Publisher Description

Urban passenger rail patronage in Auckland and Wellington is now booming after many years of decline. Outside these two centres, however, the situation is quite different: intercity and regional passenger rail services are scarce, and no other city possesses suburban rail. Not only does this hamper the mobility of regional New Zealanders, it is incongruous in light of the climate emergency declared by many local councils. Can't Get There from Here traces the expansion and - more commonly - the contraction of New Zealand's passenger rail network over the last century. What is the historical context of today's imbalance between rail and road? How far and wide did the passenger rail network once run? Why is there an abject lack of services beyond the North Island's two main cities, even as demand for passenger transport continues to grow? This book seeks to answer these questions. In this fascinating study, Andre Brett argues that the trend away from passenger rail might appear inevitable and irreversible but it was not. Things could have been - and still could be - very different. We need to understand the challenges that brought passenger rail to the brink of extinction in order to create policy for future transport that is efficient and sustainable.

Author Biography

Andre Brett is a postdoctoral researcher in history at the University of Wollongong. He has written numerous articles on Australian and New Zealand history for scholarly and popular publications in both countries, and in 2016 wrote Acknowledge No Frontier: The Creation and Demise of New Zealand's Provinces, 1853-76.Sam van der Weerden is a Dunedin mathematician and mapmaker who has carried out map work for Otago Regional Council's bus services, and Sarah Gallagher's book Scarfie Flats (2019) and promotional posters for Anthonie Tonnon's Rail Land tour .

Table of Contents

List of MapsAbbreviations and usage 7Legend to maps 8Foreword by Anthonie TonnonINTRODUCTION 9What trains are we talking about? 13Limited expresses, mixed trains and other members of the railway vocabulary 16Power, control and branding 18CHAPTER 1. The network in 1920 22An emerging competitor 34CHAPTER 2. 1920-1928: The regional railway falters 381920-28: Grand visions realised incompletely 471920-28: The end of the rural branch line 561921: The first cuts 591926-28: The buses are coming 62CHAPTER 3. 1929-1934: A royal commission and its aftermath 661929-30: Reconsidering rail's role 741930: Tinkering at the edges 771930-31: Outcomes of the royal commission 811932: Whanganui loses suburban rail 881931-33: Legislative protection, rural contraction 891933: Something to celebrate 93CHAPTER 4. 1935-45: A network unified in the face of adversity 961935-37: A modern railway for the capital 1061936-39: Wairoa gets its railway 1111936-40: Linking Canterbury and Marlborough 1131936-40: Regulation and contraction 1151940-45: Closing the gaps 119CHAPTER 5 1945-54: The drift to road 124NZR and the post-war transition 1331945-50: Post-war contraction 1341951-54: The waterfront dispute and its consequences 1421951-54: More lost opportunities 1471946-54: A different purpose for rail 150CHAPTER 6 1955-68: The Fiat fiasco 1581955-58: Railcars and the Remutakas 71958-59: Finalising the railcar network 1731956-66: 'An important principle of policy' in Invercargill 1761955-60: Rural attrition 1781967-68: Flawed Fiats and trimmed timetables 184CHAPTER 7. 1970-89: 'The emotive term "railcars"': Cancellations in town and country 1901970-76: Farewell to rural and miners' trains 1991971-78: Railcar routes rot 2041972-82: Suburban subtractions 2131983-88: The final echoes of the developmental railway 2251989: The platforms are quiet 230CHAPTER 8. 1990-2020: The false dawn 2321991: Revival? 2411993-2000: Privatisation and the passenger train 2422001-02: The regional passenger train's annus horribilis 245The difficult 2000s 2512003-20: Changing fortunes in Auckland 254CHAPTER 9. Whither passenger rail in New Zealand? 262How did we get here? 265The network in 2020 266What might the future hold? 268The myths we must not tell ourselves 270What will we need to revitalise passenger rail? 272Upper North Island 275Lower North Island 276North Island Main Trunk 278South Island 280Hamilton 283Tauranga 285Napier-Hastings 286Christchurch 288Dunedin 289Where else? 290All aboard! 291

Description for Sales People

An impassioned plea to restore rail in New Zealand, containing superb colour maps.

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