I'm a Kiwi, born and raised here in NZ and I am also a train enthusiast. I'm also ashamed of the railway system in this country. We once had an amazing network, with rails that served almost every town and city. Now it's a shadow of what it used to be. Lines have been progressively closed and ripped up, or mothballed and allowed to decay to the point where re-opening would be prohibitively expensive. Other lines have been damaged and wiped out due to extreme weather events (Gisborne) and are unlikely to ever be repaired and re-opened. Towns which once had bustling railway stations now lie dormant with no rail line access. Rotorua - tourist capital of NZ no longer has a railway running to it. The line is still there but has been closed for many years and the city doesn't even have a station. The government wants to get people out of cars and onto public transport but you can't do that when your town or city has no rail line!

I love visiting NZ and do so every year from the UK. Such a lovely country. It always seems strange to me how little investment there is in the railway infrastructure compared with roads in NZ. People often tell me that there isn't a large enough market for rail. That maybe true, but there are ever more people travelling around by car so demand for travel is certainly buoyant.

Really sad. Now, apart from a couple of tourist trains, there are no passenger trains in the South Island. I do believe they might be looking at a new Christchurch service, not sure where to though. Maybe Dunedin or Invercargill.

It is a long time since I first travelled on a train in NZ. I think it was in 1975 that I went by Silver Star overnight to Wellington, where I caught the ferry to Picton. Unfortunately, no connecting train to Christchurch, so I had to take a slow journey on the bus (Newmans?). After an overnight stay in the "Peoples Palace" hotel (I don't think that is there any more), I rented a MIni car, toured South Island, then returning to Christchurch for another overnight stay at the hotel. The following day, I took the diesel hauled train to Littleton for the overnight ferry to Wellington (no longer operating). From there it was the Silver Fern back to Auckland. I have therefore travelled on several of the trains that you showed in your video, plus a ferry that have all ceased to operate. A real pity, because the trains were the best way to enjoy the beautiful country.

It seems there in the lives of many travellers and nations in general, rail has become something of an add-on or luxury and doesn't give us the true freedom that rail can give us.

Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation which is very much appreciated by the people. We are absolutely delighted to see that there are some of the older rolling stock that has been preserved and it was nice to hear the English Electric locomotive at the end. May God continue to bless you in all you do for him.

also failed similar to the usa, because passengers had a lower priority than freight, creating more delays so less people used it cuz it took longer waiting them

You failed to mention the two iterations of the overnight express Northerner service between Auckland and Wellington.

I forgot to ask in my last comment, could you please tell me the name and artist of the piano music that starts at 0:15? Thank you kindly!

It's a great shame that none of our politicians care about trains ar all and I think it would be fair to say that out side of Auckland and Wellington alot of kiwis have never been on a train any where in N Z because they don't exist anymore apart from heritage railways and they always closed down the services because they expected them be profitable instead of treating the services as social services and forcing people to drive or onto planes and buses. Nothing beats a great train ride cheers 💯

Did you remember The Coastal Pacific that ran between Christchurch and Picton?

yeah and the Auckland city electric trains FART, nobody has the IQ to put silencer on them to reduce sound

Okay TrainVicar, Google has been spying on my email, that's the most likely reason I get to see you today. I wrote to my friend, mentioned trains, and so your production was served by the algorithm (audio not as good as it could be, try recording to one file then 'normalising' to even out the levels, and, of course, capture the best quality audio you can with decent equipment). Impossible connection, a figment of my imagination? God is above all, so we just have to wait on Him. There are impenetrable mysteries, but also grounds for deep suspicion. In the Bible it mentions the times to come when men (and women, and transexuals too I guess) will gather to worship a mighty machine. I wonder, where will the Church stand in the days to come? The Lord's favour has moved, as it does - and all praise to your colleagues in the cloth for sending out a new immigrant to bat for them, as if no one would notice how slack they are.