I'm a Kiwi, born and raised here in NZ and I am also a train enthusiast. I'm also ashamed of the railway system in this country. We once had an amazing network, with rails that served almost every town and city. Now it's a shadow of what it used to be. Lines have been progressively closed and ripped up, or mothballed and allowed to decay to the point where re-opening would be prohibitively expensive. Other lines have been damaged and wiped out due to extreme weather events (Gisborne) and are unlikely to ever be repaired and re-opened. Towns which once had bustling railway stations now lie dormant with no rail line access. Rotorua - tourist capital of NZ no longer has a railway running to it. The line is still there but has been closed for many years and the city doesn't even have a station. The government wants to get people out of cars and onto public transport but you can't do that when your town or city has no rail line!
It's a great shame that none of our politicians care about trains ar all and I think it would be fair to say that out side of Auckland and Wellington alot of kiwis have never been on a train any where in N Z because they don't exist anymore apart from heritage railways and they always closed down the services because they expected them be profitable instead of treating the services as social services and forcing people to drive or onto planes and buses. Nothing beats a great train ride cheers 💯
It is a long time since I first travelled on a train in NZ. I think it was in 1975 that I went by Silver Star overnight to Wellington, where I caught the ferry to Picton. Unfortunately, no connecting train to Christchurch, so I had to take a slow journey on the bus (Newmans?). After an overnight stay in the "Peoples Palace" hotel (I don't think that is there any more), I rented a MIni car, toured South Island, then returning to Christchurch for another overnight stay at the hotel. The following day, I took the diesel hauled train to Littleton for the overnight ferry to Wellington (no longer operating). From there it was the Silver Fern back to Auckland. I have therefore travelled on several of the trains that you showed in your video, plus a ferry that have all ceased to operate. A real pity, because the trains were the best way to enjoy the beautiful country.
Poor decisions, managed decline, lost opportunities so sad for NZ rail. It can be - must reversed, as with Rail we will have a better future than be entrapped with total Road Dependency- an economic drain
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation which is very much appreciated by the people. We are absolutely delighted to see that there are some of the older rolling stock that has been preserved and it was nice to hear the English Electric locomotive at the end. May God continue to bless you in all you do for him.
I love visiting NZ and do so every year from the UK. Such a lovely country. It always seems strange to me how little investment there is in the railway infrastructure compared with roads in NZ. People often tell me that there isn't a large enough market for rail. That maybe true, but there are ever more people travelling around by car so demand for travel is certainly buoyant.
Okay TrainVicar, Google has been spying on my email, that's the most likely reason I get to see you today. I wrote to my friend, mentioned trains, and so your production was served by the algorithm (audio not as good as it could be, try recording to one file then 'normalising' to even out the levels, and, of course, capture the best quality audio you can with decent equipment). Impossible connection, a figment of my imagination? God is above all, so we just have to wait on Him. There are impenetrable mysteries, but also grounds for deep suspicion. In the Bible it mentions the times to come when men (and women, and transexuals too I guess) will gather to worship a mighty machine. I wonder, where will the Church stand in the days to come? The Lord's favour has moved, as it does - and all praise to your colleagues in the cloth for sending out a new immigrant to bat for them, as if no one would notice how slack they are.
Really sad. Now, apart from a couple of tourist trains, there are no passenger trains in the South Island. I do believe they might be looking at a new Christchurch service, not sure where to though. Maybe Dunedin or Invercargill.
You're right. I should have mentioned the Coastal Pacific together with the TranzAlpine and the Bay Express. All of these trains were upgraded in the late 1980s.
Do you remember in 1991 the Silver Fern Railcars were switched to operate between Tauranga - Auckland (Kaimai Express; and between Auckland - Rotorua (Geyserland Express)? Locomotive hauled carriages took over the route between Auckland - Wellington (The Overlander Express).
also failed similar to the usa, because passengers had a lower priority than freight, creating more delays so less people used it cuz it took longer waiting them
It seems there in the lives of many travellers and nations in general, rail has become something of an add-on or luxury and doesn't give us the true freedom that rail can give us.
A shame the re engine program got halted for the twinsets. Leyland or Cummins would have worked well, they both had ideal flat engines of the right output by the 60s.
I have travelled in a Fiat powered Rail-car, Masterton and Upper Hutt from Wellington. One Fiat car burned down near Featherston in the Late 1970's - I knew someone who had to walk down the track from it. In the 1950's I caught a regular scheduled train from Main Street, Palmerston North to Wellington. It stopped at Paekakariki to change to Diesel, and for travellers to swamp the tea-rooms for a pie and a tea in a very heavy strong cup. My last Steam memory was in my car along the Waikanae straight racing a steam train at full speed - it is a grand memory.
And a belated Happy Christmas and very happy New Year to you, your family and congregation from over here in England. I liked watching 'Peveril' doing her stuff very much - you reminded me that she's on my 'to do ' list of scratchbuilt modeling projects some time in the near future.
Besides Te Huia train, all public transport including the Auckland and Wellington metro train services, The Capital Connection train between Palmerston North and Wellington as well as urban buses and ferry services are funded from the National Land Transport Fund, so there is not reason why should there be any opposition to Te Huia. The cost to established the Te Huia train service, includes refurbishing the 12 carriages, 3 locomotives, building of maintenance/stabling facilities at Te Rapa rail yards in Hamilton, 5 years of service subsidies and upgrading the railway station at Huntly was $89 million. The Hamilton City Council contribute $12 million for the building of the Rotokauri (the Base) bus/train interchange. Despite all set backs and scare mongering by pro road and car interests, Te Huia is holding its own with mean average of 80 passengers per trip and is doing the job it was designed to do.
The DR is now building a monorail system in the city of Santiago De Los Caballeros, the 2nd largest city. There are also plans of building a country wide people and cargo train system that will connect the country’s main farmland, ports and airports.
The Cummuter trains that run to the city’s run every 30-60 minutes. During rush hour its 15. The River line trains were not built in America, they were transported by plane from Europe in the early 2000s.
Thank you for correcting my observations. I know how frustrating it is when somebody from far away gets something wrong about the railway system you're so familiar with. I should have investigated things a bit more. I just assumed that because the River Line received subsidies the trains were partially built in USA. I travelled a bit on the Pascack Valley Line and that has quite poor frequency during the day, but high frequencies during rush hour. Other lines are a bit more regular.
