Otago Excursion Train Trust

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Otago Excursion Train Trust is one in 1978 Dunedin , New Zealand founded trust company , which today together with the Dunedin City Council , the Museum Railway Taieri Gorge Railway in Otago operates.

history

The story goes back to the 1950s when the Otago section of the New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society (NZRLS), together with the New Zealand Railways Department, organized and operated excursion trains to central Otago . However, the steadily increasing losses in New Zealand's railway operations from 1970 onwards led to the decision of the New Zealand Railways Department to cease operating the excursion trains in 1976 . The National Federation of Rail Societies was formed to ensure the preservation of the historic trains and their routes . She agreed with the government to allow privately operated trains to operate on routes operated by the New Zealand Railways Department .

The Otago section of the New Zealand Railway & Locomotive Society , which later formed as the Otago Railway & Locomotive Society , bought old railroad cars and began to restore them. In order to gain public support, the company campaigned for the establishment of the Otago Excursion Train Trust . The Trust was established in April 1978 and in October 1979 the first excursion from Dunedin to Cromwell took place .

In February 1987 the Trust formed Taieri Gorge Limited . When, in December 1989, the New Zealand Railways Corporation, as the successor to the New Zealand Railways Department , wanted to discontinue the railway line from Dunedin to Cromwell , Dunedin City Council took over the line to Middlemarch and allowed the Otago Excursion Train Trust to continue operating the railway, which had meanwhile become a tourist attraction .

In 1996 the Trust was in financial difficulties. About the newly founded Dunedin Railways Ltd which rose Dunedin City Council with a. Since then, the Trust and the Council have jointly operated the Taieri Gorge Railway .

membership

The Otago Excursion Train Trust is a member of the Federation of Rail Organizations of New Zealand Inc , the umbrella organization for all 70 companies in New Zealand that operate museum or tourist trains.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Trust . Taieri Gorge Limited , archived from the original on February 2, 2014 ; accessed on February 4, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. ^ A b Otago Excursion Train Trust . Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga , accessed November 10, 2011 .