Last year, Great Journeys New Zealand announced it would revive The Southerner on May 17-20, but the popular rail route would go from Dunedin to Christchurch instead of originating in Invercargill.
The Southerner was a premier passenger express train that once connected Christchurch and Invercargill via Dunedin, travelling along the Main South Line.
It operated from December 1970 to February 2002 and became a symbol of rail travel in the South Island.
The news disappointed Stephen Luscombe, who believes Invercargill should not only be included in the special service but should also reinstate its train services.
"This service that’s going to operate from Christchurch to Dunedin should not be called The Southerner at all until it comes to Invercargill.
"They should promote a different [name] service for that."
Mr Luscombe said he had been advocating for the return of train services for more than 15 years as they could bring more revenue to Southland through tourism or better connect the region to other parts of the country.
He believed Invercargill was becoming even more isolated with what he described as a lack of public transport as well as connections to other regions.
"Public transport here in Invercargill is a joke and I’m also an advocate of trying to get another airline down here as well because we have now lost our Wellington [flight] service ... We are losing everything.
"I’ve got a lot of people on Facebook [who] are concerned that Invercargill is left out all the time ... [It seems] no-one’s listening to us down here and we are getting very angry down here — we pay our rates, we pay our road tolls, we pay our things, and what services do we get? Nothing."
Mr Luscombe has fond memories from when the Southerner travelled through Invercargill. His first job was at the railway station and he took the service to Christchurch many times.
"We’re in 2025, we should be improving our service, not deleting, deleting, deleting.
"So it means that this place can be making money for tourism from Invercargill because this is the gateway — not Dunedin."
Great Journeys New Zealand and commuter general manager Tracey Goodall said unfortunately they were unable to offer a return daily service to Invercargill due to the length of the journey and the necessary upgrades the Invercargill station would require in order to accommodate passenger services.
"We have therefore made the decision to run the journey as far as Dunedin, offering our guests a fantastic city break.
"The name ‘The Southerner’ reignites nostalgia and happy memories for many New Zealanders, and the offering is carefully positioned to ensure clarity in all our marketing."
She said these one-off tourism experiences would pay tribute to the original passenger service, which in the past consisted of two Southerners— one train would set off from Invercargill and the other from Christchurch.
They would "meet in the middle", where the on-board crews would swap trains to return to their own cities, she said. Ms Goodall also said there were no plans to reinstate passenger services from Invercargill as there was no appropriate passenger access at the station.
"Local councils and the government play a crucial role in funding inter-regional passenger rail services in New Zealand. Without their subsidies, the high costs of running these services would make ticket prices unaffordable.
"As an operator, KiwiRail is open to conversations with relevant councils, the government and NZTA about operating additional passenger services."
Invercargill City Council was approached for comment but was unable to meet the deadline.
