In a letter tabled at yesterday's full Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting in the resort, owner David Bryce said the historic steam train had never operated as a viable business from Kingston.
''It would benefit from being in a community where access to volunteers, passionate about steam, could help maintain and restore the set of seven carriages and two locomotives.''
He was willing to work with Venture Southland or the Wanaka National Transport and Toy Museum to achieve his goal to ''preserve the Kingston Flyer for longevity''.
The train has not run for almost two years, and is now for sale for $2.1 million.
Any move out of the district could be enabled by a proposed change to the train's historic listing under the Queenstown Lakes District Plan.
Councillors yesterday considered a report on the district's heritage inventory recommending the Kingston Flyer ''train set'' be downgraded from category 1 to category 2.
As a category 2 item, a resource consent application to remove it from the district could be made.
However, Kingston residents would get a ''direct heads-up'' on the proposal before it was approved for full public consultation as part of the district plan review, Mayor Vanessa van Uden said.
