At the start of this year work was happening on the MNPL line which continued until the end of January and then work was switched onto the Main North Line, followed by the Kinleith Branch, North Auckland Line, then parts of the Main South Line around Dunedin. Then we had a look at Hamilton on the NIMT, followed by a significant chunk of the MSL within Canterbury. The next section to be looked at was the Cromwell Gorge.
At the start of June, work was begun on the Christchurch specific project in conjunction with some of the other areas that we support, and the Midland Line work was started towards the end of that month. Since then, work has alternated between Christchurch and the Midland Line.
It seems a good move right now to push ahead to complete Volume 9 for the Midland Line over the month of August, alternating with the Christchurch specific project as necessary.
In terms of the overall project and its goal to have all 12 volumes completed at a basic level by the end of this year, that hasn't really fired, however neither has the alternative preference of completing any volume at all. We are now substituting an alternative schedule, which is to prioritise the South Island volumes of which we have six, to be completed first at whatever level seems appropriate, which will be more than basic. This includes revising Volume 7, the Nelson Section, with inline yard layouts and other detail using the aerial photography we previously obtained, which was put into an appendix at the end of the most recent edition of the printed volume.
However it is possible to work on the North Island maps by using WMTS to pull in live aerial layers of any area without the extensive work that is needed to download map layers for offline use, so using this to complete any area of the North Island to the Basic level that we proposed could make it happen a lot faster than has been the case to date.
The priorities have shifted from first completing all of the maps to the Basic level in 2019, to completing as much as possible of the South Island at intermediate or comprehensive level before completing the Basic maps in the rest of the country. Some intermediate or comprehensive work of the North Island will continue throughout next year, especially for the Palmerston North Gisborne Line. Basic maps for North Island areas will also continue this year but we can't say how complete that will be by the end of 2019 at this stage.
