Kiwis buy "dodgy" railway sleepers
24 July 2013
HEADS should roll at Kiwi Rail after the state-owned company imported wooden railway sleepers infested with Alien fungi not found in New Zealand, says minority party New Zealand First. Kiwi Rail imported 100,000 railway sleepers which weren't up to hardwood standard and laid 7000 of them, the NZ parliament was told last week.
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said the 7000 railway sleepers had "some degree of decay" and were being replaced. Kiwi Rail chief executive Jim Quinn said on Friday that tests showed two of the fungi types on the railway sleepers were new to New Zealand, TVNZ reported. They posed no danger to people and the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) was investigating whether they posed any bio-security risk, he said. "However, we are now taking extra steps as recommended by MPI to sanitise and contain the railway sleepers we are systematically removing from the network."
NZ First Transport spokesman Brendan Horan said on Saturday that the damage the two new fungi could inflict on the environment could be dramatic. Either Kiwi Rail imported untreated wooden railway sleepers, or the treatment process was useless. Kiwi Rail management must now do the right thing and make those responsible for this blunder pay with their jobs," he said.
The Government has objected to NZ First MP Brendan Horan tabling photos in Parliament showing unsafe parts of the KiwiRail network, claims the transport spokesperson. Brendan attempted to present the photos of rotting railway sleepers to outline the safety issues of tracks, which he says will lead to derailment of trains. “I’ve got three photos of railway sleepers with growth sprouting out of sleepers,” says Brendan. “It’s quite obvious that they are rotten. I tried to introduce these photos into the house to highlight these safety concerns. The National-led Government objected to me introducing these photos.”
Brendan claims KiwiRail purchased a “dodgy” lot of South American timber railway sleepers because they were cheaper than the traditional Jarrah - and those railway sleepers are now rotting. “A terrible tragedy is imminent,” says Brendan. “The biggest cause of derailment is track spreading, and where you get mud coming in it needs to be cleared out and replaced with ballast straight away, because otherwise the track spreads. “What we have is rotting railway sleepers, mud slides and ballast that is not replaced. Every week there are minor derailments.”
Brendan says he has been contacted by concerned KiwiRail staff from all over the country worried about the prospect of a major derailment occurring. A KiwiRail train travelling from Tauranga derailed at the Frankton yard on July 9. A derailment Brendan says was caused by lack of maintenance.
The NZ railway network has six million sleepers.