Styx Station
Extact from a 2011 report:
If the city is going to build rail infra-structure into the hundreds of millions, blogster David Welch argues that money would be better spent on creating a Western Rail Corridor creating a circular route with several spurs.
Building a rail link between Styx and Islington via the Airport would create a commuter rail loop, by linking up the existing single track northern line [blue above] with an added grade separated (no level crossings) double track from Styx [red above] across to the Airport industrial zone continuing south and rejoining the main trunk line with a similar three way junction at Islington.
This adds circa 10 km to those services, feight or passenger entering the city (from either direction, north or south) using the "Via Airport" route but would save much shunting time and complications, link many industrial areas, and put tens of thousands of people within relatively fast rail access of thousands of jobs, even far from home, such as at Rangiora or Rolleston. The lack of level crossings (the rail always passes over or under roads) on this new link would allow both freight and commuter trains relatively fast access, despite the added city access distance, whilst offering an important and valuable chance to keep passenger and freight (which move at different speeds and in different movement patterns) running separately even in peak hours.
Much of the cost of the cost of this extra 10 km track - if found viable by profesional investigation - would presumably be met by Government/KiwiRail as part of the planned "Auckland-Christchurch rail freight corridor", not for the most part out of local rates. This would bring Christchurch into line with Government investment in Wellington and Auckland.
Th photo shows Ab 798, this time running train 68 the morning passenger service from Rangiora to Christchurch, making a spirited departure from Styx in early morning sunlight. In 1967 Styx was a country station with siding and goods shed......now you wouldn't even know a station had once existed there in an area now part of Christchurch suburbia.