Megafail for Monorail

Invercargill, 24 May 2014
“Nick Smith got it not just right, but very right”, says Robin McNeill, President of Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand. “We always had confidence that his thoughtful, engineering approach would deliver the right answer and he would decline the concession application for the proposed monorail. His analysis is spot on and matches our own conclusions.”
“Our 17,000 members are pretty happy right now, and so we can put our war chest away and do something useful with the money instead. That is a great relief”.
Mr McNeill welcomes the new approach the Minister took in assessing the ability of the applicant to undertake the work and make a go of it. “This is something we have wanted for a long time. Too often, dumb ideas go too far and waste everyone’s time before they get stopped because they were never going to be economically viable”.
For more information:
Robin McNeill
president@fmc.org.nz
(021) 516 366
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