On 10 and 11 October 2022, the Australasian Railway Association held its New Zealand Rail Conference at the Hilton Hotel in Auckland. Some 300 people attended and heard topics ranging from infrastructure and major project updates to sustainability, freight, safety, and innovation. Eleven keynote speakers covered all aspects of rail in New Zealand and included a paper delivered by Peter Reidy, KiwiRail's Chief Executive. Mr Reidy told the conference that KiwiRail was in a build and growth phase. In recent years Government has invested $8.6 billion in KiwiRail, mostly to develop the rail network, new ferries, wagons and locomotives. This amount of investment in rail has not been seen in New Zealand since the 1870s Vogel era.'The investment that we're putting into the system is to improve the capacity and reliability for passenger and freight,' he said. Mr Reidy went on to say that from 2025 there would be no new capital for KiwiRail's above-rail businesses, including freight, scenic and ferry operations. The business needs to pay its own way. We need to lift our operating profit. This year it was $134 million; we've got to double it,' he said.
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