Leaders vow fight over rail service

Here is Palmerston North's bottom line: A rail service to Wellington that is inferior to the one we have now will not be acceptable.

At a summit in the city yesterday about the under-threat Capital Connection train, community leaders agreed that nothing less than the status quo should be allowed to happen, city MP Iain Lees-Galloway said.

The MP believes the train – the only commuter rail link between Palmerston North and Wellington – is in jeopardy because passengers might instead use Wellington's expanding metro services. Electrification and double tracking will be extended north of Paraparaumu to Waikanae in the next year and it is feared Palmerston North passengers could end up with a worse deal if KiwiRail cans the Capital Connection or runs it less often. Mr Lees-Galloway said community leaders agreed they needed to know more about KiwiRail's decision-making criteria.

Any proposals presented to KiwiRail had to be backed by good research, he said.

The community was committed to either keeping the Capital Connection or have a service that was at least as good, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News