KIWI RAIL
Prior to the establishment of KiwiRail, rail transport in New Zealand has been under both public and private ownership. Government operators included the Public Works Department (1873–1880), New Zealand Railways Department (1880–1982), and the New Zealand Railways Corporation (1982–1990). New Zealand Rail Limited was split off from the Railways Corporation (which continued to own the land beneath the rail network) in 1990, privatised in 1993 and then renamed in 1995 to Tranz Rail. In 2004 Tranz Rail's rail, ferry and trucking operations were acquired by Toll Holdings and renamed Toll NZ, with the central government buying back the rail network outside of Auckland for $1 (the Auckland metro rail network had already been purchased by the government in 2001). The rail network then came under the New Zealand Railways Corporation (trading as ONTRACK). As part of this acquisition, Toll agreed to pay ONTRACK "Track Access Charges" (TACs) in exchange for exclusive network access for 66 years, subject to a "use it or lose it clause": if freight and passenger volumes fell below their 2002-2004 average for three or more years, Toll would lose its exclusive access. The agreement set a base track access fee but left future track access fees open to negotiation between ONTRACK and Toll. After several years of negotiations, the two parties could not come to an agreement on the amount that Toll should pay.
Establishment of Kiwi Rail
On 1 July 2008, the government announced the purchase for $690 million of Toll Rail, the rail and ferry assets of Toll NZ, but not its trucking operation, which continued under the Toll brand. The new company was named KiwiRail and launched on 1 October 2008 at a ceremony at Wellington railway station. The New Zealand Railways Corporation then owned both KiwiRail and ONTRACK, with both companies merging to create one company that controls both rail and ferry operations and rail infrastructure.
Just abit of useless information, my sister’s mother-in-law is the longest established worker of Toll, she will be as of 2022 been working for the company for 50 years