<img src="http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/common/imageViewer/0,1050,54710,FF.jpg" alt="" />

END OF THE LINE: Two Southerner trains meet at Merton, northeast of Dunedin, for the last time. The crew are, from left, Bev Hartley, Lex Box, Craig Perkins, Meri Jacobs, Ken Thomson and Bob Ferguson (front). Otago Daily Times

By FIONA CLARKSON
In the grand old tradition of New Zealand Rail, the train was late.

But for once, nobody minded. This was the last train, the last Southerner passenger train between Christchurch and Invercargill, and for many of the passengers, yesterday was a sad and nostalgic day.

They were small trains, as they passed through the Dunedin Railway Station one last time, with only a carriage and a half each way because no other carriages were available. But a jolly atmosphere aboard made them seem like a rollicking party as they clicked and clacked their way along the tracks.

Train enthusiasts and veteran passengers mixed with innocent tourists unaware that being part of a historic journey had been granted them along with their train ticket.

David Munro, a Canadian working as restaurant manager for the Skyline, in Queenstown, was quite proud of having bought what seemed to be the last Southerner ticket from Dunedin, even though it was a lucky accident.

He was travelling to Oamaru to see the penguins on his four days off, and decided only yesterday morning to take the train from Dunedin, rather than a bus.

"Quite a bonus", he said of his historic ticket, and he was delighted to be given a Southerner rubbish bag and a napkin as souvenirs.

Norm Daniels, however, travelled from Hastings just to be part of the day. He travelled south on the Southerner on Saturday, and returned to Christchurch yesterday, carrying with him both ways souvenirs from the train's 31-year history.

Marketing pamphlets from the 1970s showed hostesses in short, bright red dress uniforms, and trains with seven or eight carriages.

A menu the 54-year-old railways worker had kept from that era asked 20c for a pot of tea or coffee, and 10c for a fizzy drink. Miniature bottles of alcohol were 30c apiece, and all the wine was Corbans quarter-bottles.

Mr Daniels reckoned he had caught the Southerner about 50 times over the years, and he was "devastated" to see it go, blaming lack of marketing, dwindling passenger numbers and the uncaring nature of private enterprise.

"The Government used to spend money on this when it was state-owned. Now, they don't care."

He did not believe the cheapness of road travel was a significant factor in the train's demise, saying other train services, such as the Tranz Alpine, were still going strong, despite their ticket prices.

He was pinning his hopes the Government would again ride to the rescue, believing it would be forced to restart such services.

Dozens of people gathered at vantage points yesterday to wave goodbye to the passing blue train.

When it arrived at Dunedin for the last time, train manager Bev Hartley led the passengers in a stirring rendition of Auld Lang Syne, having previously led the north-bound passengers in Now Is The Hour.

More than 100 people greeted the train on its arrival, although there was no band or official welcome or farewell to match that planned for its last stop in Invercargill.

The usual flurry of boarding and departing passengers made the platform resemble days of old, and then, with a long "toot" and a couple of loud bangs caused by detonators on the tracks, the Southerner departed.

An answering horn blast from the Taieri Gorge train, about to depart itself, the sight of a crew member hanging out the back for one last photograph, and the train was gone.

When the next passenger train will pull up alongside the long Dunedin platform, nobody knows.

So ends more than a century of southern rail travel.