Some potentially good news in a NZ Herald article today on the proposed Hamilton to Auckland railway service.
KiwiRail has agreed to present a proposal to Hamilton City within weeks on a trial daily passenger service to and from Auckland.
“We are refining a proposal to run a service using the Silver Fern railcars between Hamilton and Auckland on a trial basis,” spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said last night.
As far as I know the main thing holding this back still is whether Environment Waikato (the regional council) will stump up with some money to help run the service. Hamilton City Council, whose job doesn’t actually technically extend to funding public transport services, seems fairly keen on the idea and may even come up with a bit of money themselves. There has been a bit more pressure put on Environment Waikato in recent times to stump up with the funding, so hopefully it’s not an impossibility.
The proposed service is looking a bit better now too: not just one train from Hamilton to Auckland in the morning, and another one back in the evening:
He said the proposal would be based on two return services daily which, combined with the long-distance Overlander, would offer Waikato residents three trains a day to Auckland.
Mr Macpherson said that if KiwiRail could produce a scheme the council could afford, the trial could begin late this year or early in 2010, with trains possibly stopping at Huntly, Te Kauwhata, and Papatoetoe (for a bus connection to Auckland Airport) en route to Britomart or Newmarket.
While that “…or Newmarket” is a bit worrying (the service will be a failure if it does not go right through to Britomart), having an Auckland to Hamilton train leave Auckland at around 9am, and a Hamilton to Auckland train leaving Hamilton at around 3pm would be really useful for people in Auckland making day-trips for business or other reasons. I certainly hope that is what is meant by two return services daily.
The whole idea seems pretty popular with the locals too:
Although the Environment Waikato regional council failed to include a rail service in its list of three-yearly funding applications to the Transport Agency, 85 per cent of about 700 Hamilton residents told a city-sponsored survey they believed it would be a good idea and 43 per cent expected to use it.
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How long would a train take to travel between Auckland and Hamilton? Distance? How fast are trains allowed to go? Competitive with car travel?
I think the Silver Fern trains can do the trip in about two hours.
According to the timetable the Overlander takes around 2 1/4 hours. It is incredibly slow between Te Kauwhata and Pukekohe.
I think it’s important all PT expansion is successful over the next 2 1/2 years if you know what I mean…
I know exactly what you mean Jezza. As a public transport advocate, I think we’re going to be pretty reliant on oil prices increasingly significantly too. That seems like the one thing that might change National’s minds that throwing most transport money at new motorways is a silly idea.
I have no problem with National focussing on increasing NZ’s economic output, its something I think was a weakness in Labour’s term… What I have a problem with is that it will be at any cost i.e. not sustainable, include privatisation of essential services and will not take into account obvious future events… All of which will actually see us go backwards economically long term… Other countries get it and I think they are going to force us too as well but how far are we going to fall behind in the meantime..?
Yeah, and the resurrection of Don Brash hardly bodes well in that respect.
“He said the proposal would be based on two return services daily which, combined with the long-distance Overlander, would offer Waikato residents three trains a day to Auckland”
The Overlander is a tourist train and has different pricing as it costs $5 more to catch the train between Wellington and Palmerston North. It also stops at limited stations. I think that tranz-senic could possibly get more patrons if it advertises the service for more local travel with a lower cost (eg, Auckland to Hamilton). At least the costs could match on the different services which really only offer the same product.
Do you know who will be operating the service?
The Overlander also only runs 3days a week in the winter (2 of which are weekends) meaning over summer will there be 3 trains a day but in winter there will be only 2.
I hope they are trying to tell us something by saying there will be 3 trains a day in regards to future plans for the Overlander
I don’t think Trans Scenic would really want to encourage Auckland-Hamilton trips on the Overlander anyway, as they’d only take up a seat that could otherwise be filled by someone doing a Auckland-Wellington trip. Unless there are a significant number of people who do Hamilton-Wellington trips.
Couldn’t Tranzscenic simply add another carraige and leave it it Hamilton to be picked up by the return train? Also, I know in some countries one simply stands if there are not enough seats…
Also, although not directly relevant here, Tranzscenic’s 3 day winter service meant that on Queen’s Birthday weekend this year, you could take the train on the Friday before the holiday (and the Sat/Sun), but not on the holiday Monday or on the Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday following the holiday…pretty piss-poor if you ask me.
I do hope that the Overlander returns to 7 day a week service pretty soon. Anecdotally I have heard it’s been pretty busy this year.
I cant see how the train terminating at Newmarket is a big problem. Yes it would be better to go into britomart, however britomart is near full capacity untill it gets turned into a through station, and Newmarket has plenty of transfer options. Why not just transfer at Newmarket untill Britomart becomes a through station?
Most people would want to travel to Britomart, so I think having to change trains at Newmarket may well put them off using the service. The Auckland-Hamilton train could run as an extension of the current Pukekohe express train – so there is a slot there available potentially.