Leggett called his discussion ‘The Missing Link‘, saying there had been a concentrated infrastructure investment in the lower North Island with Transmission Gully, the Kapiti Expressway, and Peka Peka to Otaki, but now there was a gap in Horowhenua. He said with the expected growth in the region, a strong case existed for addressing the safety and resilience of this section of the state highway.

“We have, as an industry, an alignment to the interests and the issues that you‘re facing with transport and I wanted to talk about where we see the Otaki to north of Levin road, where it fits in the greater scheme of things for the lower North Island.”

He said instead of breaking up Wellington to Palmerston North into separate roading projects, it should be treated as one network.

“So many goods and people travel all the way along it and even if you hop off along the way, you need a quality, safe road while you‘re doing that, and that‘s what we‘re demanding as an industry. We‘ve got an interest because we want freight to be able to make its way from great primary production – the Horowhenua is the lower North Island‘s food bowl – but also for trucks coming down from Auckland and other parts of the country, and from the south via the ferry.”

About 80 percent of freight is delivered within a region and Leggett said that wasn‘t contestable by rail.

“For Levin and the wider Horowhenua to send and receive goods, the fact is most of it will be done on a truck because trucking is about time-sensitive goods.”

Leggett said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in her Budget speech that ‘if you want to talk about safety on our roads, get freight off it, get it onto rail‘.

“There is this big focus on rail, that rail can be the solution to our problems. They want to move away from roads, but with the significant population growth that New Zealand has had and a growing economy over a significant period of time, there‘s more traffic on the road, there‘s more freight, and you have to move it, so you have to expand your infrastructure to continue to deal with that.

“We‘re pretty positive about rail as a mode that can meet some of the freight task. Rail is important because over a certain distance it‘s more than competitive with other forms of transport, and it‘s really good at transporting bulk. It‘s not road versus rail versus public transport; we need a really good mix of all three, and what we‘re seeing is a departure from that. Horowhenua is a community that is suffering, and local economies and safety will suffer, potentially, if we don‘t deal with it.”

Leggett said the Otaki to north of Levin section of SH1 was a high-risk road and the region deserved better.

“What we have is an ideological position of the government on transport, and I don’t have a problem with that, because the government was elected and they have a right to pursue the policies that they believe in. My issue is about the lack of evidence and the anti-road fixation, and that‘s what Levin has been caught in.

“There is only one roading project on the horizon and that is the replacement of the Manawatu Gorge and that was because of a pre-election promise. But 12 roading projects across the country have been halted – and I would say at this point, probably worse than halted.

“The debate has to be about balance, it has to be about what gives us the greatest economic and people payback in terms of transport across New Zealand. What moves New Zealand and continues to power our economy.”

Leggett put up a graphics showing New Zealand‘s 4000km railway network, followed by one showing the 93,000kms of roads.

“You see that contrast there; you‘re not comparing apples with apples. Roads will always deliver the greatest proportion of freight because they can deliver door-to-door, and because it gets to places just in time.”

He said the RTF had no problem with money being invested in upgrading rail assets as they had been underinvested in for some time, but investment in roading infrastructure was also needed.

“In the government‘s Government Policy Statement they moved away from productivity to having safety as their key goal. We‘re at one with that; who can argue with safety? The aim is to reduce the road toll by 40 percent over 10 years, which we‘re supportive of, but cutting investment in highways is not the way to fulfil those goals.

“We‘ve also seen their focus areas and they‘re obsessed with speed. When you slow down a substandard road you don‘t necessarily make it safer, but you certainly slow down the economy in the area.

“Let‘s invest in our roads; let‘s not see speed as being the panacea for everything, because it‘s not. Speed is a factor in about 25 percent of accidents. What we know as drivers is that it‘s inattention. It‘s cellphones and things like that that are causing the big issues. The government doesn‘t seem to be interested in grappling with the drug-driving issue either. It‘s quite scary when the CVST, who deal with heavy vehicles, tell you that trucking operators have more ability to test their staff than most police do when dealing with drugs at the roadside. That‘s a real worry.”

Leggett raised a smile when he said Transport Minister Phil Twyford had said there had been an overinvestment in roads and motorways for decades in this country, saying he would let everyone who used the roads decide whether they agreed with that or not.