It’s certainly frustrating that inter-city passenger services in the North Island consist of one single train – the Overlander – which runs each way between Auckland and Wellington just the once. And even that’s only an “every day” service during the summer months, with the Overlander running just on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays at the moment.
So it’s quite good to hear that there are proposals to operate a train service between Auckland and Hamilton. The opportunity has arisen because the Silver Fern railcars that are now used (very infrequently from what I’ve seen) on Auckland commuter services will be freed up in the next month or so – and could therefore possibly be used by KiwiRail to run an inter-city commuter train between Hamilton and Auckland. This is what the Waikato Times article has to say:
The deal is far from done but a rough proposal is for a service leaving Hamilton between 6am and 6.30am and departing Auckland at 5.30pm. A suggested route is from Frankton with stops at The Base in Te Rapa, Huntly, Papatoetoe and stopping at either Britomart or Newmarket.
It certainly sounds fairly promising, although I am a tad worried that only running one service a day each way will doom it to failure. On the one hand, it makes sense to start small and get an idea of what level of demand is out there, but on the other hand I worry that the proposed times will really make it only useful for one type of user: someone who lives in Hamilton and works in Auckland. Now I’m sure there are people who do that, but at the same time I reckon there are also probably quite a lot of people who might want to take the trip for more touristy reasons, or for business meetings and so forth. Certainly, the road between Auckland and Hamilton is pretty busy throughout most of the day.
I guess one of the main reasons I worry that having only one train each way might doom the service to failure (even if it gets off the ground in the first place) is due to what we’ve seen with the Helensville train trial in Auckland. This operates with really only one trip each way a day (although you can catch the train back from Helensville to Auckland in the evening if you want to) and the super-early departure time from Helensville (6.32am) plus the late arrival time for the evening train back there (7.03pm) means that you would have to be a pretty dedicated train fan to bother with it.
Of course, Hamilton is a much larger place than Helensville, and I think the train trip from Auckland to Hamilton would only take about half an hour longer than the Auckland to Helensville one, but limiting the service to really only serve the needs of a select few people feels rather less than ideal. If two of the Silver Fern railcars were to run back and forth between Auckland and Hamilton throughout the day you could actually end up with a pretty good service – a train every two hours. I think that kind of frequency would truly make train travel seen as a viable alternative for people driving or flying between the two centres (yes, believe it or not there are flights between Auckland and Hamilton I think).
Anyway, there’s a meeting in Hamilton next week to put some pressure on the powers to be to at least stump up some money for a basic-level trial service. That would certainly be better than nothing.
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Wouldn’t it be awesome if the 7 roads of national significance was the 7 corridors of significance. Then all modes of transport would be assessed, allowing projects such as the Auckland-Hamilton passenger service to get funding without all the fuss.
One rail service I want to bring to your attention is run by Greater Wellington (regional council) between Wellington and Masterton (1/8 the size of Hamilton and 100km away). The timetable has 5 returned services operating between Monday and Thursday, 6 on Friday and 2 in the weekends. New carriages on this train have proved the popularity of the services and people have been flocking to take the train. The timetable is integrated with the bus services to link local towns along the route. Using the train to get to Wellington doesn’t have social class issue attached and isn’t run as a social service for those who cannot drive. That seems to be the situation with the car loving Auckland public.
I looked at the original study done for the Hamilton-Auckland service and it compared this proposal to the capital connection which only runs once a day. This is a popular service but is only suitable for commuters and runs during weekdays only. I’m hoping this service and the Hamilton/Helensville (and hopefully more) services would also be expanded to be more like the Masterton example. The Masterton line shows what can actually be achieved by a commuter rail service of this distance and should be a more widely used case study.
Sadly there are painfully short memories on this.
There was a Hamilton-Auckland commuter service until 2001, it carried on average 17 people per trip. The market simply does not exist for this, as it cannot be faster than going by car (which is the difference with the Wellington-Masterton service where the rail tunnel is a significant advantage over the Rimutaka Hill Road).
The Capital Connection is a profitable, commercially viable service, although part of that is due to the large numbers of people going to and from Waikanae, which will be lost when the electrification is extended to Waikanae. The Wairarapa service is not profitable, but is certainly relatively well used – and has a long history, as people know they can live in Featherston, Carterton and Masterton and commute to the Hutt and Wellington by rail easily. It is the locations south of Masterton that really make it worthwhile.
I doubt that many will choose to live in Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Hamilton to commute to South Auckland and the Auckland CBD (not least because so much more of Auckland’s employment is inaccessible by rail).
Liberty, things are quite different compared to 2001. What were petrol prices then – about $1.05 a litre perhaps? I don’t see why the Auckland to Hamilton service can’t become a more successful version of the Capital Connection: in that both Auckland and Hamilton are significantly bigger than Wellington and Palmerston North.
Brent C, yes I hope for something more similar to the Wairarapa service than the Capital Connection: although I think we will need to improve the alignment of the railway line so that we can run trains at 160 kph before it would be really popular. The problem is that the train is just so damn slow.
I’ve always seen Hamilton-Auckland as potential for speed rail (not high speed like Europe, as we will never have the opulation to justify it, but medium speed, like the tilt train in Queensland (see wikipedia QR tilt train) or the Regional Fast Rail project (see wikipedia page) in Victoria.
The latter has resulted in some people moving out of Melbourne into smaller towns linked by the fast trains, like Ballarat. The same could happen to Hamilton, Huntly and Ngaruwahia. Of course train speeds of 150kph plus, and getting from Hamilton to Auckland in less than an hour would be important, but this step is hopefully just the start. Reliability is also very important.
You’d need dedicated tracks within the Auckland urban area for that kind of thing though – as I remember when I caught the Overlander it took forever to get just to Pukekohe. I assume this was because we kept on getting stuck behind all-stopping suburban trains.
A 160 kph service would be pretty popular I think. It would also enable growth of towns along the line as kind of satellite towns for Auckland. There’s plenty of growth potential in Pokeno, Te Kauwhata, Huntly etc.
As well as petrol prices you have to remember that Britomart did not exist at the time. This will be key to the success/failure of this train. It must go via Newmarket to Britomart. There are other factors to consider as well. Passenger rail trips in Auckland have gone from 2 to nearly 8 million a year and growing. The population of Hamilton has grown since 2001. I don’t think it is very unreasonable to suggest it should be tried again, there is no harm in doing so especially right now considering the situation with rolling stock. There are no huge upfront costs due to the availability of the Silver Fern railcars, which will be in better condition than when they were last used on the Hamilton-Auckland trip. One is already being refurbished, including having larger windows fitted. If there is any time to try it now is the time. If it does not succeed the railcars can be sent elsewhere, perhaps on the Overlander. No big loss.
I don’t think the profitability of the Capital Connection is at risk. A lot of people use it from Paraparaumu, probably because they prefer it as it is more comfortable. I doubt it will become unprofitable as a result of electrification to Waikanae.
The Wairarapa service provides certainty to people living in the district. They know they are always going to have the rail service. With the Helensville train, a trial doesn’t provide certainty for development. This is the reason why Wairarapa district is well developed. With the government proposing to bypass towns north of Hamilton, they have uncertain futures. Without providing these services, people would have to drive long distances everyday to get to the city and are likely not to bother.
I am aware of the situation with the Rimutaka Hill Road, but due to the rail service, access and development to the district is just as good as anywhere else, if not better. Access is also an issue along the captial connection route, making the service work better. However due to expensive motorway projects, travel between Hamilton and Auckland, transport has been dominated by the automobile.
People also like to use rail as they can work, read and relax. That’s time lost when having to focus on driving a car. But the speed and quality of these service is often affected by cost cuts and the lack of decent infrastructure. Companies in Palmerston North use the service when sending staff to Wellington as it cheaper and more reliable.
One would have to wonder whether two rail lines would soon get congested with the growth? and would the ministry of transport would fast track a third and fourth track? I guess I can only dream of the day.
You generally only need to provide 3rd and 4th tracks when the services you’re operating have different stopping schedules – so clearly a necessity for decent express and inter-city services. If all the services stop at all stations then you can get some pretty amazing capacity out of just two tracks: the RER A line in Paris carries around 1 million people per day yet it’s mainly (or solely) double-tracked.
I think there are plans to add a 3rd tracks between Westfield and Papakura in the reasonably near future – due to conflicts between freight traffic and passenger trains. I can imagine with 5-10 minute frequencies for passenger trains on that part of the network in the future it will be pretty difficult to squeeze a freight train through.
In the longer run, for a Hamilton to Auckland service to be fast enough to be REALLY popular I think we will need a dedicated express track throughout Auckland.
One train a day sounds very hopeless. It only meets a VERY specific trip combo – considering the earliest departure after the one arrival is 8-9 hours later usually. Are we sure this kind of commuting should be encouraged anyway?
For an interurban service, a lot of the passenger base would be day trippers to the larger city (from Hamilton) or to Hamilton (from Auckland), none of which it would serve. Hence I’d say such a service would just be a waste although it might be good for railfans, an ideal trial service might be like the Welly example mentioned in other comments.
Have read this blog for a while but not commented. Do I know you Jarbury, if you can’t work out who I am then think who is between L1 and L3.
Who is between L1 and L3???? Well L2 is the obvious answer.
Do you mean in real life or off the net? It’s fairly easy to work out who I am in real life as my name is on the blog.
I was asking if you could recognise my name that I use on a few forums (CBT, SSC), that’s what. I’ve remembered your identity from those.
Ah yes…..
L2 (from SSC) and Somebody (from CBT) are the same person. Interesting!
Do you know what the condition of the tracks at that end is? I did the Overlander this summer, and things were terribly slow (14 hours) – never again. If the trains run at 90kph, then there’s no point. If they’re doing 120 or more, it starts to make more sense.
Also, 6-6.30 is far too early in the morning to do it. Go at 7-7.15, be in Auckland in an hour, and people still get to work by 9.
And yes, this starts to make a compelling case for 3rd tracking the North Island. Auckland-Hamilton would be a good start, and give you more flexibility. Or even just fixing the existing tracks so that delays are avoided. They last had any decent money their way in the 1980s, and it shows.
My general impression of the track condition, when travelling on the Overlander in January this year, was that the closer you got to Wellington the better. I guess that shows the contrasting attitudes of Auckland and Wellington to the railways over the years.
I do think that the Auckland to Hamilton service might be viable as proposed. But if the trains could be MUCH faster, and run more frequently, then I think it could be enormously popular. Should we be weighing up the cost of improving the NIMT between Auckland and Hamilton with the cost of building the Waikato Expressway I wonder?
George, you might be amazed by the proportion of people who have to be at work before 9…
Even so, if they were able to do the trip in an hour, they should have no excuse for leaving at 6.30 or earlier.
I lived in Hamilton for a couple of years 2002/3 while at Waikato University; I rode a bicycle around the city most of the time, although I wish they’d had the bus system then that they do now. There were always various shows, events etc in Auckland mostly in the CBD, that were appealing, but without staying overnight, mostly likely in some god-forsaken suburb, it wasn’t viable to go to them. If could have gotten to Auckland in the early evening, then returned after a show that would’ve been great.
So,I would go with jarbury’s wish for a Wairarapa type service, rather than a Capital Connection type…especially in light of his follwing blog post regarding Resilient Cities.
I think the main point of difference between the two is that a single train each way only provides for one type of commuter (and provides fairly poorly for them actually). Trains at two hourly intervals throughout the day would provide for a whole range of people – and therefore potentially be much more popular. After all, the marginal costs for running extra services (as you already have leased the trains) must be relatively low. If you get a liquor license you could probably make a decent amount of staffing costs back on selling beer & wine.
I live in Hamilton and drive through to Papakura and catch the express train (when on time each day). It takes appoximately 35 minutes to complete approximately 35km’s by train, so the ride from Hamilton to Britomart, in theory should be just over an hour. Of course, the faster the train goes, the better it would be from a time point of view.
I guess we also need to look at what we hope to acheieve – cost cutting from a petrol and car maintenancce point of view? I do 1000km’s a week, and believe me, catching the train would be a welcome change or is it time saving, etc?
The way I see it, something has got to give – NZ is not as advanced as other parts of the world and the reality is that we will never be able to be up there with our transport system. Lets help them trial with baby steps and as I have heard, the demand is there!
As I catch the Silver Fern, for the record, they have removed some carriages for the trial already.
Thumbs up and hopefully will keep u posted 🙂
Wow 1000 kms a week – your fuel bill must be pretty impressive! Hopefully there are a reasonable number of people like you Rayna who would use the service. I’m not sure when we hear whether or not it goes ahead – hopefully soon.
Funny you mention that, we actually downgraded our car for fuel efficiency and get 650km’s to the tank, so that would be 3.5 days travel. Not too bad.
Yeah, I do hope that we will hear soon!
I have done that regular trip from the North Shore to Hamilton and back a good number of times this year and I would for sure use a train if it could just get into Hamilton at a reasonable time. There also seem to be a fair number of people going the same way from the amount of traffic 🙂 I’m also aware I could do a lot of useful ‘stuff’ with that travel time instead of driving. Safer too.
Do any surveys of actual travelers get taken does anyone know? If a typical days worth of travel was sampled, I suspect there would be a good number of people using that route.
We’re starting to build in a few months at Hampton Downs, and given the growth at Te Kauwhata (Springhill Prison, the motorsport park at HD, new subdivisions at TK)surely Environment Waikato has to give some real attention to the train services.
I intend to commute to my office in Khyber Pass (Newmarket or Boston Rd/Hospital stations) and at the moment that means a drive to Pukekohe or to Papakura to catch a train, whereas an express between Auckland and Hamilton stopping at Te Kauwhata, Mercer or similar would be fantastic.
With the prison, and the expected daily population of the Motorsport park within 3 years (see http://www.hamptondowns.co.nz), surely a daily train service starts to make sense. In my own company, we have three people going the other way each day, commuting from Auckland to work in London St in Hamilton.
In the 8 years since the service has ceased petrol has increased significantly in price, the traffic is heavier, the “green movement” has more traction and aside from all that I would rather sit and work on my laptop on the train, than have to focus all the way from home to work and vice versa.
Who do we start lobbying?
Yes I think that the service is much likelier to be a success now than back in 2000/2001. The CBT is distributing around leaflets promoting the link throughout Hamilton in the next few weeks I think. To drum up some further support and get Environment Waikato to stump up with the needed cash.
What better way to grow the smaller towns than a decent commuter service. It works well everywhere else in the world. I would both choose to and be able to afford to live in somewhere like huntly and commute to auckland. Others probably too. Wouldnt better travel options be at least a partial solution to housing crisis??