“The government is the owner of a business now that probably has no value, in fact has negative value,” English said in parliament yesterday.

The previous government bought rail and ferry services from Toll Holdings Ltd., ending 15 years of private ownership and removing the need to for subsidies. The government, which already owned the track network, formed a new company KiwiRail and pledged to upgrade infrastructure and improve services.

English, whose National Party won the November general election, this week said he will spend NZ$115 million on new carriages and locomotives. He is reviewing how much more money KiwiRail needs and where it will be spent, he said.

“The government has been reluctant to commit to investments that were made by the previous government and has set out to untangle the shambles that is KiwiRail,” he said.

The government is unlikely to sell the company “because no one in his or her right mind would be willing to pay anything like what the taxpayer has put into it,” he said.