pose a greater risk of spreading Covid to passengers and staff is an absolute nonsense.
The fact that air travellers coming in from overseas who are required not only to produce evidence of double vaccination, but also to return a negative test before boarding the aeroplane, are arriving with Covid-19 shows that the virus is going to spread regardless of masks, vaccination, or mandates.
Those long distance passenger rail services are unlikely ever to restart once they have been cancelled because it will be considered too expensive to do the maintenance necessary to get them back on track.
In addition the staff that operate those services are likely to be laid off and their skills and training will be difficult to replicate.
If the government does not take this action it will be clear proof that they do not want those services to remain in place and that they’re only interested in long distance freight and not in passenger services.
The decision flies in the face of efforts to reduce emissions by offering long distance travellers an option other than motor cars or aeroplanes, both of which are far more polluting than rail, especially given that some of those rail services can be electrically-powered.
