Southerner

Southerner welcome on-board leaflet 1982

Southerner welcome on-board leaflet 1982

The long period of depression era austerity for on-board catering was starting to end, which saw nearly 40 years of long-distance passenger trains operating with catering relegated to extended stops at railway stations with cafeteria/restaurant facilities mid-trip. By the late 1960s the Railways Department had finally established that fewer and fewer people were willing to take a train trip that might stop multiple times on the journey just so passengers could join a scrum at the railway station ship to buy whatever food and drink they could get their hands on, before rushing back onto the train.  

So the Southerner was an attempt to turn that around, in parallel with the dieselisation of railways in the South Island, it saw the introduction of a complete buffet car, with a counter-type arrangement, seating passengers on a long-table.  This was supplemented by "stewardess" service in the coaches themselves, notable that passengers in smoking carriages could be served alcohol, but non-smoking not, which is a quaint sign of the times.

For a daylight service from Christchurch to Invercargill via Dunedin (and limited stops so it could operate competitively with road coach services) this made sense. The other notable feature was the end to classes of travel, as first class 56ft coaches manufactured 1937-1945 were refurbished to be the only class of travel. Wide reclining deep cushioned vinyl seats, in a 2-1 configuration with lots of legroom were certainly designed to make it a comfortable trip.

The Southerner was, for many years, a success, although it was noted after a few years that the parallel road coach service (which connected the Southerner to smaller towns) did see a lot its passenger simply ride the coach the whole way, rather than connect to wait for a train, so it lost some of the small town traffic.  However over time it became increasingly clear that the buffet car was heavily loss-making, not least because it saw a lot of weight being hauled around with relatively little additional revenue (although it wasn't always acknowledged that without the buffet car many passengers may have chosen other options).  Furthermore, the capacity of former first class railway carriages was only around 30, despite them being several times heavier than a road coach that could carry 45, this effectively meant that much of heralded fuel efficiency of rail over road was squandered on rolling stock that carried fewer people (plus the buffet car and the guards van/baggage car).  By the time of this leaflet, the Southerner was receiving direct operating subsidies from government. Certainly the old former first class seats were not economically viable (as the fares needed to sell such a low density of seating would be too high), but they attracted passengers because they beat anything available by road.

By 1982, the time of this leaflet (which I received in 1984 as I rode the Southerner for the first time on a family holiday) the buffet car service had been truncated to be cafeteria style light snacks, rather than full meal service, in order to save money. Furthermore, some of the Southerner coaches had been substituted for higher density 56ft carriages (ex. second class) with denser 2-2 seating that did not recline, which were greater capacity, but more akin to travelling by road coach. I ended up in that coach because NZR handily booked the seat for me in the non-smoking coach, but my parents in the smoking coach, at the other end of the train (in the bigger comfortable former first class seats).  

By the time the Southerner was finally cancelled in 2002 it had gone through yet another iteration from the 1990s without a full buffet car, but with a cafeteria/shop to sell food and beverages, and with a denser configuration. It enabled the Southerner to survive the 1990s (when I rode it one further time), but alternatives had attracted too many away from the train by the turn of the century.  Competition in the domestic airline market had significantly reduced airfares so many could afford to fly (especially for the long trip from Christchurch to Invercargill), and competition in the long-distance coach/shuttle market was undercutting the Southerner on price, travel time and frequency of service (attracting many students), plus the ending of protectionism for new imported cars (and ending the ban on secondhand imports) saw the cost of car ownership plummet.  A study conducted by the Government of the day indicated that it was not worth subsidising, in terms of attracting tourists or being able to make it viable, so to this day there is no passenger rail service on most of the Main South Line (or South Island Main Trunk Line as it used to be called) south of Christchurch.