Apparently consideration is being given to charging trucks higher prices for using State Highway 2, and charging lower prices for State Highway 29, in the hope that trucks will use this route more.

There is also talk of trying to put another tunnel through the Kaimais to get trucks away from the main roads altogether.

My question, with regard to the above, is simply this: We have a tunnel already, so has anyone given any thought to the fact that trains are not running through it 24/7? If we could get Kiwirail and the government on the same page, perhaps there could be an agreement reached where the floor of the tunnel could be laid in concrete or similar, and a light system set up, or even manned offices at each end, so that trucks could use it when Kiwirail was not.

It would not be hard to organise road systems at each end and the savings with regard to building another tunnel would be of some magnitude, I would have thought. All that could this, of course, would be that some bureaucrat hasn't thought it himself and gets a snitch on about holding up the idea as a result.

R McGuinness, Tauranga