New Zealand’s road and rail transport networks have been found wanting. ODT senior business reporter Simon Hartley talks to Westpac’s new industry economist Paul Clark about the country’s road and rail.
Internationally, New Zealand's roading network is ranked 40th out of 137 countries while the rail network comes in at 47th, the latter behind Poland and Hungary.
The data comes from the World Economic Forum's recently published global competitiveness index report. It ranks New Zealand's overall competitiveness as 13th out of the 137 countries.
However, Westpac's industry economist Paul Clark said the data showed companies were ''dissatisfied'' with the state of road and rail.
''The quality of our road and rail networks was identified as one of a number of weak spots in our overall competitiveness,'' Mr Clark said.
New Zealand has 95,000km of road, including 11,000km of state highways. Rail is 4100km in length.
New Zealand has for more than a decade been spending $5billion a year in these areas, most of it on road and rail infrastructure.
Firms operating in New Zealand had for 2017-18 rated the quality of the country's roads as the same as 2009-10, meaning ''no change in quality over the past eight years,'' he said.
''This is not a one-off.
''For a number of years an inadequate supply of infrastructure has been seen by firms as being the biggest hurdle for doing business in New Zealand,'' Mr Clark said.
He said the importance of having a high-quality land transport network could not be overstated, both for domestic use and getting exports to the rest of the world.
''When working well they can make a significant contribution to New Zealand's economy . . . but when not, they can constrain the economy's growth and prosperity,'' Mr Clark said.
About 82% of New Zealand's roads were open to ''high productivity vehicles'', or heavy commercial traffic. They have a capacity to carry from 44 tonnes to a maximum 62 tonnes.
''These vehicles help freight operators move more freight with fewer trucks, at lower cost,'' Mr Clark said.
Unsurprisingly, those vehicles account for more than 30% of heavy commercial traffic, he said.
Mr Clark said the capacity of the road network against demand for travel had only ''edged higher'' in recent years. The country's relatively strong domestic economic performance had underpinned the growth in demand.
''Much of this [annual $5billion] spending has been focused on addressing an infrastructural deficit caused by chronic under-investment in the 1980s and 1990s,'' Mr Clark said.
The spending had increased the road network capacity and helped to maintain it in ''tip-top'' condition. But it had not always been enough to handle some of the large increases in traffic, at least without some deterioration in network performance.
While progress had been made on rail and road public transport, particularly in Auckland, there had only been ''limited progress'' on freight - with almost 85% moved around the country by road.
''There's good reason for this. Road is not only cheaper than rail, it also provides a convenient door-to-door service,'' Mr Clark said.
By contrast, rail typically involved road-bridging freight to a public freight yard or container transfer facility, or investing in and servicing customer rail sidings.
''Either of these takes time, money and logistic effort.
''That's not to say possibilities do not exist - the New Zealand Transport Agency and KiwiRail, together with sector partners, are actively looking at ways to improve road and rail integration, but more needs to be done.''
Earlier this week, Port Otago floated the idea of eventually having State Highway 88, between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, truck-free, but rail would have to be embraced to achieve that end.
Mr Clark said ''the key is to improve the competitiveness of rail freight and until that happens the possibility of a fully integrated transport system seems quite far off.''
While neither the data nor Mr Clark delved into the political scene, whichever government is formed money will still need to be spent on national transport.
National has roads as its priority but Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First all favour upgrading New Zealand's rail.
