even across the Alps, Steven Joyce mentality prevails

A unit coal train en route for Lyttelton prepares to leave Stillwater.  But you won't see general freight moved like this.

You would think that when crossing the Southern Alps, it would make more sense for freight to be transported on smooth rails through the long tunnel under them than by road over them.  But this is not the age of sense and sensibility - this is the age of Steven Joyce!

When talking to locals in Arthur's Pass, it was clear that they are unhappy about the number of big trucks that now speed through their town, often above the speed limit.  And they are not happy about the ever-increasing deterioration of State Highway 73 a.k.a.'the Great Alpine Highway' that they cause.  The road between Arthur's Pass and Klondike Corner is to be straightened to make it more 'truck friendly'.

When we produced the first edition of On the TransAlpine Trail in 1990, a suggestion for visitors was that they walk over the road from Arthur's Pass to Otira and get the train back to Arthur's Pass.  However, by the time of the last revision three years ago, it was felt that the number of trucks on the road had so dramatically increased that it was no longer a safe thing to do and the suggestion was deleted.

It is hard to see what the difficulty is in assembling containers of freight in a yard, putting them onto rail well-wagons and a train taking them to another yard, where they are disassembled and the contents delivered to the various local destinations.  In fact this is what happens when all goes by road as it is: those 18-wheeler tractor+trailers you see on the highways in most cases aren't what are used to make local deliveries.