The latest financial report of Route K has recently been tabled with Council, a large amount of optimism was then shown about a decrease in the reported annual loss for the year to 30 June 2012 to 'only” $2.221m (last year $2.522m) $301,000 less (I guess that a smaller loss is better? Or should that read 'less bad”). Meanwhile the total tolls increased by $428,000?
The current level of euphoria looks very much misplaced when you consider: -
First: where has the $12.5m of debt raised by TCC as a contribution towards the Pyes Pa Bypass gone? The vexed question follows of 'where has that debt and the interest bill for the last year gone?” It must be buried within TCC somewhere, who knows? The extra interest bill of about $700,000 means that the reported loss is less, the 'real loss” is about $2.9m, a $400,000 increase!
Secondly: it remains obscure about when or how TCC will make the results look 'viable” so as TCC can offload it all to NZTA?
We are now some 10 years after its creation and in that time the debt has increased from around $30m in 2003 to $73m now, the vehicle volumes even now are still about 50% of that initially budgeted for. TCC has a long way to go to break even on this one!

I Stevenson, Tauranga.