Southerner

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The Southerner was a train service for passenger trains on the South Island of New Zealand . The line connected the major cities of Christchurch , Dunedin and Invercargill on a 589 km long route .

Routing

The route of the Southerner train connection was identical to the Main South Line of the South Island Main Trunk Railways . The stops were from north to south:

The journey from Christchurch to Invercargill at the southernmost end of the South Island of New Zealand took a good nine hours.

history

Actually there was a passenger train going south from Christchurch since September 6, 1878 and there was a regular train connection with passenger transport between Christchurch and Invercargill from January 1879. From November 1904, the distance of almost 600 km could be covered in one day and from the end of the 1960s there was a change from steam locomotives to diesel engines . When the first freight express train set off from Christchurch to Invercargill on December 1, 1970, the Southerner also made its debut , replacing the South Island Limited Express and ending the steam railway age in New Zealand on October 25, 1971. But actually the new train connection was more of a marketing product than the creation of a new train connection. The Southerner was a new name for a train that stood for a defined connection, for a new technology (diesel drive) and for special service. For example, at the beginning of the 1970s, the so-called "on-board refreshment" (on-board refreshments) was introduced.

30 years later, in the meantime the entire railway network and railway operations have been privatized, the line was about to be closed in September 2001 due to unprofitability. With a financial injection of over NZ $ 240,000 from the public sector (government and affected cities), the company Tranz Rail , which was now the owner of the line, continued to operate the train service for a few months until it was finally closed.

Finally, on February 10, 2002, the last two trains ran, one from Christchurch towards Invercargill, the other in the opposite direction.

Appreciation

In 1997, the New Zealand Post issued a NZ $ 1 postage stamp depicting Southerner as part of the Scenic Trains series.

See also

literature

  • Geoffrey Churchman, Tony Hurst: The Railways of New Zealand . HarpenerCollins Publishers, Wellington 1990, ISBN 0-908876-20-3 (English).
  • McLauchlan, Gordon: Railways . In: Bateman NZ Encyclopedia . 5th ed., Millennium ed. David Bateman Ltd, Auckland 2000, ISBN 0-908610-21-1 , pp. 526 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Scenic - Trains - The Southerner - $ 1.00. New zealand Post, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Timetable. TrainWeb, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Sad Farewell To Southerner. Scoop Independent News, February 11, 2002, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  4. ↑ About us - History of rail - 1850–1900. Kiwi rail, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  5. ^ McLauchlan, Gordon: Railways . In: Bateman NZ Encyclopedia . 2000, p. 526 .
  6. ^ Churchman, Hurst: The Railways of New Zealand . 1990, p. 203 .
  7. ^ Churchman, Hurst: The Railways of New Zealand . 1990, p. 205 .
  8. ^ South Island Limited Express poster. New Zealand History Online, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  9. ^ Railway buffet car. New Zealand History Online, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Southerner deal finalised. Scoop Independent News, October 9, 2001, accessed June 1, 2013 .
  11. ^ Last day for the Southerner train. TVNZ, February 10, 2002, accessed June 1, 2013 .