Railway electrification in Christchurch

[Myrtone]

Railways within Christchurch used to be electrified (remember, this is in a country with a lot of hydroelectric power) but the catenary was taken away.

[rtt_rules]

Railways within Christchurch used to be electrified (remember, this is in a country with a lot of hydroelectric power) but the catenary was taken away.

I can only find references for the Christchurch-Lyttelton line due to smoke in the tunnel and it was removed in the 1970's with conversion to diesel.

Really nothing to do with hydro availablity.

[Myrtone]

There is a push for a commuter train taking passengers between Christchurch and Rangiora and Rollenston and Christchurch.

[rtt_rules]

There is a push for a commuter train taking passengers between Christchurch and Rangiora and Rollenston and Christchurch.

I'm a supporter of peak flow / peak time only rail PT implemented using low capital cost and low operational cost rail PT solutions so good luck to them. But it won't be sparked.

If the numbers actually supported a limited peak flow service and NZ had the cash, these two use cases are classic solution for BEV rail cars such as the EV-301 series.

[Myrtone]

I'm a supporter of peak flow / peak time only rail PT implemented using low capital cost and low operational cost rail PT solutions so good luck to them. But it won't be sparked.

But this is in a country with a huge supply of hydroelectric power and some geothermal power, and if mains power is cheap enough, that could make electric trains cheaper to run.

If implemented using low capital cost, an idea would actually be to re-use another operator's trains, namely what another operator would like to offload.

[rtt_rules]

I'm a supporter of peak flow / peak time only rail PT implemented using low capital cost and low operational cost rail PT solutions so good luck to them. But it won't be sparked.

But this is in a country with a huge supply of hydroelectric power and some geothermal power, and if mains power is cheap enough, that could make electric trains cheaper to run.

If implemented using low capital cost, an idea would actually be to re-use another operator's trains, namely what another operator would like to offload.

NZ is actually running out of power and its not cheap so don't keep throwing that line around as its irrelevent, typically around 75% of grid supply.

Installing OH is very expensive and for irregular peak flow services not viable, hence why I focused on BEV train which are unfortunately not readily available on the 2nd hand market.

So likely any intial or trial service would be using diesel. Again this also is where it becomes challenging as what 2nd hand NG DMU's are readily available? So we are using DEL hauled pax cars which then need HEP etc. All the things that make it more complicated and expensive with shunting and moving large mass with a low passenger count.

The NZ govt is likely hestiant to unfortunately get involved as they know it will loose money for a area with little traffic congestion.

A similar service I'm aware of is the Vancouver West Coast Express which started 30 years ago originally as a 3rd party contracted service which used to publish the subsidy costs. Yes despite running just 5 services a day in each peak direction in peak flow only, the service still looses money.

However the service has been retained and still operates today despite the trains growing in length up to 10 cars due to demand, not one additional service has been added since day one and even the number of stations has not changed despite calls to do so and we all know Nth American train single side only low height platform stations are hardly high cost items.

The track is mostly single unwired privately owned freight line where the operator for goes access for 2.5 in AM and PM week days only to enough an income from govt funded passenger services.