Train fares

[Matt Searle]

Don't bother with the train! - It goes once a day! Take a bus, or hitch a
ride.

Matt.
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Email: ma...@christchurch.com_NOSPAM
Web site: http://www.christchurch.com
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Travis Underwood wrote in message <35D9C062...@ibm.net>...
>I have not been able to get an accurate approximation of how much train
>fares will cost me. If anyone can help please do so. I am going to be
>arriving in Auckland (from US) and plan on going to rotorua, then from
>there to christchurch. I know there are backpacker and saver fares on
>the tranz rail, but I can not find out these prices.
>
>Thanks for the help in advance.
>
>Travis
>
>

[Travis Underwood]

[CATHROX]

Travis,
If you email me, I will send over links to websites.
I don't have time to write the www here.
Catherine

[Guy Steven]

In article <903474682.18961.0...@news.demon.co.uk>,

"Matt Searle" <ma...@christchurch.com_NOSPAM> writes:
> Don't bother with the train! - It goes once a day! Take a bus, or hitch a
> ride.

Why would you want to make that journey more than once a day?

[Travis Underwood]

Ahh no worries, they can be a bother and the trains in NZ are slow in my
opinion. They happen to advertise a nice leisure pace unlike the euro
trains, but speed is the name of the game. Anyway i was having second
thoughts on borrowing a motorbike for 5 weeks, but I figured $600NZ is
way cheap to use a moto for 5 weeks.

I great Kiwi up in Auckland is lending me one of his extra bikes.

thanks for the info and I finally found a good time table/fare sheet
that is better then tranz rail's own online site.

Cheers See you in September

Travis

[B J McDuff]

What he presumably means is, there is only one train a day usually on any
line, and often at an inconvenient time.

Also, while he can go from Auckland to Rotorua by train, to then go to
Christchurch he must backtrack to Hamilton to change trains for
Wellington. I fear the connection at Hamilton may be no more convenient
than train timetables generally.

However the scenery from the train is fabulous and I would not try to put
someone off travelling that way simply because of the lousy timetable/

B J McDuff

"I wouldn't go into business if my life depended on it. I find trade
immoral." -- Jordan Carter, New Zealand Labour Party, July 14 1998.

[Craig Shore]

On Tue, 18 Aug 1998 10:56:50 -0700, Travis Underwood <under...@ibm.net>
wrote:

The fares are online somewhere. It's not under transrail's own url though.
Use a search engine, you should find it.

Craig.
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[Lin Nah]

The Tranzrail Web site is
www.tranzrail.co.nz

The Transcenic web page is
http://www.dma.co.nz/tranzrail/tscenic/scenic.html

The backpackers, students and saver fares are a percentage on the full
fare. The saver fares are first come first served basis. So the
first few to book for the trip are eligible for up to 55% (unless they
have reduced this rate recently) discount, next one down is a 30%
discount etc.

The student discount is 20% and the backpackers discount is 30% (you
need either the youth hostel association membership card OR the VIP
backpackers card)

If you are going to get off at different places, then you need to
price each segment. (eg you can't get auck - wgtn and hope to get off
at Pn and on again the next day - book auck - pn and pn - wgtn).

Ask also for the "throughfare" price. If supersaver is gone,
sometimes throughfare is cheaper. Rotorua - Chch throughfare means
you pay for the entire thing, including the ferry. When I did the
pricing for Auck - chch for Dec 1996 (return jan 1997) it was not
cheaper if I could get supersaver and book each segment auck - wgtn,
wgtn - picton, picton - chch. However if supersaver was gone, it was
cheaper to buy the throughfare.

Try the email addresses found at
http://www.dma.co.nz/tranzrail/contacttranzrail/contacttranzrail.html
to query the actual percentages (in case things have changed in the
last few months).

Also get a quite from a backpacker travel or email them to query eg
http://www.acb.co.nz/travel.html
(That's auckland central backpackers travel centre)
However beware of them as Chuck Eggen has a bad experience when they
messed up his train booking.

regards
lin

[Richard Grevers]

My parents went by train and ferry Chch-Auckland last year, and said
never again.
While still slow by world standards, our trains are much faster than
they used to be (2-3 hours off Auck-Well) and "too" fast for comfort
on our narrow-guage, twisting tracks.

Balance this with seeing some stuff you won't see from the road.

RG