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- Date published:
5:30 pm, April 29th, 2026 - 19 comments
Categories: Daily review -
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Daily review is also your post.
This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
One option for moving freight without diesel is rail.
Kiwi Rail is offering more wagons – but not more services (presumably driver and engine issues).
If they carried extra capacity for this, it would come at a cost to the business or require a business subsidy. Extra capacity would synch with the new ferries.
A spare cargo ship for emergency use (loss of regional roads) would have been useful.
A long term return of local cargo ships would support a move to a fleet of EV trucks/commercial vehicles (hydrogen).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/592627/mainfreight-ceo-frustrated-with-kiwirail-at-for-not-offering-additional-services
Is it? The DM locomotives are running on diesel.
https://www.kiwirail.co.nz/media/new-locomotives-for-the-south-island-unveiled/ [31 Oct 2024]
But can't we go back to the halycon days of steam trains? Think of the glory of the old KA locomotives on the main trunk line. We can probably find the old blueprints for them, and the Dunedin factory could probably make them.
On second thoughts let's not.
You seem to have missed the development of electrification of freight lines and otherwise existence of battery engines.
https://thefutureisrail.org/electric-trains
^
Golden Triangle Electrification Programme (GTEP): KiwiRail is planning to electrify the freight-heavy "Golden Triangle" area (Auckland-Hamilton-Tauranga) to shift from diesel to electric.
Existing Infrastructure: The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) between Palmerston North and Hamilton has been electrified at 25 kV AC since 1988.
Um. The routes you are talking about are all in the North Island.
The original comment, and the DM loco's are for the South Island.
Alwyn it seems that we need to examine all possibilities – so thinking of steam trains doesn't seem silly. We have some of our modern passenger trains only running part year. Perhaps we could have some parts of the South Island rail tracks just for – mainly for – tourists and alternative to bus transport. Convention centres on wheels, celebrations of NZ music gatherings and so on. Spend money in Kiwiland not overseas.
Let's not dismiss ideas that don't work in with present ideas. We are in deep s..t in the whole world, and need Kiwi spirit not spite about old ideas, but dust them off for usefulness. Even just being quaint and not perspiring about green-ness; the megabuck maggots don't give a damn about it, and it's too late for us to bear all the burdens.
We must lift up from the narrow thinking so pervasive. I like the initiative of approach in the end of Love in the Time of Cholera written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
This was the original comment.
It did not mention the SI.
By the way those new locomotives are for both the SI and NI and they are diesel-electric.
Even in the South Island, a lot less diesel
your link
There are a range of moves to electrification in the NI.
PS
The locomotives you mentioned should not be called diesel, they are diesel electric.
The New Zealand DM class are 66 modern, Stadler-built diesel-electric locomotives (47 for the South Island, 19 for the North Island) arriving between 2024 and 2026 to replace the aging DX fleet. Featuring dual cabs, high-power output (3,000 kW), and better fuel efficiency
Compliant with the latest safety and emissions standards, the mainline six-DM Class locomotives combine a high-power output up to 3,000 kW with low fuel consumption and low emissions.
This will also be a road feature
Diesel-electric pickup trucks combine a diesel generator with electric drive motors to provide high torque, superior towing capacity, and extended range without recharging. These trucks use the engine solely to charge the battery or power motors, allowing it to run at peak efficiency, offering a solution for towing heavy loads in remote areas.
Edison Motors: A Canadian company developing heavy-duty diesel-electric hybrid pickups, focusing on heavy-duty applications, with plans for vocational trucks. They are also working on conversion kits for older trucks.
Thanks SPC – it is unusual for us to have good information about even part of the matter under discussion. The D-E engines demand concentration on the details from we learners.
About wages, there is a meeting on 1 May in Nelson to make comment on our unsatisfactory situation. Your info shows the need for us all. Talking to an ex Forest Service employee, he started in gardening employee work at under $35 an hour, now gets more than minimum. I feel it would always be close so it's important that there is a reasonable living wage as minimum.
Pay equityEmployment statusreduced to contractor statusHoliday Pay paid Leave entitlement12.5% payoff to lose entitlementA legacy that will be remembered like the ECA
If there was a way to make things worse for workers, it can and has been found.
The rest is detail about this round of perfidy.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360994888/brooke-van-velden-says-it-would-be-impossible-no-worker-be-worse-holidays-act-overhaul
The detail can be read here.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360971752/proposed-leave-bill-will-make-workers-lives-materially-worse-select-committee-hears
More useful info here: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2604/S00150/national-mps-tone-deaf-attack-on-workers-exposes-who-this-govt-really-serves.htm
Take care the road you choose…..
very nice song thanks
Oh dear….stuffed up the photo resizing again!
fixed
The Minister of Road Transport & Highways says there is no future for petrol and diesel in India.
https://www.indiatoday.in/business/market/story/auto-stocks-in-focus-after-nitin-gadkari-says-no-future-for-diesel-and-petrol-engines-2903011-2026-04-29