DoC wants rail land returned

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 440, 16 June 1992, Page 1

DoC wants rail land returned

DoC wants land not required for the Ohakune-Horopito railway deviation back, but it claims Railways won't give it up. The Tongariro-Taupo Conservation Board discussed the matter at their meeting last week, and decided to support the Department of Conservation (DoC) in its bid to regain the land. "The Conservation Board is concemed that New Zealand Rail is refusing to return to Tongariro National Park all land not required for railway purposes between Ohakune and Horopito," stated a

press release from the board. "When the railway deviations were agreed to in 1984 this had been the intention and had been agreed to in principle." An act of Parliament allowed for the land to be set aside from the Tongariro National Park to facilitate the realignment of the Main Trunk Line. "The deviation has long been completed and there is no good Turnpage2

DoC wants rail land back

Frompagel reason why Railways should keep it," said DoC executive officer Karen Hawke. Retained land needed But Railways say they have returned all the land they were supposed to and are retaininrg only what they need. "The act of Parliament stated quite specifically which land should be returned and we have done that," said NZ Rail Ltd national property manager Ron Elton. "DoC seems to want more than they were promised." He said the land the company was holding onto was for possible slip repairs and minor track realignments in the future. There were many areas with steep cutting batters and fairly flat fiil batters

which could easily slip sometime in the future, said Mr Elton. "We want to preserve our long-term land rights in these areas to allow us to make repairs." If the land wasn't retained by Railways they would be forced to go through more acts of Parliament every time they needed to repair a slip, he said. "And surveys and administration expenses for that sort of thing don't come cheap, even when the land needed may be very small." Mr Elton said NZ Rail Properties was willing to negotiate longterm leases with DoC, for minimal rental, for the land. Railways had spent a lot of money on restoration work in the deviation area, "we Went well over the initial conditions of the agreement". "We're not inhibiting DoC from doing what they want with the land in the meantime."