The Dunedin City Council has not yet settled on the shape of a Taieri Gorge train service, but it decided in January one would be retained.
A Central Otago touring route that follows "the road less travelled" from Dunedin to Queenstown, and including Middlemarch, is also being promoted as one of New Zealand’s finest road trips.
Yesterday, the park trust’s Facebook page had an update, calling for expressions of interest from people wanting to be involved in the park.
It was now time to "consider moving forward with identifying and building a cohesive destination system for local operators to market to, attract and deliver world-standard destination activities", the post read.
Foundation member Jacquie Lucas said the original plan was to build a destination hub in Middlemarch.
Four cornerstone projects were envisaged - historic places, the farming story, natural resources and the railway story.
Ms Lucas said the trust was looking for interested parties to help ensure relevance and potentially to adjust the concept.
The council is to refine options for the future of Dunedin rail services ahead of its 2024-34 long-term plan.
One problem, historically, has been paying for upkeep of the Taieri Gorge line.
Providing sufficient maintenance at the same time as running viable train services proved to be challenging, even before the pandemic had a drastic impact on passenger numbers.
The task fell in 2017 to the council-owned Dunedin Railways and its parent company Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL).
In 2021, DCHL estimated the cost of a 10-year programme of track-related work from Wingatui to Middlemarch to be $14.8 million.
Engineering companies Vitruvius and Holmes assessed the condition of the track and structures for the council at the start of November last year.
This included future financial needs for vegetation management, drainage, culvert management, embankment retention and sleeper replacement.
The council has not disclosed what the assessment revealed.
Parts of a report about possible long-term structures for Dunedin rail operations were released to the public this month and others remained "commercially sensitive while we consider potential new operating models", a council spokesman said.
