Disrupted Highways and Disgruntled Drivers: Restore Passenger Rail

Words by Francesca Pietkiewicz (she/they), Zoë Mills (they/she), and Maia Ingoe (she/her)

Recent disruptive climate protests have riled Wellington motorists, as activists from Restore Passenger Rail (RPR) have blocked roads and glued themselves to highways. 

Five protestors are in police custody after a blockade in which protestors glued their hands to State Highway 1 at Vivian Street last Monday, lasting 30 minutes before police intervention. This followed another protest the week before, blocking Adelaide Road by the Basin Reserve on 20 April, and another on 17 April, blocking the southbound lanes of the Terrace Tunnel. Protestors were arrested in both incidents. 

The group first appeared in October last year, when they scaled the gantry above the Wellington Urban motorway near Bowen street, hanging a bright orange banner reading "restore passenger rail".

A representative of RPR told Salient that the incentive behind these displays of activism are to make the government aware of the crucial need for free public transport and “a passenger rail system” to decrease Wellington’s collective emissions. They say that disruptive protesting is the only way to get noticed: “[We are] taking action which cannot be ignored.” 

“[The government] are knowingly and willingly leading us into an unlivable future. We are on track to hit 2 degrees [global] warming within the next 20 years. We will see crop failure, mass migration, and societal breakdown, so we are demanding that our government act now.” 

Mayor Tory Whanau supports the group’s cause of working toward free public transport city-wide, but disagrees with the “disruptive” protesting style. “Even though I support the use of rail, I do not support Restore Passenger Rail or their protests which are…of great inconvenience to the general public,” she said.

As Whanau believes the civilian disturbance is “unacceptable”, she refuses to meet RPR to discuss their demands. Instead, Whanau says she will “continue to lobby the Greater Wellington Regional Council… the organisation responsible for setting public transport fares.” These fares are a key reason many car-owning Wellingtonians are less inclined to make the switch to public transport.

RPR told Salient they have tried other, less obstructive, forms of protesting, but blocking motorways is what “gets people talking”. “It gets the attention of the government and the media, and it puts the public in a position of needing to have an opinion,” they said.

“The bottom line is that rail is a super energy efficient way to move big numbers of people, it creates very low emissions, and is a technology that already exists that can get people out of planes and cars as we need to do very quickly,” said Paul Callister, a Senior Associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. 

Callister is a core passenger rail advocate and a part of the group The Future Is Rail, previously Save Our Trains. He told Salient that despite being passionate about the cause, the RPR protests are concerning, and that “currently”, he and The Future Is Rail will not “engage”. 

“I worry a lot about who might end up getting hurt, probably accidentally as these are peaceful protests,” he said, mentioning however that RPR as a group “are deeply committed to looking after our planet and future generations.” 

Callister told Salient, “[RPR’s] message does reflect the simple reality that there is overwhelming support for reviving passenger rail... [RPR] methods may not hit the right note with everyone, [but] a great number of people share their frustration that such the obvious 'quick win' of using our existing rail infrastructure is being ignored.”

For now, RPR would like to see the government upgrade the existing passenger rail network, starting with the return of daily services on the Auckland-Wellington and Picton-Christchurch lines. The group have been spotted by Salient journalists on VUW’s Kelburn campus talking to students, and RPR flyers have been found lurking in Salient stands.