Push for Rotorua railway service

Abigail Caspari abbey.caspari@dailypost.co.nz | 24th September 2008

Train travel to Auckland and the Waikato could return to Rotorua by late next year if a new proposal to bring back rail services to the city is supported.

The Geyserland Express Trust says increased freight costs, renewed public interest in rail travel, the recent Government buy-back of the railways and the subsequent establishment of KiwiRail has renewed hopes for the return of passenger and freight railway services to Rotorua.

The trust has commissioned international engineering and advisory consultancy Maunsell AECOM to investigate the feasibility of restoring the tracks to enable a train service to be re-introduced.

About 120 passengers per trip would be needed to make the rail service viable, the trust says.

It is envisaged there could be passenger links between Rotorua and Manukau, Hamilton, Matamata and Putaruru, container freight trains between Rotorua and the Port of Auckland and steam locomotive-hauled heritage passenger trains.

All this could be re-introduced as early as the end of next year, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Maunsell AECOM is expected to work closely with ONTRACK, which owns New Zealand's rail network on behalf of the Government. Geyserland Express Trust says the rail services could be run by either KiwiRail or Environment Bay of Plenty, in the same way it operates Rotorua's public bus service.

The former Auckland to Rotorua railway service was cancelled seven years ago by then owner Tranz Rail due to the dwindling passenger numbers - an average of just 30 to 40 passengers each trip.

The Geyserland Express Trust was formed in an effort to get the trains back.

Trust chairman Allan Estcourt said only minor work was needed on the tracks but the trust would have to convince "quite a few people" that re-introducing the railways was the right thing to do.

The trust would have to lobby the Rotorua District Council, Environment Bay of Plenty and Environment Waikato, as well as tourism and timber industries.

But all going well, a railway service could be re-introduced as early as the end of next year, he said.

Asked who would operate the service, Mr Estcourt said KiwiRail was the "most obvious option" but support from the Rotorua District Council and Environment Bay of Plenty would be needed.

Another option was for it to be run by the regional council, similar to the bus service. Approaches had previously been made to the district and regional councils but they had not been interested enough to fund a service, Mr Estcourt said. Environment Bay of Plenty's acting chief executive Bryan Trott said the trust could apply for funding as part of the regional council's 10-year-plan, which would go out for public consultation next year. The trust could also apply for funding from the regional council's new contestable infrastructure fund, created to accelerate infrastructure in the region, he said.

Mr Estcourt said the dwindling passenger numbers which led to the railway service's demise in 2001 were partly due to a lack of marketing and tourists using the service. That would be different now, he said. The Maunsell AECOM investigation, expected to be completed by the end of the year, would cover the scale and cost of remedial works to make the tracks suitable for operating rail services, as well as the cost of operating the railway service.