It was a huge honour last week to attend the (belated) official opening of the revamped rail maintenance facility.
The facility was opened by New Zealand First leader, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Rail, Winston Peters and our colleague, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones.
The opening recognises this historic site of railway engineering, which dates back to 1875, will continue for decades to come.
Hillside’s recent history has been tumultuous, with a previous National government all but closing it down in 2012.
Outrage ensued as imported wagons proved cheap was not necessarily better.
The tenacity shown by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union and various local MPs, notably Clare Curran, kept the fight for survival going.
The real catalyst for revival came in 2019 when a $20m investment from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) enabled the construction of a new, state-of-the-art maintenance facility. This brought heavy engineering back to Hillside.
It’s great to see good jobs and opportunities being created in South Dunedin. I’m proud the PGF, a flagship New Zealand First policy initiative, has helped to make this happen, just as it has also invested in other storied Dunedin engineering firms like Farra, United Machinists and ENEX. We back local industry.
The good news for rail in Dunedin does not stop there. Mr Jones was also in town to announce an $8m enabling loan to the proposed Mosgiel Freight Logistics hub, which is essentially an inland port where goods are transferred from trucks to rail, negating the need for trucks to travel through Mosgiel and the central city to reach Port Chalmers. In tandem with a heavy traffic bypass, this will be a long overdue initiative.
Logistics hubs also double as business parks where companies set up manufacturing facilities to be near the freight logistics.
Dunedin is essentially tapped out of available industrial space and future growth plans will invariably be in Taieri and further out to Milburn.
Dunedin needs a shot of ambition and last week’s announcements are critical building blocks.
