$40m for Coastal Pacific rail service
KiwiRail’s Coastal Pacific passenger service is getting a $40 million investment, making it a year-round service, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.
The cash boost, through the Provincial Growth Fund, is expected to bring $82m into the Marlborough-Kaiko¯ura region by 2027, creating up to 400 jobs.
Ardern made the announcement at the Kaiko¯ ura railway station yesterday after taking the first Coastal Pacific train since the 2016 earthquake. She also revealed the train stations in Kaiko¯ura, Picton and Blenheim would receive upgrades as part of the investment.
The first post-earthquake passenger train carried the prime minister and some of the rebuild workers who made it possible.
The line was badly damaged in the magnitude-7.8 earthquake in November 2016, after dozens of massive slips covered the rail corridor and mangled large sections of the tracks.
KiwiRail train drivers thought the Coastal Pacific passenger service would never run again after the amount of damage they saw following the Kaiko¯ ura earthquake, says Paul Foskett.
And Foskett knows more than most about that damage, since he was stuck on the coast after the quake hit.
Foskett had just finished his train driving shift on the South Island’s east coast moments before the quake hit on November 14.
‘‘I got into my car to go to Picton. ‘‘The next thing I knew, I was driving on the wrong side of the road.
‘‘I didn’t realise the earthquake had happened.’’
The return of the Coastal Pacific was a ‘‘positive moment’’, he said on the train. ‘‘It’s a big moment for all of us, all us locomotive engineers [train drivers].’’
Foskett remembered pulling over on State Highway 1.
‘‘The road had opened up in front of me. It looked like a staircase.
‘‘I pulled over, and got out of the car when the mother of quakes went off and threw me off my feet. I dived into the car to ride it out.’’
It wasn’t until the following day that he was able to contact his family. Foskett said his partner had lost someone during the Christchurch earthquake and was ‘‘distraught’’ as she was unable to contact Foskett.
‘‘I think it affected them more than me, as I was doing too much to think about anything,’’ Foskett said.
KiwiRail acting chief executive Todd Moyle said re-opening the line was ‘‘critical to regional economies’’. He said that pre-quake the Coastal Pacific brought about 42,000 passengers a year into Marlborough and Kaiko¯ ura alone.
‘‘These passengers were estimated to spend $34 million across the two regions, supporting about 300 local jobs.’’
Moyle said he could not praise highly enough the workers who undertook the ‘‘massive task’’ of getting the line ready to carry passengers again.
The regular Coastal Pacific tourist service will resume on December 1, marking a return to full services on the line.
Overnight freight services on the line have been running since September 2017. Daytime freight services started on the line in October.