Dunedin Railways (formerly the Taieri Gorge Railway) is the trading name of Dunedin Railways Limited, an operator of a railway line and tourist trains based at Dunedin Railway Station in the South Island of New Zealand. The company is a council-controlled trading organisation wholly owned by Dunedin City Council through its holding company Dunedin City Holdings Limited. History Formation The Otago Excursion Train Trust was formed in 1978 to operate excursions on the Otago Central Railway line, running its first train in October 1979. The services grew in popularity and the Trust realised by the 1980s that it had great tourist potential. New carriages were acquired with the "Taieri Gorge Limited" launching in February 1987. On 19 December 1989, the New Zealand Railways Corporation announced the closure of the Otago Central railway line beyond Taieri owing to a lack of freight traffic following the completion of the Clyde Dam. Dunedin City Council then stepped in, purchasing the line as far as Middlemarch and five locomotives, which were then leased by the Trust to run its trains. The Trust continued to operate the Taieri Gorge Limited, now with its own locomotives (DJ class locomotives withdrawn by NZR in the same year), but needed a further NZ$1 million to fund its operations. A community appeal in 1990 raised NZ$1.2 million. The line beyond Middlemarch was lifted during 1991, and the trackbed handed over to the Department of Conservation in 1993. It is now the Otago Central Rail Trail, a major cycling tourist attraction in the area. Local Authority Trading Enterprise On 8 March 1995, the Dunedin City Council (through its holding company Dunedin City Holdings Limited) and the Trust incorporated a new company, Taieri Gorge Railway Limited. Dunedin City Holdings was a majority of shares (72.03%) and the Trust held the balance of the shares (27.97%). The company operated as a Council-controlled organisation (formerly known as a Local-authority trading enterprise) under Part 5 of the Local Government Act 2002. This was due to the need to raise more capital to finance the expansion of the Trusts operation. Dunedin City Council then sold the railway line to the new company, and the Trust sold its locomotives, carriages and other assets to the new company. The company is governed according to its constitution by a board of directors comprising six people. Two of these people were selected by Dunedin City Holdings Limited, two by