{"id":9270,"date":"2025-09-08T06:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/9270\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T06:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:58:08","slug":"tranzalpine-train-fares-criticised-as-return-trip-for-a-family-nears-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/9270\/","title":{"rendered":"TranzAlpine train fares criticised as return trip for a family nears $2000"},"content":{"rendered":"

Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said he often hears that locals would love to do the journey but can\u2019t justify the price. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be fantastic to have local deals,\u201d Milne said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no shortage of demand without locals pricing, with the route through Arthurs Pass selling out 102 times in the year to June 2025.<\/p>\n

In a statement, KiwiRail said its Scenic Services were \u201cproviding [a] unique experience for mid to premium customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeathHeath Milne, chief executive officer at Development West Coast. Photo \/ Frank Film<\/p>\n

Milne said while it\u2019s commercially understandable that KiwiRail sells to as many premium customers as possible, \u201cit\u2019s likely out of reach for the average Kiwi family\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the peak of summer, a one-way adult ticket costs $289<\/a>. For a family of four, that\u2019s $982.60 each way, nearly $2000 for a return trip \u2013 similar to average economy fares from Christchurch to the Gold Coast or Sydney. <\/p>\n

Regional Tourism New Zealand general manager David Perks said \u201cit\u2019s a familiar story that locals feel unable to see the places we promote so heavily to internationals\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand has more domestic travellers than international, so local prices could be an opportunity for a businesses to attract more Kiwis at off-peak times and spread tourism across communities,\u201d Perks said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for operators to review how they differentiate prices from locals to visitors so tourism can thrive even more than it already does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Differential pricing isn\u2019t unusual for various tourist attraction across New Zealand and the world.<\/p>\n

At the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, international adults pay $70, while New Zealand residents pay $35.<\/p>\n

In Australia, Dreamworld on the Gold Coast has annual local passes available to \u201cresidents of Queensland and Northern New South Wales\u201d, offering them a range of perks and access for A$159 ($177) \u2013 an A$20 discount.<\/p>\n

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said experiences should ultimately be priced on the value they provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe back our members to price their products appropriately to reflect this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TourismTourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram. Photo \/ Alex Burton<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile differential pricing certainly has its place, this is something for each operator and tourism business to consider and implement as they feel is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement provided to the Herald, KiwiRail said: \u201cFrom time to time, we offer a range of local and discounted rates for locals to encourage New Zealanders to experience our world-famous scenic train journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many Kiwis though, the TranzAlpine remains a bucket-list trip rather than a realistic family holiday.<\/p>\n

Rosie Leishman is a Christchurch-based reporter and multimedia journalist at Newstalk ZB. She joined ZB in April 2025, after experience working at the Bangkok Post in Thailand, covering topics from politics, people, tourism and environmental issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said he often hears that locals would love to do the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11689,806,85,4487,802,11687,2109,11686,6562,2082,3011,71,11691,11692,11688,111,43,139,69,3333,1527,11690,11685,11684,1315,102],"class_list":["post-9270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-11689","tag-as","tag-australia","tag-christchurch","tag-costs","tag-criticised","tag-family","tag-fares","tag-flights","tag-for","tag-four","tag-from","tag-greymouth","tag-nearly","tag-nears","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-price","tag-return","tag-scenic","tag-train","tag-tranzalpine","tag-trip","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}