44 comments

    1. Matt already took George Thorogood’s advice and got his hair cut but now needs a real job…somebody employ the poor sod!

      1. No, nobody employ him please! He’s doing far too much excellent work for the blog and Auckland PT to be wasting his time on earning a living 🙂

        1. How about someone who has a bit of money pay me to run the blog, that could work. Any wealthy readers out there who would like to contribute towards it.

  1. Certainly the best video AT have produced so far; a quantum leap from the slightly cringe-making (I’m looking at you Mr Brown) effort for the CRL. Might have something to do with the evident intelligence of those speaking. Complementing Matt, it was great to see the kids obviously engaged in realising the benefits of electrification. Wonderful stuff.

  2. Never heard a carriage referred to as a ‘saloon’ before. Conjures images of onboard roulette wheels with a cocktail bar in the corner, en route from Onehunga to Britomart.

    1. Saloon in the term used for the public seating area on a train, as opposed to the drivers cab or other non-public sections you may have in a carriage.

      When I hear it I think swinging doors and cowboy shootouts!

  3. You’re a star Matt!

    I liked the text floating in mid-air during the city flyover. Very Fringe. But without the alternate universes.

  4. Electrification has absolutely nothing to do with National, unless you think that it’s a miracle that they didn’t cancel Labour’s earlier decision to, finally, allow it to happen, after four previous National cancellations.

    1. Sorry, I must try to make my sarcasm seem more obvious, I was referring to the revist of the new train’s tender process which stretched out the train arrival date.

  5. I mean not “good work” in terms of looking different from what I had imagined, good work for what you said on the video.

      1. Funnily enough, all the contributors on this blog are decidedly normal looking. At first glance you’d assume we were all normal, rational, non-obsessive people 🙂

  6. Anyone notice the CGI train @ 0.53, with some design tweaks? Different paint job, circular headlights, and the bodywork at the driver’s cab seemed more streamlined, and not as angular as the mock-up. Is this an inaccurate rendering, or has the design been revised after feedback?

    1. Dollars to donuts they have cribbed that from another CAF project in Europe somewhere.

      It has the first cabin marked with 1st and 2nd class areas, (complete with a change in the colour of the seating) – so unless AT are not telling us something about their future expansion into classed travel , I am quite happy to just treat it as a generic render, that is not actually directly related to Auckland at all….

  7. Also note the ‘2014 – 2016’ date. Does this mean we’ll be jealously observing the first EMU be tested for 4 to 6 months before we get a ride?
    Another note, Is Britomart to be electrified over summer, or in a mid year (Easter?) shutdown.

      1. Right! Well, I stand corrected then. Will be nice to see wires coming out of there. Wonder how far out from Britomart the wires will get to by the end of the Christmas shutdown…

        1. They might as well have something to do up there as once the CRL is built they’ll be running on auto anyway, hey let’s give them an espresso machine and some barista training….

        2. Now you’re talking. TGV style food bars next? Maybe Snop was offering a good thing when it allowed you to buy more than just the train ticket.

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