An interesting article in the latest Trains magazine (USA) covers the latest addition to shortline operator Iowa Pacific's diverse portfolio of railway operations in America - website
In summary, Union Pacific sold its 31.9 mile (54 km) branch from Watsonville to Santa Cruz and Davonport, California, to Santa Cruz County last year for $14.3 million, after last serving its only freight customer on it, Cemex cement works, in December 2009 when that closed. In addition to the purchase of the line, Santa Cruz County is spending $5 million to upgrade the line. Iowa Pacific was selected by the county to operate excursion passenger trains over the line.
The first Iowa Pacific passenger train was inaugurated using vintage F units on 12 October 2012 and its Christmas week special trains carried 5,000 people. A couple of paragraphs from the article are relevant when considering what can be done with Napier to Gisborne:-
With spectacular coastal views at every turn, railroad and county officials are eagerly planning seasonal and dinner train operations. They also hope to eventually establish a rail corridor linking the San Francisco Bay Area with the Central Coast. But passenger service is only pat of the line's appeal, according to [Iowa Pacific CEO] Ed Ellis.
"We're going to work on every aspect of the freight business here," Ellis says. The new railroad is already serving agriculture and lumber customers in Watsonville where the railroad connects with Union Pacific... A new biodiesel plant is under construction which Ellis says will translate to 1,000 annual carloads. And he isn't counting out the shuttered Cemex plant in Davonport at the northern end of the branch.... The railroad is also eyeing customers north of Watsonville.This is the kind of entrepreneurial spirit which KiwiRail is sorely lacking, not only in respect of the Napier to Gisborne line.
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