Urban passenger rail patronage in Auckland and Wellington is now booming
after many years of decline. Outside these two centres, however, the
situation is quite different: intercity and regional passenger rail
services are scarce, and no other city possesses suburban rail. Can't
Get There from Here traces the expansion and the contraction of New
Zealand's passenger rail network over the last century. What is the
historical context of today's imbalance between rail and road? How far
and wide did the passenger rail network once run? Why is there an abject
lack of services beyond the North Island's two main cities, even as
demand for passenger transport continues to grow? This book seeks to
answer these questions. In this fascinating study, Andre Brett argues
that the trend away from passenger rail might appear inevitable and
irreversible but it was not. Things could have been--and still could
be--very different. We need to understand the challenges that brought
passenger rail to the brink of extinction in order to create policy for
future transport that is efficient and sustainable.