About This Site

This site aims to promote rail travel in New Zealand by providing an integrated and easily accessible source of information spanning all rail operators. The site is not affiliated with any rail operator or tourism operator and is a non-profit making venture. It was first developed in 2003 as a sister to the Australian Rail Maps site.

For the average consumer it can be a mysterious and daunting task merely to travel by train outside his or her own region. When travelling by car or air no such problems arise because providers realise that familiarity of access is a key attraction - we have standard road rules, traffic management, navigation aids etc, we also have consistent boarding, ticketing and airport procedures nationally - if not internationally! So why is it such a drama to get a national view of rail travel? This web-site aims in its own small way to redress this problem, by at least providing a single nationally consistent and complete source of information on rail travel in New Zealand. All passenger train routes are illustrated, and all passenger stations are shown. The conventions are consistent so that whether you are looking for a long distance or suburban train - you can be sure its here in a form you will recognise - even if you're not familiar with the region you're looking at. The site is intended as a first port of call for the travel planner. It doesn't include timetables - it does link to sites where timetables can be viewed - but this site does enable you to determine whether or not there is a train or tram that goes where you want to go, roughly how long it will take you to get there, and about how often trains come along. If you find the route you want - then click to view the detailed timetable. This site is based on the premise that most people are more attuned to graphical representations than tabular, and that a train timetable is virtually indecipherable without some way of visualising it graphically. The aim is to enable the potential passenger to select his route and travel mode without having to look at a timetable - then to refer to the timetable for the simpler task of selecting the time of travel.

Maps are designed using Corel Draw and Corel PhotoPaint. Originally all maps were developed using Photopaint, but gradually they are all being redeveloped as vector graphics using Corel Draw (v9). This enables re-sizing and easy production of printer friendly pdf files. HTML is developed using Notepad (after having tried and discarded HotDog).

Basic Design Principles for the maps:

1. Use solid dark colours for all lines

2. Use plain sans-serif fonts

3. Station names MUST ALWAYS be shown as strictly horizontal

4. Display all station names in Black

5. Route lines are shown as vertical, horizontal or 45 degree diagonal only.

6. Junctions and corners are shown as consistent radius smooth curves

7. Scale is less important than clarity

Since October 2001 this site has been hosted by Comments and feedback: email the Webmaster