The Kiwi Station rail protest in 1955. Credit: Nelson Provincial Museum, Geoffrey C Wood Collection.
An Auckland University report out earlier this month which concluded that New Zealand’s roading system has added to our psychological distress makes for sobering reading. Nelson’s ongoing transport woes and debate have been caused of course by the past actions of short-sighted politicians who became hell-bent on dismantling perfectly good infrastructure which now has to patched over by future generations. I’m talking here about Nelson Railway, which used to be one of the best little government-owned rail lines in the country. Always carrying passengers and freight alike, unusual for an unconnected regional line, it operated for 79 years between 1876 and 1955. Starting in Port Nelson, trains would head up St Vincent Street through Bishopdale and onto Stoke, Richmond, Foxhill and Belgrove.