the case for dunedin suburban rail services

2024 04 18

hey elysia add content warning about austerity and neoliberalism and stuff 🥺

we probably sound like we know a lot in this post but we're really jus a puppy and have head empty and are just using what we've picked up from media elsewhere. woof woof! :3

Today we learned that Dunedin Railways (a tourist railway in a student city in new Zealand) is entirely owned by the city government, and they have no desire to sell it (?). this is already the only regularly scheduled and most stable railway on the south island of the country, but i think it would be worth diversifying ridership.

Currently, it heavily caters to cruise ship tourists, and is in need of new rolling stock and track maintenance. most contemporary railways in New Zealand, outside of really just Auckland and Wellington, exclusively rely on tourists, which leaves the railway unstable and vulnerable to route closures and cutbacks (in new zealand, government subsidies and long term transport planning can be hard to come by, unfortunately, so having strong financials is really important for long term stability). And in Dunedin, there's a very clear way of ,, diversifying.

One of Dunedin's far flung suburbs, Mosgiel (more like mosg'île uwu), currently has two bus services, a local route and a express route. And they're!! Pretty popular!!! In fact, during the school rush period, they're actually overcrowded!! Dunedin, and Otago more broadly, are also decidedly one of the few areas in new Zealand where ridership is *increasing* year over year, and it's safe to say this crowding will get worse in the future. This could easily be resolved by just running more bus frequency, which mosgiel also deserves (although this is out of Dunedins hands, it's the responsibility of the ORC and Go bus), but it's an interesting oppurtinty to reintroduce train service to green Island and Abbotsford, and Mosgiel still even has its train stations.

I'm pretty sure the Inlander line that Dunedin Railways operates already goes this way, so all it would mean would be making the existing train service more useful for regular travelers by adding more frequency (probably initially targeted at peak period but slowly using the positive inertia to add more day trains. It's very much worth pointing out that Dunedin's suburban services were cut in part due to only being useful during peak), consistent schedules, and making it stop in at least Green Island, Abbotsford, and Mosgiel.

The reason Mosgiel-Dunedin services were cut were due to timetable cutbacks and aging rolling stock, as well as a attitude that trains were on the out. Despite this, Mosgiel residents actually time and again pointed out that the train trip would always be faster and prefered than a bus trip due to the train going through a tunnel under the hills instead of around.

The whole problem of needing new rolling stock is a big one of this. Unlike most of new zealand, which has poor track quality and winding and antiquated routes, Dunedin-Mosgiel seems relatively alright, so it's just really the other eternal national problem: extremely old rolling stock isn't great. Part of the barrier to efficent financial performance is the need to use heritage rolling stock that is expensive to maintain. Dunedin Railways not only needs to both replace its entire existing fleet, and expand, both in order to meet tourist demand, but to also reintroduce suburban services. This transition to providing regular suburban services is probably really tight and will be hard to pull off, since a signifcant amount of revenue comes from tourism services. There is probably some extra rolling stock available for lengthy non cruise ship periods, and these empty periods will probably be where suburban service are first implemented, and probbaly only between Mosgiel/Wingatui stations, in order to bolster finacnes without any capital expenses. I'm not sure how much staff operates on the trains though and so operating costs could still be high!

Because of the horrible neoliberalism and austerity this country's railways are still faced with, it might be impossible to get new rolling stock or build new suburban stations (the green island/abbotsford station doesn't seem to exist any more) without already being able to prove there is a demographic and financial case for it. It fucking sucks, when we all know that it would be a slam dunk.

I think it's worth pushing for suburban services to Mosgiel, and probably should be done while also carefully conducting and maintaining the bus network (probably more carefully than they are currently, get some damn bus lanes dunedin!) (especially also now that bus infrastructure can now be publicly owned again). The mosgiel suburban service was cut back for bad reasons, and good reasons exist to re instate it.

A reactivation of Wingatui or preferably a more central mosgiel station is a first step, and running outside of cruise ship periods seems to be a must and may hinder it early on!!

When Dunedin does have the capability of expanding service, it should probably do a couple things. Add a shared platform between Green Island and Abbotsford (which is a area that seems to command surprising ridership prowess). A ped underpass already exists for Green Island to reach the rail corridor; its a remmenant from when there was a train station there. Might be cool to see Caversham get a station, too, especially since it has some commercial activity. Although, ideally the shoulder station before Dunedin central would be South Dunedin, around Cargill's corner. Cargill's Corner is the centre of Dunedin's secondary CBD, South Dunedin, and is an important shopping area for low income residents. We don't think it would be an easy first station to add, since its elevated, and im pretty sure caversham could be at grade (although depending on traffic, it may eventually need to be grade separated from the fake motorway turnoff).

The South Dunedin and Caversham train stations would duplicate some Mosgiel 77 bus stops, and i think thats okay. 77 still has plenty of stops, and having a few extra station can provide a lot more coverage for the city. At the same time, having sparse train stations is still imoprtant from a operations perspective. The old diesel heritage rolling stock is definitely not good at accelerating, and any new rolling stock will inevitably be diesel as well, which just isn't that good at accelerating and decelerating. Stop gaps would be to get multilpe units and or trains that use the diesel as a electricity generator, instead of the diesel directly powering a combustion engine.

On the Mosgiel side, getting a branch line to head towards Mosgiel's mainstreet would be cool, although i am not suer how this could be implemented, both because of land availability as well as political0will to consrtuct new train tracks at this stage. Perhaps rerouting the east and west mosgiel orbital routes to terminate at Mosgiel station would be good, or having the east circulator spur off to go to wingatui.

Getting new rolling is also absolutely critical. Then Dunedin could have its cake and eat it too, providing good levels of service for both tourism (the backbone of its current finances, again, shouldnt be so important, but this is new zealand :c ) and proper passenger services. For service, freight might be an issue that it needs to contend with, i dont even know if kiwirail uses this section of track; it probably does. it would hopefully be easy enough with some small sidings outside the two tunnels, and with low frequencies it probably wont come up. I am not sure of the track quality between Dunedin and Mosgiel, but it appears dead straight in some areas on a map, which is a huge improvement over the slow winding 77 bus (ive not taken the mosgiel express!).

I am gonna spitball here but a short term goal should be moving to at least hourly freqeuncy, slowly increasing in the peripherary of peak times and then moving into full day hourly service. This is already better than the current Mosgiel express, which is peak only (why i havent taken it, its just never lined up in our day schedule. transit should adapt to my travel plans, not the other way around!). I think retaining bus service should continue, and probably will since Dunedin Railways is owned and operated by Dunedin City Council, and 77 and 78 Orbus is operated by Go bus and funded and planned by Otago regional council. It would probably be very good to integrate them though, and have buses make sure they stop near train station. It should be advertised (and actually be) a faster service, if the transfer lines up.

Fares should be roughly the same. A mosgiel suburban service is a suburban service, not a tourist service. this is very important.. charging a premium for a a form of transport we want people to switch to is shooting ourselves in the foot. Paying more for a faster service is also kinda unfair. At most fares should probably be $5, if Orbus fares aren't gonna change. That said, a small zoned fare should exist if its gonna be $5 for the full length. Trips made within Dunedin city (Caversham-Cargill's Corner-Dunedin Central Station) should probably only be 1-2 dollars. Even if its faster than taking the bus, it should still be priced similarly. If the french charged a premium for their high speed trains, they would've failed to garner ridership, and the SNCF would have probably been gutted. $5 is still kinda a lot, when the bus fare is $2.

There's a chance that maintaining bus service could make the train seem unnattractive if its slow or expensive or difficult to use practically, and so we should make sure to coordinate it and make everything as easy and streamlined as possible. Transfers should line up with bus arrivals (get some damn bus lanes (and allow back door boarding to speed up dwell times)), it should be fast, wayfinding should be on-point. Talking to the ORC is critical. On the other hand, if the train service is well executed it could hurt the buses. I am sure that is probably okay, though, if, if planning and coordination happen with the ORC.

potential extensions i thought sounded cool before thinking about them for a couple minutes

A branch line off the central otago railway towards the airport is so fucking free. It's flat and nothing exists there other than the small airport. It is probably not necessary given how empty the super shuttle always seems to be whenever i take it, but that may be because everyone gets rental cars? I don't know, just some regularly scheduled public transport, even if its hourly, to the airport. Just something. Please.

Invercargill!! The only other non christchurch city on the south island! yippee people keep telling me its hundreds of kilometres away from dunedin

alexendra/clyde!! bitches got more ped streets than your average canadian city!! sobbing rn

an extension to cromwell woul be nice

in closing uwu

while i am here it's also worth pointing out that the dunedin railways services to palmerston were only actually cut in order to better serve the cruise ship market; palmerston took too long to get to ad used valuable rolling stock needed to meet tourist demand. palmerston is a much different case from mosgiel, but...

other posts i am interested in making (and by that i mean well within the writing stage of):

• 3ds camera write up (actually plannign on putting this in video essay form)
• ottawa zoning bylaw amendment information and public engagement piece (probably wont get done in time! check out our social media!)
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• our ideas for a revitalised intercity transport in ontario