The decision by KiwiRail to award the tender contract for 300 container flat-deck wagons to the China CNR Corporation against its own Dunedin Hillside Engineering workshops is a savage blow to the city and the province and leaves the Government vulnerable to accusations of "short-termism".
Kiwirail has awarded an estimated $29 million manufacturing contract to a Chinese company in what has been derided as a potentially terminal blow to its Dunedin workshop.
Level crossing collisions have spiked, but Kiwirail does not have the resources or the money to significantly increase crossing upgrades, the state-owned railway company says in its annual report.
A salvage operation yesterday recovered a crane that toppled into Otago Harbour at Burkes, near Dunedin, last week.
The boss of state-owned KiwiRail, Jim Quinn, earns between $820,000 and $830,000, according to the annual report which also shows the number of people in the company earning more than $100,000 a year has nearly doubled.
KiwiRail will today begin to clear a slip that derailed a freight train carrying milk through the Manawatu Gorge.
KiwiRail's decision to increase the short-list of prospective tenderers for a $500 million contract to build Auckland's electric trains, has surprised and disconcerted members of a working group hoping to win some of the construction work for Dunedin's Hillside Engineering workshops.
The possibility of Dunedin's Hillside Engineering workshops winning some construction work on the $500 million tender for Auckland's trains appears to have increased with the release of KiwiRail's Request for Proposal (RFP) documentation.
Three of the four shortlisted tenderers for construction work on the $500 million tender for Auckland's trains have signalled they may visit Dunedin within the next month to investigate the city's engineering capabilities.
The Dunedin City Council received $249,000 in a joint payout from KiwiRail, Port Otago and a third party, in compensation for damage to a pedestrian railway overbridge, it has been confirmed.
A group of Government, Dunedin City Council and Dunedin business representatives, established to win some of the construction work on the $500 million tender for Auckland's trains, has widened its scope to encompass all of Dunedin's engineering firms.
"Economic man" may be rational, but this doesn't always make him right, argues Harry Love.
The group promoting KiwiRail's Hillside Engineering workshops is underwhelmed by the "local content" clause of KiwiRail's "expressions of interest" (EOI) document to potential builders of new trains for Auckland.
Prime Minister John Key and Transport Minister Steven Joyce will make a pre-budget announcement about KiwiRail tomorrow morning, two days ahead of the full 2010 budget.
KiwiRail's Hillside Engineering in Dunedin has won a $40 million contract to deliver 20 carriages for operator Tranz Scenic.
KiwiRail's Hillside workshops may have won a $40 million contract to deliver carriages to Tranz Scenic, but it has not stopped Government, Dunedin City Council and Dunedin business representatives from moving ahead with plans to win at least some construction work on the $500 million tender for Auckland's trains.
Members of the group pushing for Hillside to build trains for Auckland will meet this morning to thrash out where it goes next.
Any lingering hopes KiwiRail's Hillside workshops might get the chance to build trains for Auckland have been dashed.
Any lingering hopes KiwiRail's Hillside workshops might get the chance to build trains for Auckland have been dashed.
Dunedin yesterday launched its bid to have a $375 million contract for Auckland's new electric commuter trains awarded to railway workshops in Dunedin and Lower Hutt - creating as many as 1270 jobs.
