Dunedin South MP Clare Curran says she still has questions about KiwiRail's faulty Chinese-made locomotives, despite receiving some answers in Parliament yesterday.
Ms Curran (Labour), who last month raised concerns about brake failures on 500 Chinese-built railway wagons, was dismayed on Monday, when a leaked KiwiRail report detailed extensive mechanical problems with the 20 locomotives which arrived in the country last year.
The faults included excessive vibration and the failure of parts such as bearings, silencers, water pipes and pumps.
KiwiRail ordered 40 locomotives at a cost of $150 million but has asked the manufacturer to put production of the second batch on hold until design and manufacture difficulties are remedied.
Delivery is expected sometime next year.
Ms Curran yesterday tabled the leaked report in Parliament and asked Transport Minister Steven Joyce whether the decision to buy locomotives and wagons from China had met his standard of "successful".
For Mr Joyce, Associate Minister Simon Bridges said it did.
KiwiRail had carried out market evaluations before committing to the Chinese manufacturer. That had included looking very carefully at building in New Zealand as an option.
In a supplementary question, Ms Curran asked if KiwiRail was "throwing good money after bad" trying to rectify the faulty locomotives, given that 20 Chinese-made locomotives bought by Malaysian Railways in 2005 were mothballed by 2008 because of severe technical problems.
Mr Bridges said he shared Ms Curran's frustrations about the faults but said the manufacturer had taken full responsibility for the issues.
"There is minimal disruption to the operations of KiwiRail, and all cost is borne by the manufacturer, none by KiwiRail."
Speaking after question time, Ms Curran told the Otago Daily Times she had more questions and would continue to seek answers.
"I was interested to hear the Government did a market evaluation before buying from China. Did they also do a risk analysis after the Malaysian Railways issue?
"Is the Government reaping the results of a series of bad decisions?"
She said she also wanted to know whether the Government was aware of the KiwiRail report, if so when it was aware of the report, whether the first 20 locomotives had been paid for and what would happen when the warranty on the first batch ran out.
"The Government should admit it made an enormous mistake by ordering these faulty locomotives and stop defending a process that involved signing off the purchase without properly addressing the risks."
