In June 1984 I sent off and received the following bundle of Railways travel promotional material, it included the Travelpass stickers and the "See New Zealand Our Way" stickers using the old Railways Department branding of Rail Ferries and Railways Road Services.
The Travelpass leaflet below advertises the primary multi-modal rail, coach and ferry pass product of the Railways Corporation at the time. It required separate reservations to be taken for all long-distance services.
It cost $160 ($638 in 2024 dollars) for 15 days and $240 ($957 in 2024 dollars) for 22 days of travel. Children 4-14 were half price and under 4yo free. Sleeping berths on the Northerner were subject to a surcharge
The map below depicts the main tourist routes, including interestingly such tortuous routes as Wairoa to Rotorua via the Ureweras. Notable gaps being between Hawke's Bay and Taupo, Taranaki and Waikato, Nelson and Mount Cook, all serviced by then competitors to the Railways Corporation - namely Newmans Coastlines and Mount Cook Landlines. The images depict the Aranui, a Volvo coach and the Southerner.
Travel suggestions sought to promote the Travelpass to senior citizens, young couples, single young travellers and families, with a range of itinerary suggestions (including visiting Wairoa and going by coach to Rotorua).
The Cook Strait Rail Ferries leaflet included the newly created brand "Searail" to cover the ferries and depicts the almost brand new ferry - Arahura - on the cover.
The leaflet depicted outdoor and indoor seating areas, including the bar and even people smoking inside. This also included the connecting Picton-Christchurch express.
This last page on the Rail Ferry leaflet describes the facilities in summary, connections and the ferry timetable at the time.
The package of promotional materials included leaflets for all of the six long-distance passenger services with reservations. I have already published articles with some of these as follows:
In addition is a leaflet promoting the North Island Main Trunk focusing on the history, the engineering feats, the Mangaweka Deviation (opened two years earlier), promoting the route for scenery.
From the South Island, this leaflet promoted the Picton-Christchurch Express, depicting the recently refurbished 56ft cars. Interestingly it depicts it as a "travel bargain". but also notes that the Railway Station Restaurant at the (now demolished) 1960 station opened at 6:15am serving cooked breakfasts. It also contains the prose of the time describing the route of the train as "a harsh environment".
The Christchurch-Greymouth express leaflet focuses understandably on the scenery, and the timetable showing the Monday-Saturday daytime services and the Friday and Sunday evening services. It also depicts the recently refurbished (at the time) 56ft cars, although it is unclear what many thought of promoting trains in the 1980s by saying they had carpets, lighting and a heating system!
The Southerner promotional leaflet highlighted the buffet car (the only train in the South Island at the time with onboard catering, and along with the leaflet on the South Island Main Trunk (depicting exactly the type of window seen on a Southerner car at the time) , promoting the line as scenic, and noting its history.
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