Rail Minister Winston Peters welcomed State Owned Enterprise KiwiRail’s annual result today and issued congratulations to every rail worker, including Board Chair Suzanne Tindal, the newest apprentices, and everyone in between.
“KiwiRail reported a $162 million operating surplus and an 11 percent growth in rail freight revenues in the financial year to 30 June 2026,” Mr Peters says.
“Rail freight volumes increased by three percent and total freight added up to 3.5 billion net tonne kilometres – meaning we ‘got our country back on track’.
“New Zealand was built by railways but it was left to rot on the roadside, and thankfully it is once again contributing to the economy as it should.
“KiwiRail moves around a quarter of New Zealand’s exports, connects the North and South Islands, adds $3.3 billion of value to New Zealand annually, and supports more than 24 million passenger journeys each year.
“The naysayers said results like we expected could not be achieved, but they should never have doubted Thomas the Tank Engine – they were wrong but at least they were consistent.
“KiwiRail will shortly have one of the youngest fleets of any rail freight company in the world thanks to our investment – underpinning higher reliability and lower costs.
“Network infrastructure is getting better by the day because we changed the law to fund rail like state highways – and rail sets the asset management example for the infrastructure sector as 66 cents in every network dollar goes to maintenance and renewals.
“Despite the moaning backseat admirals, Interislander continues to sail past the poor reliability recorded under the previous Government by recording 99 percent reliability in the last financial year and 100 percent so far this year.
“Above all, the result is thanks to all the railway workers for pitching in and listening to their customers, turning up on time, and lowering costs – and we have shown what can happen when we shunt the economy in the right direction,” Mr Peters says.