Dunedin City Council staff have recommended keeping the line open between Wingatui and Hindon in 2021-22 and instructing the parent company of Dunedin Railways to fund this, as well as cover losses from running train services.
City councillors will decide next week whether to back this approach.
Further analysis of options for retaining a rail operation longer term is to be carried out and the public will be consulted about that before the 2022-23 annual plan is adopted.
Dunedin Railways Ltd is a council-owned company, which has been in hibernation since July last year, after its revenue prospects dived as Covid-19 shook up the tourism industry.
The company had been heavily reliant on custom flowing from cruise ships and the council has since trialled services aimed at the domestic market.
The Taieri Gorge line connects Dunedin with Middlemarch and is known for its scenery and series of tunnels and bridges, but paying for its upkeep is problematic.
Maintaining the line out to Hindon for the next year is expected to cost $540,000.
That would be down on the $688,000 maintaining and renewing the stretch of track had been projected to cost in year one of a 10-year programme.
Up to $148,000 of work would need to be picked up later in the programme if the council decided next year to keep the line going.
Running train services on either KiwiRail’s tracks or on both KiwiRail tracks and the Taieri Gorge line is expected to cost about $1.58million a year while international tourism numbers remain low.
Council staff recommended Dunedin Railways’ parent company Dunedin City Holdings Ltd be instructed to fund any services and track maintenance next year and pay for this through revenue and debt.
Revenue from ticket sales for coastal and inland trips has been estimated at $250,000.
If the programme was funded through rates, this could put the council in breach of its self-imposed cap of a 10% rates rise.
The council has proposed a rates increase of 9.8% for the first year of its draft 10-year plan and councillors will debate next week what aspects of the spending programme should be adjusted.
As well as the possibility of train trips to Hindon being run again next summer, as they were for a trial this summer, an expanded coastal service could be tried, the council indicated.
This might again include Sunday trips to Waitati next summer, a Saturday service to a destination the council did not specify and occasional winter services.
Maintaining the stretch of the Taieri Gorge line between Hindon and Middlemarch in 2021-22 would have cost almost $700,000, but it was not considered workable.
Another possible use of that section is extending the Otago Central Rail Trail, for walkers and riders of bikes and horses.
The Otago Central Rail Trust has indicated it wants a feasibility study to be carried out, evaluating the merits of extending the trail beyond Middlemarch towards Dunedin.
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Comments
How can investment be made in Kiwi rail in Dunedin, but not keep the track open to Middlemarch.
Surely, its better than speeding a fortune on trying to extend a railtrack to Dunners…a long way with no stops and only likely to get used by speed bikers…
Keep the rail going.
It really is time for this council to listen to the people who fund it and to think of the future. Once the railway is gone it is highly unlikely it will ever be resurrected. Do the right thing and develop it, don't stuff it up. If you need to save money to pay for it then scrap some of your vanity projects like wasting money on poorly thought out traffic projects.
When you say "listen to the people", presumably you mean ignore the people whose opinion is different to your own? I think the tourist railway is a vanity project! Should they listen to me? Am I not one of "the people"?
Let's have a referendum. Whatever the outcome ratepayers will be footing the bill, so we might as well have something worthwhile for it. Shame you don't value what little history we have.