Edited 20 Jun 2016 12:30, 5 years ago, edited by DalyWaters

  Keep the sets as they are.   Source a spare powervan, and 1 or 2 other cars.   Then when you have a serious defect, use the standby set that you ensure is always full serviced and then be prepared.

I don't know if they are still there but Lower Hutt Workshops of New Zealand Railways had a heap of British Mark ? cars that they were in the process of converting to narrow gauge commuter cars.  I believe they had many more than they needed.  the conversion jobs they did with the cars were superb.

As a quick fix, why not buy a few cars from them  and get NZ to refurb them for long distance running.  They would easily comply with loading gauge and, if not already scrapped, there should be ample high speed standard gauge bogies to come with them.

The only problem I would forsee is that they would show up the long distance cars that run services to the rest of the state.