It has now been more than two years since Dunedin Railways went into hibernation, the world is changing and normality is returning.
With the local body elections taking place on October 8, hopefully we will see a council enthusiastic to see one of Dunedin’s tourism icons return and the money and resources allocated to it to ensure its future.
The return of cruise ships has seen some train services being run for cruise passengers but not catering for all companies and ships that are scheduled into Port Chalmers and this comes about due to resources such as staff and maintenance not being increased to meet the demand of a market that is now opening up again.
If you travel to Middlemarch and visit the railway station you will see a graveyard of rolling stock being stored there until a decision is made by the council on its future. The longer it is left there, the harder it will be to return the rolling stock to service, especially the historic wooden carriages. Track maintenance between Hindon and Middlemarch is having only the basic requirements carried out on track repairs, all adding to the cost of returning the train and railway to operating status through to Middlemarch.
You can’t fault the council in its decision to put the railway into hibernation against the advice it received from the holding company and the Dunedin Railways board at the beginning of 2020, but more direction needs now to be given to the holding company to ensure resources allocated are used to plan for the future of the trains and railway to return.
The biggest resource is its staff, which have put in the hard yards in keeping the railway operating, all on short-term contracts that haven’t given them positivity for the future, but thanks to their commitment to keeping the railway going have given so much to ensure its survival against staff shortages, no firm direction on the future and lack of finance.
Railways are specialised operations needing trained staff who have knowledge of their operation and safety requirements and a skill for maintaining both track and rolling stock. A number have left for more permanency of employment and better wages — and who would blame them? — but those skills they have taken are so hard to replace. Another major issue currently is lack of a workshop facility for overhauls and maintenance with the loss of the leased Dunedin locomotive depot, which makes it so much harder for staff to carry out overhauls.
Dunedin Railways is not the only tourist railway operating in New Zealand. Both Glenbrook Vintage Railway (which like Dunedin Railways has its own branch line and operates on KiwiRail’s network) and Steam Incorporated in Wellington are successfully running trips now the world is a different place and are making a go of it with rail tours of the North Island and local services such as a tour train from Auckland to Napier and across to New Plymouth and back to Auckland as well as a combined Mountain Thunder tour using the North Island main trunk with more than 700 passengers. Both of these organisations have paid staff (and volunteers to fill non-operational positions.) to organise trains with Steam Incorporated currently gearing up for cruise ship charters out of Picton.
Yes it’s understandable there is some caution leading into the cruise ship season and we shouldn’t expect Dunedin Railways to get to the pre-Covid operations for this first season, but the council should be looking now at progressively bringing Dunedin Railways back to meet the demand that we know will return.
I think some of our elected councillors and managers of council-controlled entities were quite surprised at the feeling of the ratepayers for their railway and they do need to take stock of this when campaigning for the election. Make sure you are heard at the pre-election public meetings, and ask the question: where do you stand in regards to Dunedin Railways?
My point from all this is the longer it is left, the harder and more costly any decision will be. The council administration is leaving any decision to the new council, which will be voted in on October 8, and I sincerely hope they have the right information to decide on an outcome and the motivation and enthusiasm to make a quick decision on a way forward for Dunedin Railways and the historic Taieri Gorge Railway through to Middlemarch.
Grant Craig is a member of the Otago Excursion Train Trust.
