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The Southerner passenger rail service linking Dunedin to Christchurch will return on a regular timetable next year, Rail Minister Winston Peters has announced.
Mr Peters said the government had agreed a deal with Mainland Rail to reinstate the service between Invercargill and Christchurch.
The initiative, which dovetails with a move to reinstate commuter trains in Christchurch also announced on Sunday, is being funded by a $3.4 million loan from the Regional Infrastructure Fund.
The funding will allow Mainland Rail to shift its Mainlander train from monthly excursions to a regular timetable between Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Gore and Invercargill.
The Southerner ran daily between Invercargill and Christchurch for many years but dropped out of favour and had its last daily service in 2002.
Great Journeys New Zealand, the tourist arm of KiwiRail, has revived the journey for several “special services” over the past two years, and supporters have been calling for it to be fully reinstated.
The restored Mataura Railway Station was due to reopen in late 2027 and he was confident the Southerner would return to Mataura then too, Mr Peters said.
Mainland Rail, which owns rail carriages, intends to provide a 12-month trial service to test Canterbury’s appetite for rail as a public transport service.
The trains will run morning and evening commuter services on the main lines from Rangiora in the north and Rolleston in the south into central Christchurch starting in mid-2027.
“New Zealanders are sick of transport proposals costing hundreds of millions or billions when pragmatic solutions such as using what we already have are staring us in the face, as is the case in Christchurch and its rail system,” Mr Peters says.
“The fares will be announced closer to the start date, but we are talking about a public transport trial and would expect affordable fares similar to those paid by rail commuters in Wellington and Auckland.
“There’s a saying, ‘it works in practice but will it work in theory,’ and here is an opportunity for Cantabrians to prove their support for rail as public transport in practice.”
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones said the initiative was about putting the South Island’s rail corridor back to work for communities, tourism and local economies,” Mr Jones says.
“This is the type of commonsense investment people want to see – using what we already have, reinstating what we once had, and giving people choices in their lives once again.
“The economic development benefits are obvious: railing people into Canterbury, Otago and Southland towns to spend in the local economies, strengthening tourism in the South Island, creating employment, and putting assets New Zealanders already own to better use for the benefit of our economy,” Mr Jones said.
— Allied Media