Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc.
The Southerner (the Christchurch-Invercargill service)
The following are 'stray' items that for various reasons could not be linked directly from the original publication.
The Southerner, from TV3's website
West Coast Rail wants Southerner but not 'Shadbolt's money' (Copied from the Otago Daily Times, 14/8/2001, p. 3, as it is significant to items published the following day, and it had not been published online)
By Dene Mackenzie
Comments last night from Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt have antagonised Don Gibson, the chairman of West Coast Railways, the company being asked to save the Southerner passenger rail service.
"You can tell him [Tim Shadbolt] where he can stick his money," Mr Gibson said from Melbourne.
His Melbourne-based group still wanted to operate the loss-making Southerner, which runs between Christchurch and Invercargill, but he was not prepared to take any criticism from Mr Shadbolt.
Figures released by Environment Southland showed about the $1.5 million of public money was needed to prop up the Southerner in its first year of operation under private enterprise.
Local authorities from Christchurch south have banded together to ask West Coast Rail to save the Southerner but last night Mr Shadbolt accused the company of not providing 'proper projections' about how long it could take to make the Southerner commercially viable, even on a break-even basis or on the total subsidy that it would take to achieve that.
Mr Shadbolt said he was willing to consider the subsidy funding but said the local authorities were being asked to come up with about $600,000 on the "flimsiest of business cases" and an "impossibly short timetable."
"Despite our best endeavours, getting a firm committment in one to two weeks in these circumstances is an impossibly short period. This is compounded by the fact that we have had no direct communication with West Coast Rail. We don't know exactly who we are dealing with," he said.
Approached for reaction, Mr Gibson told the Otago Daily Times he knew whom he was dealing with - Otago Regional Council chief executive Graeme Martin and Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope. They "purported" to represent the interests of the local bodies from Christchurch south.
West Coast Rail is buying Tranz Rail's passenger service but not the Southerner.
"Given we bought a railway that didn't include the Southerner, we will be happy if we can get it back on a commercial basis. We prepared a plan in the short-term which we were not obliged to do. It is not as if we have 10 years' experience operating the Southerner to call on," Mr Gibson said.
However, he wanted a resolution to the Southerner funding issue quickly otherwise the company would have to make alternative arrangements.
One of the options included keeping the ticketing of the Southerner and running coaches under the railway name until the problem was sorted out.
Environment Southland chairman John Matheson was also critical of West Coast Rail after a meeting between Southland's local authorities in Invercargill.
The council was being asked to take a tremendous amount on trust, he said.
"We have not had the opportunity to undertake any kind of due diligence process, nor are the terms of sale to West Coast Rail available to us."
More assurance was also needed about the Government's intentions, Mr Matheson said.
THE END OF THE LINE (Copied from a pop-up on the News section on TV3's website)
UPDATED: 05:51PM WEDNESDAY 15 AUGUST
The campaign to save the Southerner Rail Service has failed. The passenger rail service which has operated between Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill for more than a century will end next month.
The Southerner's journey will soon be over... local and regional councils have rejected a plan for them to subsidise the service and that's disappointed the Dunedin MP who helped stitch the deal together.
"Their preparedness to open the chequebook hasn't quite matched the rhetoric that they were bringing to the issues," says David Benson-Pope.
Australia's West Coast Rail wanted one and a half million dollars to take the Southerner over from TranzRail. Central government offered to pay 60% of that but the local bodies between Christchurch and Invercargill baulked at their $600,000 share.
The Southerner only carried about 37,000 people a year. That means the $1.5 million subsidy would have equated to more than $40 per passenger... almost a third of the standard fare from Christchurch to Invercargill.
Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt says West Coast Rail could have done more. "We really don't believe they've been serious and sincere about these negotiations."
But the company which has bought Tranzrail's profitable passenger trains rejects Shadbolt's description of it as a "tinpot little organisation".
"How big's New Zealand? How big's Invercargill? Isn't he calling the pot black? I mean, how does he know what our financial position is?" says Don Gibson.
A cheaper option was a high-speed railcar service between Christchurch and Dunedin... with a coach connection to Invercargill but the councils weren't keen on that either.
Invercargill residents are disappointed about the news. "It really is an essential service to the public." " I hope it stays there, I do."
South Island rail fans will farewell an old friend at the end of September.
Last Updated: 18/8/2001