A brief history of passenger trains in New Zealand: 1969-1990
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- The next installment of the Train Vicar continues the series on the history of passenger rail in New Zealand, this time looking at such new trains as the Southerner, the Silver Star, and the Silver Fern Railcars.
Material sourced from: Nga Taonga Sound & Vision www.ngataonga.org.nz/
Archives NZ: www.archives.govt.nz/
Alexander Turnbull Library: natlib.govt.nz/collections/a-...
Museum of Transport and Technology: collection.motat.nz/explore
Hocken Library: www.otago.ac.nz/library/hocken
Puke Ariki: pukeariki.com/
Brian Smith
I love visiting NZ and do so every year from the UK. Such a lovely country.
It always seems strange to me how little investment there is in the railway infrastructure compared with roads in NZ.
People often tell me that there isn't a large enough market for rail. That maybe true, but there are ever more people travelling around by car so demand for travel is certainly buoyant.
It’s due to narrow mindedness, and stingy right wing governments.
Really sad. Now, apart from a couple of tourist trains, there are no passenger trains in the South Island. I do believe they might be looking at a new Christchurch service, not sure where to though. Maybe Dunedin or Invercargill.
I'm a Kiwi, born and raised here in NZ and I am also a train enthusiast.
I'm also ashamed of the railway system in this country.
We once had an amazing network, with rails that served almost every town and city.
Now it's a shadow of what it used to be.
Lines have been progressively closed and ripped up, or mothballed and allowed to decay to the point where re-opening would be prohibitively expensive.
Other lines have been damaged and wiped out due to extreme weather events (Gisborne) and are unlikely to ever be repaired and re-opened.
Towns which once had bustling railway stations now lie dormant with no rail line access.
Rotorua - tourist capital of NZ no longer has a railway running to it. The line is still there but has been closed for many years and the city doesn't even have a station.
The government wants to get people out of cars and onto public transport but you can't do that when your town or city has no rail line!
It seems there in the lives of many travellers and nations in general, rail has become something of an add-on or luxury and doesn't give us the true freedom that rail can give us.
It is a long time since I first travelled on a train in NZ. I think it was in 1975 that I went by Silver Star overnight to Wellington, where I caught the ferry to Picton. Unfortunately, no connecting train to Christchurch, so I had to take a slow journey on the bus (Newmans?).
After an overnight stay in the "Peoples Palace" hotel (I don't think that is there any more), I rented a MIni car, toured South Island, then returning to Christchurch for another overnight stay at the hotel.
The following day, I took the diesel hauled train to Littleton for the overnight ferry to Wellington (no longer operating). From there it was the Silver Fern back to Auckland.
I have therefore travelled on several of the trains that you showed in your video, plus a ferry that have all ceased to operate. A real pity, because the trains were the best way to enjoy the beautiful country.
also failed similar to the usa, because passengers had a lower priority than freight, creating more delays so less people used it cuz it took longer waiting them
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation which is very much appreciated by the people. We are absolutely delighted to see that there are some of the older rolling stock that has been preserved and it was nice to hear the English Electric locomotive at the end. May God continue to bless you in all you do for him.
You failed to mention the two iterations of the overnight express Northerner service between Auckland and Wellington.
Yes, that's definitely a train worth mentioning.
It is a bit of a myth that Labour Governments and the the Railways wanted to reequip the Railways with modern rail passenger equipment in this period in fact during the Kirk-Rowling Labour Government the rail management became hostile to passenger. The [[Silver Star]] and other, prestige passenger trains, introduced waitresses and cooks and stewards and therefore high labour costs to the services and by 1974 it was obvious the Silver Star was an economic disaster. Also the accountant, Roger Douglas dedicated to efficiency, rose to dominate most departmental activities in the 1972-5 Labour government, in some ways foreshadowing his importance if not his policies the 84-9.government and there was no question of the proposals that were put before Cabinet in1974 for about 44 new carriages being approved. According to trade Minister Warren Freer, they were dismissed almost without debate or support. Planning for new bogie fast freight wagons and chnaging plans for the new Northerner fast mail and passenger overnight express, the supplement to the Silver Star, monopolised the railways limited resources available for new passenger development, The Northerner project had included a comprehensive rebuilding of all 20 remaining old first class A series carriages dating from 1940 but eventually only 12 were reconstructed to a much lesser standard because full rebuilding would have cost as much as new carriages, I did my masters thesis on these issues in 1980-82 a interviewed many of the Cabinet Ministers involved on the matter in the 1954-1975 period.
The Railways had long wanted to go for US Stainless steel type carriages and in the late 1950s certainly favoured the Standard 50 ft Queensland rail stainless steel commonwealth built carriages, which were built over a long period in many configuations. The standard US Budd 72ft railcar was also investigated, it is claimed it was unavailable in 3ft 6 but it should be noted 150 3/6 PCC teams were delivered for this Angeles yellow car downtown team system a operated in 1958-63.
So in the 1970s most.rail.passengers still travelled in old red railcars, or the extraordinarily uncomfortable 2nd class 56 ft steel carriages with slab seating which were diabolically uncomfortable for more than 2.hrs travel. These old carriages were still the main carriages on the Auckland Wellington express, not replaced by the Northerner till Sept 1975 and the.189/190, Dunedin- Christchurch ovenight train which was essentially old carriages attached to, express freight trains. Because of the many potential, timetabled stops for passengers and the many possible different stops required for freight the railways always opposed offering passengers convinient timetables on the overnight Dunedin Christchurch express freight runs and the sensible timetable of 8.40 pm departure and 6.20.am arrival was never adopted by the railways, if the ovenight express freights departed and arrived at reasonable times ( express freights from Christchurch to Dumedin left Christchurch at 9am, 6.30 pm and 8.20pm in 1974-1982) that would have had significant the human patronage the railways ensured there was almost never any carriages or service available. And of course there was last significant 56ft red steel express steamer express train replacing the Rangitara and Wahine, Lytellton to Wellington ferry service, a new train, introduced by the railways in June 1976 from Christchurch to Picton port . The railways timetabled it for a 6.30am departure and expected only 20 passengers, but to the terrible dissapointment, of Ewen McQueen Rail planning manager, the service attracted real patronage, particularly after the railways improved the timetable to a 7.10 am departure, found more old carriages and actually fitted heating systems in the carriages. they got up.to 220 passengers on these trains
I forgot to ask in my last comment, could you please tell me the name and artist of the piano music that starts at 0:15? Thank you kindly!
This is a piece created by AI:
suno.com/song/ead3a058-7763-4107-a6fb-ca16d8b1fd9e
@@trainvicar4008 Thank you! I was sure I had heard it before, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. AI can create some incredible things.
Those Fiat railcars would have to have been the worst purchase ever made in the history of NZ railways.
Ordered in the 1950s, cost a bomb, were found within a year to be faulty and malfunctioning, cost another bomb to fix, and were then plagued by reliability issues for the rest of their lives. And needed retirement only 20-25 years after they were built!
I honestly think that that disastrous acquisition, overseen by the Holyoake government, was a big catalyst for the decline of inter urban rail services in NZ. They should not have needed retirement until the end of the 20th century.
It's a great shame that none of our politicians care about trains ar all and I think it would be fair to say that out side of Auckland and Wellington alot of kiwis have never been on a train any where in N Z because they don't exist anymore apart from heritage railways and they always closed down the services because they expected them be profitable instead of treating the services as social services and forcing people to drive or onto planes and buses. Nothing beats a great train ride cheers 💯
Yes, it is a bit sad.
Did you remember The Coastal Pacific that ran between Christchurch and Picton?
You're right. I should have mentioned the Coastal Pacific together with the TranzAlpine and the Bay Express. All of these trains were upgraded in the late 1980s.
Do you remember in 1991 the Silver Fern Railcars were switched to operate between Tauranga - Auckland (Kaimai Express; and between Auckland - Rotorua (Geyserland Express)?
Locomotive hauled carriages took over the route between Auckland - Wellington (The Overlander Express).
@@SimonJones-rq1pt That will be in the next video...😉
yeah and the Auckland city electric trains FART, nobody has the IQ to put silencer on them to reduce sound
Okay TrainVicar, Google has been spying on my email, that's the most likely reason I get to see you today. I wrote to my friend, mentioned trains, and so your production was served by the algorithm (audio not as good as it could be, try recording to one file then 'normalising' to even out the levels, and, of course, capture the best quality audio you can with decent equipment). Impossible connection, a figment of my imagination? God is above all, so we just have to wait on Him. There are impenetrable mysteries, but also grounds for deep suspicion. In the Bible it mentions the times to come when men (and women, and transexuals too I guess) will gather to worship a mighty machine. I wonder, where will the Church stand in the days to come? The Lord's favour has moved, as it does - and all praise to your colleagues in the cloth for sending out a new immigrant to bat for them, as if no one would notice how slack they are.