Herald praises train decision

The Herald’s editorial:

For all the disruption the takeover of train purchases has caused to the regional council’s plans, there was a logic and inevitability about it from the moment Labour bought the rest of the railway system. Fragmentation of public services offers little benefit to a nation of just four million people unless competition is possible and permitted. …

Now that the trains are also back in state ownership it is important that the transparencies of privatisation are not lost. The tracks and trains should remain separate accounting entities even if Ontrack and KiwiRail are merged. If the Auckland commuter units are owned by the national agency they will continue to be operated by the French company Veolia Transport, whose contract with the regional transport authority was recently extended to 2014.