The government will spend more than $600 million to upgrade the country's rail network as part of this year's Budget.
The funding includes $461m to maintain and improve freight rail, and more than $140m to replace and upgrade metropolitan rail in Auckland and Wellington.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said rail services had been made less reliable by a backlog of overdue upgrades.
"Metro rail investment in Auckland and Wellington will improve the level of service for passengers by addressing overdue and critical renewals work. The poor state of our metro networks has flow-on impacts for performance.
"For example, temporary speed restrictions are often needed as a safety precaution, leading to increased travel times and disrupting service schedules."
Councils in Auckland and Wellington would need to meet their fair share of costs to deliver on rail services, Bishop said.
"The Budget investment in metro rail will continue to support delivery of modern networks that are more reliable, can be efficiently maintained, ease congestion on the busiest parts of the network, and allow for increased future demand."
Winston Peters and Chris Bishop at Wellington Rail Station, May 2025. Photo: Mary Argue / RNZ
Meanwhile, Rail Minister Winston Peters said a programme to replace decades-old bridges, culverts and other assets with long-lasting infrastructure was also now funded.
"The Rail Network Investment Programme for 2024-2027 is now funded, meaning maintenance, network operations, asset renewals and modest improvements are funded. We want railways to succeed for this country - rail freight backs our business, and business backs our cities and provinces."
Heckler interupts
At the end of Peters' and Bishop's press conference on Tuesday morning, a member of the public heckled Peters as he was answering questions about the potential punishment for Te Pāti Māori MPs to be debated in Parliament later that day.
Peters said the MPs had treated the Parliament protocols with "absolute contempt" when a passerby yelled "what a load of bollocks".
"Who said bollocks? You look like bollocks, go look in the mirror, sunshine. You look like bollocks, mate," Peters said.
The man took issue with being called sunshine and said Peters was a "tosser". Peters responded by telling the man to "naff off".
The man then said to Peters: "When are you going naff off? You're 80 years old now."
"Oh, so it's an age thing is it?" Peters said. "You look older than I do, mate."
The verbal spat continued for a short time longer before Peters wrapped up.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
