Music to a lifelong trainspotter's earsDEREK BURROWS Cook, a railway town that now has a population of just four. The recent news that a $50,000 grant has been made available to investigate whether it is feasible to reinstate the Christchurch-Invercargill passenger rail service is music to my ears. It's more than 15 years since the Southerner last rumbled into Timaru Railway Station and I'm sure I am not the only one who misses its daily visits. As a pre-pubescent schoolboy, I used to stand on the platform at a small-town railway station watching the behemoths of the London and North-Eastern Railway (LNER) thunder past, hauling their carriages to London or Edinburgh. I'm of a rather nervous disposition and I'm not sure I'm ready to put my life in the hands of a robotic vehicle.

Source: Stuff July 04, 2017 05:35 UTC