The Government will have to renegotiate the Tranz Rail lease in order to keep the East Coast rail link open, Green Transport Spokesperson Sue Kedgley said today.

"Under the current lease, if Tranz Rail says it wants to close the line then the Government has just 90 days to buy back the railway tracks," Ms Kedgley said. "Effectively that means finding another company to run rail services, which is also prepared to bankroll the track purchase and then do the maintenance work needed to bring the tracks up to standard.

"When you look at the costs involved that just doesn't seem like a realistic prospect.

"Tranz Rail has been talking to the New Zealand Railways Corporation - the state-owned company that owns the land under the tracks - about closing the Waitara branch line in Taranaki. Tranz Rail wanted $595,000 for 14km of track. That's $42,500 per kilometre and suggests that it would cost at least $10 million just to buy the Napier-Gisborne railway, before you even think about maintenance and business start-up costs.

"This is outrageous given that Tranz Rail has deliberately allowed the line to run down in recent years, and originally bought New Zealand's whole railway system for a song.

"To top things off, any company prepared to consider maintaining the rail link will only be able to take its freight or passengers between Gisborne and Napier because Tranz Rail controls the rest of the network."

Ms Kedgley said resolving the problems with the lease and saving the railway line, either by renegotiating the lease, buying Tranz Rail or regulating the company was a better option than allowing more trucks onto the Napier-Gisborne highway.

"I am astonished to hear talk of rolling over and giving up on the rail link already, as long as local mayors get a government promise that the road will be done up," she said today.

"I respectfully urge that mayors must not be swayed by lobbying from trucking companies who want Tranz Rail's freight," Ms Kedgley said. "The Napier-Gisborne highway is already a hazardous stretch of road with too many trucks on it already. The last thing we need is hundreds more logging trucks rumbling over it," she said.

"If the Government doesn't buy, regulate or renegotiate with Tranz Rail, then we should push for Transfund to contribute to keeping the railway line open rather than putting more money into the road," Ms Kedgley said.