Development West Coast said it was interested in buying the infrastructure and running the train on the West Coast railway network. On 22 December 2017, it was announced that the train would remain in Kingston, and it was hoped that one AB class locomotive would be operational by February 2018. In January 2018, the Mountain Scene newspaper announced that the land of the Kingston Flyer operation would be sold off for property development, but in early February 2018, it was reported that the new owners had "big plans" for the train. At the end of 2018, it was reported that a new operator planned to restart the service "within a year". Current status At the start of 2020, it was reported that the train would be back in service at some time during the year. In May 2020 the new owners stated that their intention to restore the service by Summer 2020. In January 2021 the company applied for an operating consent to run trains again, but stated that it had no timeframe for when that might happen. In April 2021 the Kingston Flyer ran trains as part of Great Southern Train Tour, and in July the operation gained resource consent to operate. Initially the train will run only for group bookings during the 2021/2022 summer season, and will not run to a fixed schedule. Director of the Kingston Flyer Limited, Neville Simpson, stated that the train may run for the public on Sundays "as the engine's still warm." Locomotives and rolling stock The Kingston Flyer has been operated since 1971 by two AB class steam locomotives: AB 778 (entered service in 1925) AB 795 (entered service in 1927 and once pulled the New Zealand Royal Train) From 2000 until 2003, K 92, a preserved member of the Rogers K class that headed the original Flyers, was based in Kingston and operated services both by itself and together with the AB engines. The locomotive was owned by the Waimea Plains Railway Trust and returned briefly during 2008-09 until the bankruptcy when it was recovered by the WPRT and moved to their base at Mandeville on the old Waimea Plains Railway in November that year and where it remains to date. The Flyer also has a resident shunting locomotive, TR 350, a 15-tonne 0-4-0 diesel-hydraulic shunting locomotive built by A & G Price of Thames. This duty had been filled since