Editorial: Sentimental journey back on track

Every New Zealander ought to know the year the North Island main trunk railway was completed. The 1908 date was one of those landmarks that school pupils were expected to remember, a milestone marking the end of disparate colonial settlement and the beginning of the nation as we know it. The country was at last connected from end to end - the South Island line was already complete - and rail would be the artery of its development.

So it was for the first half of the 20th century. Rail took cargo inland from ports, and enabled people to travel overnight between the main centres.

With its steam engines, regular stops and outsized teacups the "Limited" became a beloved fixture of New Zealand life.

That sentimental attachment continued long after improved roads and air services took over from rail in our travel habits. But by the 1970s, New Zealand Railways was losing money and closing branch lines. It was privatised in the 1990s, and passenger services continued to decline. The South Island lost its main trunk service in 2001, the North Island overnight train was taken off two years ago and this week, two years shy of the centenary, the axe hung over the last main trunk passenger link, the daylight Overlander.

But sentiment has come to the rescue. The Overlander has been fully booked since its latest owner, Toll, announced it could not afford to continue the service at a loss of $2 million a year.

Sentiment has led the Auckland Regional Council to join councils of regions down the line for discussions with Toll about what it might take to maintain the service. And sentiment has driven the Green Party in Parliament to petition for a reprieve.

When the cabinet came to consider a subsidy this week, ministers wisely decided there were better uses for $1.75 million of public money. The ball was back in Toll's court and, with regional councils cheering it on, the company has had second thoughts. It has decided to continue the service on three days a week - the minimum it must maintain if it is not to lose its exclusive right to the tracks that are now back in Government ownership. It might even restore daily services over the summer if patronage warrants it.

Public sentiment and councils' entreaties have clearly played a part in Toll's reconsideration, but the company knows it will have to upgrade the train if its passenger business is to survive.

It is talking of refurbishing the carriages and offering new packages aimed at tourists and domestic users. And it has welcomed the offers of marketing assistance from councils along the route.

It ought to be possible, with clever promotion and more presentable trains, to provide profitable connections to the central North Island ski fields and thermal attractions from Auckland and Wellington.

It would be remarkable, though, if Toll continued with the full intercity connection. Rail is simply not competitive with road and air transport. That narrow-gauge track, completed in 1908, is the problem. It is not wide enough for the high-speed trains that have revitalised long distance rail services in Europe and elsewhere.

Somehow, the time the full journey takes must be cut an hour or two if the train is to survive as even an alternative mode of leisure transport.

If the Overlander can go even a little faster, it should be possible to capitalise on the evident popularity of the decision to grant a reprieve. But Toll needs to have a remodelled train and a smart new promotional campaign on the rails before Christmas. Sentiment can be fickle but, well served, it can count.