Steel Wheel Dreaming

 The eternal 'boost Rail' mantra runs into a lot of awkward spatial facts in Godzone.

No rail ever to:

• West coast SI south of Hokitika, north of Ngakawau
• West Coast of NI between Helensville and Waitara
• The entire East Cape region between Gizzy and Opotiki
• Most inland regions of Marlborough, Tasman, Mackenzie, Queenstown

Rail used to exist but is now gone in:

• All inland parts of the SI except the Christchurch-Stillwater line
• Northland north of Whangarei
• Wairoa-Gisborne
• Stratford-Ohakune

So 'getting freight onto rail' runs into a lot of Capex, if the objective is to run a spur line to within X km of all population centres having more than Y residents. Which objective, of course, was the original Vogel scheme, a century-and-a-half ago. Most of the discontinued lines never made Cent One over their entire life, and this was at a time when road transport alternatives were traction engines or horses.

It's just a dream (disclosure - I luv choo-choos).....