New Zealand First says it will commit to a 12-month trial of commuter rail in Canterbury, as well as bringing back the Southerner Train that connected Christchurch with Dunedin and Invercargill, if re-elected.
Winston Peters said the party's ambition was to get passengers from Rolleston to central Christchurch in around 20 minutes by train, instead of spending up to 50 minutes on the road.
He said travelling from Rangiora into Christchurch by train would be faster than driving too. Currently, the KiwiRail train that covers that stretch of track takes about 30 minutes to get from Addington in Christchurch to Rangiora.
It would give Cantabrians a real alternative to sitting in traffic every morning and every evening, he said.
NZ First would work with the current operators of the region's Mainlander train service to secure a commercially sound agreement that gets more trains running, he said.
"The railway lines are already here and the taxpayer owns them," said Peters.
"For decades, they have been passing through the communities without carrying the people who live in them. We believe that should change.
"We are not proposing to spend years and millions of dollars studying whether Cantabrians might catch a train. We are proposing to put the trains on and find out.
"That is the difference between talking about rail and delivering it."
But he acknowledged "a permanent commuter railway can't be built on wishful thinking".
"It needs passengers, it needs to make economic sense, and it needs to demonstrate that Cantabrians actually want it."
He said New Zealand First would give Cantabrians the opportunity to prove it works "in practice, not just theory".
He called for people to use the trains - that would then build the business case for a permanent service.
That would be how the party makes the case for new stations, better connections, and the "long-term investment needed to make commuter rail a permanent feature of Canterbury".