Overthe past three months most of us have added newwords and phrases to our vocabulary, like Covid-19, coronavirus, lockdown, and staying within your bubble. It has been a time when we have all had the opportunity to reconsider our lifestyle and priorities. For those involved in businesses, major changes and a different trading environment will be ongoing challenges. For rail in New Zealand, both KiwiRail and heritage operators, there are considerable challenges as 2020 progresses. Although freight haulage for KiwiRail suffered a fall of some 50% during much of March and April, tonnages are starting to increase as the world economy begins to open up again. This is particularly so for the forestry sector, both in raw logs and processed timber products. It is a different situation for tourism, with international borders closed and little prospect of them opening in the near future. Tourism in New Zealand has been devastated with closure of hotels and major tourist attractions, like Shotover Jet speedboat adventures near Queenstown.
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