The last inter-city rail service on New Zealand's North island has won a reprieve after being scheduled for closure on 30 September 2006.

A few days before the service between Auckland and Wellington was meant to make its final run, operator Toll New Zealand said it would continue on a reduced timetable.

From October 2006, the Overlander will run three days a week - on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The service will go back to seven days a week through most of summer and into autumn, when passenger numbers are at their highest.

After Easter, it will drop back to three days a week.

Toll chief executive David Jackson said the company will speak to key people with the aim of putting in place a clear plan for the future.

Toll spokesperson Sue Foley said the company has listened to public opinion but the public had to support it.

Regional councils along the line refused to subsidise the Overlander although Auckland Regional Council said it would promote and market it in New Zealand and overseas.

The government minister who arranged a £300million bail-out of lame-duck Air New Zealand five years ago refused to fork out less than £1million to save the Overlander.

The Labour government’s finance minister Michael Cullen – born in London – claimed there was “not much future for rail in New Zealand” and would not hand over money to save the Overlander.

New Zealand’s Greens however championed the train.

Green MP Sue Kedgley questioned how the loss of the North Island's only long-distance passenger rail service fitted in with the national rail strategy which is supposed to retain the existing rail network and maximise its use.

She said the Overlander was one of the great train journeys of the world, comparable with journeys through the Swiss Alps and the Canadian Rockies.

Its owner, the Australian company Toll NZ, announced plans in July to abandon the service on 30 september 2006, after 97 years of direct passenger rail services between the two cities.

Toll which runs a profitable freight operation in New Zealand said the passenger service was losing £600,000 a year.

Toll acquired the operations business from Tranz Rail Holdings which by 2003, had already axed the Auckland-Rotorua Geyserland Express, the Auckland-Tauranga Kaimai Express, the Auckland-Hamilton Waikato Connection, the Wellington-Napier Bay Express and the Christchurch-Invercargill Southerner (cut by then Tranz Rail associate Tranz Scenic).

The Overlander though still offers a world-class rail experience through heartland North Island.

The 12-hour journey is a big tourist attraction along 400 miles of track, with 352 bridges and 14 tunnels, as well as the Raurimu Spiral up to Volcanic Plateau.

The Government is already losing support in public opinion polls. A public petition was raised to save the service and town mayors along the line appealed for government intervention.