IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vuw/vuwcsr/19133.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The History and Future of Rail in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Heatley, David

Abstract

Did the 2002-08 re-nationalisation of New Zealand railways represent the end of a failed experiment in the privatisation of essential infrastructure and herald the renaissance of socially-desirable environmentally-friendly rail? Or was it a misguided attempt to stem the inevitable decline of a 19th century technology that has no place in a modern transportation infrastructure?This report examines the economic viability structure and role of New Zealand's rail network since 1863. Rail has become increasingly econmically unviable over time. Reflecting this it has been largely unresponsive to changes in governance and ownership arrangements. Technological change in rail has been minor when compared with changes in sea road and air transport. The role of rail has changed as it has adapted to competition from these substitutes.Also examined are various arguments proposed as to why the future may be a break from the past including externalities (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions and congestion) together with government policy to induce modal shift towards rail and predicted increases in freight demand. These factors do not appear to be sufficient to make the current rail network economically viable in the long run. Rail is strategically and economically vulnerable to pressures on one side from more environmentally-friendly sea transport and on the other side from more flexible road transport.Closure of at least part of the rail network appears socially desirable if not inevitable. The analysis considers whether there is a viable subset of the current rail network. There is evidence that such a subset exists and compelling arguments to move towards that goal.

Suggested Citation

  • Heatley, David, 2009. "The History and Future of Rail in New Zealand," Working Paper Series 19133, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    • Handle: RePEc:vuw:vuwcsr:19133
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.wgtn.ac.nz/handle/123456789/19133
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy Atack & Michael R. Haines & Robert A. Margo, 2008. "Railroads and the Rise of the Factory: Evidence for the United States, 1850-70," NBER Working Papers 14410, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jeremy Atack & Fred Bateman & Michael Haines & Robert A. Margo, 2009. "Did Railroads Induce or Follow Economic Growth? Urbanization and Population Growth in the American Midwest, 1850-60," NBER Working Papers 14640, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Michael R. Haines & Robert A. Margo, 2006. "Railroads and Local Economic Development: The United States in the 1850s," NBER Working Papers 12381, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2008. "The Economics of Place-Making Policies," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(1 (Spring), pages 155-253.
    5. Edward L Glaeser & Jesse M Shapiro, 2003. "Urban Growth in the 1990s: Is City Living Back?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 139-165, February.
    6. Gorman, Michael F., 2008. "Evaluating the public investment mix in US freight transportation infrastructure," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-14, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heatley, David, 2009. "The History and Future of Rail in New Zealand," Working Paper Series 4031, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    2. repec:vuw:vuwscr:19133 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Berger, Thor & Enflo, Kerstin, 2017. "Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 124-138.
    4. Dave Donaldson & Richard Hornbeck, 2016. "Railroads and American Economic Growth: A "Market Access" Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 799-858.
    5. Latika Chaudhary & Fenske, James, 2020. "Did railways affect literacy? Evidence from India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 529, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    6. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2008. "The Economics of Place-Making Policies," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(1 (Spring), pages 155-253.
    7. Hornung, Erik, 2012. "Railroads and Micro-regional Growth in Prussia," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 80, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Jaremski, Matthew, 2014. "National Banking's Role in U.S. Industrialization, 1850–1900," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 109-140, March.
    9. Howard Bodenhorn & David Cuberes, 2010. "Financial development and city growth: Evidence from Northeastern American cities, 1790-1870," Working Papers 2010/35, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    10. Kakpo, Eliakim & Le Gallo, Julie & Grivault, Camille & Breuillé, Marie, 2019. "Does railway accessibility boost population growth? Evidence from unfinished historical roadways in France," MPRA Paper 96743, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Jeremy Atack & Matthew S. Jaremski & Peter L. Rousseau, 2014. "Did Railroads Make Antebellum U.S. Banks More Sound?," NBER Chapters, in: Enterprising America: Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective, pages 149-178, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Koopmans, Carl & Rietveld, Piet & Huijg, Aart, 2012. "An accessibility approach to railways and municipal population growth, 1840–1930," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 98-104.
    13. William J. Collins & Robert A. Margo, 2014. "Introduction to "Enterprising America: Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective"," NBER Chapters, in: Enterprising America: Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective, pages 1-22, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Simon C Büchler & Dongxiao Niu & Anne K Thompson & Siqi Zheng, 2024. "The impact of human capital and housing supply on urban growth," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(2), pages 214-230, February.
    15. Mark D. Partridge, 2013. "America’s Job Crisis and the Role of Regional Economic Development Policy," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 43(2,3), pages 97-110, Winter.
    16. Mark Partridge & M. Rose Olfert & Alessandro Alasia, 2007. "Canadian cities as regional engines of growth: agglomeration and amenities," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(1), pages 39-68, February.
    17. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, 2019. "Geographic Cross-Sectional Fiscal Spending Multipliers: What Have We Learned?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 1-34, May.
    18. Rui Manuel Pereira, Alfredo Marvao Pereira and William J. Hausman, 2017. "Railroad Infrastructure Investments and Economic Development in the Antebellum United States," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 1-16, September.
    19. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2020. "Housing, urban growth and inequalities: The limits to deregulation and upzoning in reducing economic and spatial inequality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 223-248, February.
    20. Matias Busso & Patrick Kline, 2008. "Do Local Economic Development Programs Work? Evidence from the Federal Empowerment Zone Program," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1639, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    21. María Priscila Ramos & Estefanía Custodio & Sofía Jiménez & Alfredo J. Mainar-Causapé & Pierre Boulanger & Emanuele Ferrari, 2022. "Do agri-food market incentives improve food security and nutrition indicators? a microsimulation evaluation for Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(1), pages 209-227, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vuw:vuwcsr:19133. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Library Technology Services (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fcvuwnz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.