Council votes in support of rail services

Increased investment in southern rail services is both needed and overdue, Dunedin city councillors say.

• Backing for rail services

They have backed a submission to the Government, calling on it to adopt a more ambitious strategy to make improvements to the Main South Line in Otago and Southland, reintroduce passenger rail and add a passing loop between Mosgiel and Caversham.

The Dunedin City Council submission, passed at a meeting today, was in support of resuming inter-regional passenger services between Christchurch and Invercargill.

It asked the Government to provide investment to undertake further investigation into the reintroduction of passenger rail services within Dunedin and the wider region.

The submission was prepared in response to an inquiry into the future of inter-regional passenger rail in New Zealand.

Passenger rail service the Southerner ended in 2002, as it was deemed to be unviable without a subsidy.

Cr Lee Vandervis voted against the council submission, which was supported by all other councillors at the meeting.

Cr David Benson-Pope said more investment in the southern rail network was overdue.

Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said people needed to be provided with transport options.

Services provided by KiwiRail were the result of the company being asked the wrong questions, he said.

There was a public-good element to transport, he said.

Cr Jules Radich said the lack of double-tracking from Mosgiel into Dunedin was an impediment that ought to be rectified.

Cr Vandervis said passenger rail in the South Island had been virtually non-existent, apart from heritage-type tours, for many years.

The region did not have a sufficient population or economies of scale to make passenger rail work, he said.

The train journey between Dunedin and Oamaru was slow because of factors that included twists and turns of the track, and only massive investment would change that.

Passenger rail could never be economically viable and it would always be a slow transport option, he said.

"This particular hope that we can somehow rejuvenate passenger rail in the South Island, despite all the financial evidence showing that that's simply not viable, I think is quite frankly a waste of time and money."

Train services could be focused on day trips, tourism offerings and freight, he said. 

Cr Carmen Houlahan said she disagreed with much of what Cr Vandervis said.

People from Mosgiel wanted a passenger service to Dunedin, she said.

"It used to happen. We can do it again."

Cr Sophie Barker said there were 30,000 vehicle movements a day between Mosgiel and Dunedin and a train service would result in lower carbon emissions.

Cr Rachel Elder wondered if there might be an opportunity to run a passenger train from Christchurch to Dunedin on an experimental basis, such as for an All Blacks test. 

Council transport group manager Jeanine Benson said trains for events was probably something that should be looked at.