The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five-year trial, through to April 2026. However, that was subject to Waikato Regional Council and Waka Kotahi continuing their funding, and this is currently being decided as part of the council’s Long Term Plan process – and under a new government that repeatedly opposed and mocked the service while in opposition.
The Regional Council’s Future Proof Public Transport Subcommittee last week received a report about the service’s performance. Despite the first few years being hit by COVID lockdowns, and more recently having to navigate the various unreliability issues on the Auckland network, the service is indeed performing:
A two-year review of Te Huia, the Waikato to Auckland passenger rail service, shows it has delivered or is close to delivering all the targets set by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi Board (NZTA).
The interim performance assessment completed by Waikato Regional Council, is due to be discussed at this week’s Future Proof Public Transport Subcommittee and will go to an NZTA Board meeting later in May for a decision on continuation of the five-year trial based on current rates of subsidy.
The review of the service is based on the January 2022 to December 2023 period, due to Te Huia being impacted by the extended COVID-19 lockdown in Auckland in its first year of operation.
The report found that patronage growth is strong, with average demand targets of 250 passengers per weekday and 100 passengers on Saturdays being exceeded every month.
The farebox recovery target of 15 per cent is close to being achieved, noting the national average is 11 per cent and Te Huia has a 25 per cent lower subsidy per passenger kilometre than the Auckland metro network.
Evidence provided in the assessment shows that rail provides a more consistent journey time than the road for passengers between the two metropolitan centres. Transferring trips to rail also reduces the number of car trips in both regions.
Based on Ministry for the Environment emissions data, once there are 55 passengers on board, Te Huia services have a net emissions reduction effect. This is now achieved on around 80 per cent of all trips per month.
That’s pretty good. A lot of fuss was made by National and others about the size of the subsidy on a per-trip basis, which forgets that the trips are also very long. It’s useful to note that the subsidy per passenger kilometre is similar to – or better than – other public transport services. The only reason Te Huia has to be treated so differently to other public transport in the first place is because of weird rules that dictate public transport should only be funded within a region and not across arbitrary regional boundaries.
However, if you were only to read the headline from Radio NZ, you’d think the service was failing badly:
Te Huia on track to miss targets for passenger numbers
As the saying goes, the devil is in the detail – and this particular devil goes by the name of NZTA.
But there was a fat red line through the summary of targets.
In 2022, NZTA said instead of aiming for an average of 250 passengers travelling on a weekday, there should be 400.
Waikato regional councillor Angela Strange said those targets were set by NZTA staff, not the NZTA board.
“Our understanding is that the board approved the 2018 numbers. The amended targets did not actually go to the board so we are basing our figures on the initial targets,” she said.
When the new targets were set, Waikato Regional Council said they would be difficult to meet without extra investment, which could have come from the budget which was not spent during Covid-19 shutdowns.
But NZTA said no.
Strange said it was a chicken-and-egg situation.
“We know we wanted more services to prove the case, they said ‘you have to prove the case without extra services’.”
We know many within the agency have never liked Te Huia, but changing the targets part way through the trial – while also denying the use of previously approved funding – is just underhanded. It certainly sounds like the kinds of trickery that highway planners have played for decades.
Even so, Te Huia is starting to see usage approaching the new target:
Weekend ridership is looking good too, highlighting that this is far more than just a commuter service.
I wonder how much higher usage would be if the service hadn’t been disrupted for so much of its existence.
There have been quite a few other articles recently too, some paywalled:
Supporters, doubter make calls over continued Te Huia cash
Waikato political heavyweights have lined up to support continued funding for the five-year Hamilton-Auckland Te Huia passenger rail service trial ahead of a key meeting this month over its future.
and
Hundreds meet to save Te Huia as decision day looms
Hamilton’s Te Huia rail service may not have much time left, but its supporters were out in force to remind officials it’s not just about commuting to and from Auckland.
More than 200 people, the vast majority of whom support the service, turned out in Hamilton on the weekend to discuss its future at a meeting held by the Save Te Huia organisation.
There are still plenty who don’t support it, such as the Waikato Chamber of Commerce, who seem to think that the Waikato Expressway is all that’s needed. This position is backed up by some pretty dodgy analysis, and is seemingly unaware that even if you can and do want to drive to Hamilton, you still have to get through Auckland first.
InterCity buses also seem likely to be hoping Te Huia gets cancelled:
InterCity buses poised to pick up Te Huia passengers
InterCity buses says it’s well-placed to bump up services between Hamilton and Auckland if Government funding is pulled for the Te Huia rail service trial.
Te Huia is far from perfect, but it has steadily improved since it began, despite many (and ongoing) disruptions such as the rail network rebuild. It should be given till the end of its five-year trial. And longer term, it should really be treated the same as any other public transport service – rather than as an anomaly, like it is today.
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“Intercity Buses ready to bump up services if Te Huia fails” hmmmm are they ready to install toilets, wheelchair access and cafés as well? How about safety interlocking in case of heart attacks or micro sleeps by drivers? All Te Huia really needs in my opinion is more stops, Te Kauwhata, Pokeno, Tuakau or Pukekohe and Newmarket or somewhere at least closer to CBD for connections to rest of the network.
Intercity were also National Party donors I believe.
To be fair, as a user of both services from time to time and a non-car owner, each one has its benefits and place. The train is (often) slower and less frequent, though infinitely more comfortable and accessible. Being able to take your bike to Auckland is fantastic, and if Intercity could offer a decently priced option for this they could compete very well overall. Cafe and toilets are nice to haves although on a trip of under 2 hours not a huge deal for many people.
Cost is hard to compare as Intercity uses variable pricing. Not having to pre-book tickets is a bonus for the train. I suspect one thing going against Te Huia financially is the fact that a lot of patronage comes from Gold Card users, so in a sense is a further government subsidy.
I really hope we can keep as many options open as possible. Guys like the Waikato Chamber of Commerce rep are backwards and have a narrow vision of our society today.
I use both too but that might change if InterCity are going to undermine rail. I’d boycott them for such unhelpful work.
Rail and coach are complementary, and InterCity are being greedy and short-sighted to have this position. InterCity would benefit hugely from being able to base its operations around a strong, frequent regional passenger rail system. The modeshift to both rail and coach would be significant.
Absolutely! Avoid the motorway with a quicker way out of Auckland, jump on the connector bus to Rotorua/Taupo/Tauranga/Thames. Sounds like a more reasonable journey than leaving in a bus from Auckland CBD on a Friday afternoon.
Of course, this would require a shorter travel time on the train, too…
Intercity are much more expensive than Te huia, the cheapest adult fare is $20 plus the sneaky “booking fee” of $5.50. So $25.50 but most trips are charging much more than, look at their website. Also charge the same to Manukau as they do to the CBD, another hidden charge compared with Te Huia. In fact it’s only competition from Te Huia that has forced them to offer the $25.50 fares. They are an unregulated private monopoly
They’re only more expensive if you get rid of Te Huia’s taxpayer subsidy.
Intercity makes a profit from their fares, Te Huia doesn’t.
It’s a price gouging private monopoly. Te Huia is the only thing forcing them to charge reasonable fares, especially considering the often trash quality of their stifling piss your pants enclosed cramped boxes. The Commerce Commission is nowhere to be seen with this monopoly. I guess they fly everywhere.
Well said.
Te Huia was (I use the past tense deliberately) designed for Waikato people to travel to Auckland. Waikato Regional Council contributed to the service; Auckland Council did not.
The Capital Connection between Palmerston North and Wellington offers just 10 services (five each way) a week but seems to have a long-term future with new hybrid trains hopefully arriving in 2028.
It’s a pity the Hamilton-Auckland route only has a past and really that was a long time ago.
Keep up with your service/quick and simple is better more stop may be good for some but will take longer commuting
Buses take longer more risky and go through every potholes and bends. Sometimes drivers are more wreckless when running late endangering all passengers and public ⛣
This week InterCity have halved their Auckland-Wellington day buses, cutting out the faster early morning bus. Are they really serious about increasing Auckland-Hamilton buses?
Firstly it needs to be allowed to run on Sundays, public holidays and long weekends. During the Christmas NY holiday period it’s locked up in the shed for a month. Same over Easter. The service is missing out on thousands of riders just from this alone. Despite that and all the other stuff it is doing very well. It must be given a full five year trial, is that really too much for a first world country like NZ?
To do that would require Kiwirail to stop the Auckland rebuild. So the millions of commuters would be inconvenienced so Te Huia would run? I don’t think so!
That’s the problem, isn’t it? A gold plated service which requires huge government subsidies ($280 per trip as of last year if I recall correctly when you add up the 5-year OPEX).
You don’t need toilets, cafes, or anything of the sort with such a short trip.
Intercity provides a service which gets you to Hamilton in 100 minutes rather than 160 – and this is what passengers care about.
I love taking the Western line to work but Te Huia just isn’t it.
Jack, for me, at my age, a two hour trip would be impossible on public transport without toilet facilities.
I realise you may be in a younger age group and have yet to deal with the challenges of ageing but this is not a matter to be taken lightly.
Please don’t be so dismissive of what might seem a trivial issue.
Hear hear. The trail should be for the five years as originally planned. The trip I s much more pleasant than driving and car worship in this country needs to change
What happens when the bus gets stuck in traffic? Are you really that out of touch? It’s even spelt out in the report above, consistency in train travel times compared with the lottery on the southern motorway.
Zippo – this was the Expressway on Sunday 10/3 in the Afternoon heading back to Auckland between Onehinewai and Rangariri and even the Northern Explorer passed everyone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ElIfU1nL4a
A consistently slow journey is inferior to an inconsistent yet fast journey.
I go between Auckland CBD and Hamilton for work quite often, and have caught the train twice – never again.
The train will always take 2 hours 40 minutes no matter what, while I’ve at most spend 2:20 when driving, and that was with a crash by South Auckland.
Adding the fact that the Hamilton station is in the middle of nowhere, and you see how viable this form of public transport really is.
You’d need to convert the line to enable ~200kph operation, shift the alignment, and build a new station in Hamilton just to make it competitive with road transport.
> just to make it competitive with road transport.
Jack, for a lot of people it’s already competitive with road transport, please ask people who do ride on it for the reasons why they prefer taking it. You’ll be surprised how different other people experiences are from your. Thanks!
Alexis – the current patronage isn’t sufficient. I’d much rather hear from the masses why they drive and why they take the Intercity bus – a profitable form of public transport.
It’s convenient for few at the expense of many.
The points I’ve heard so far is that people either live in Frankton, check emails on the train for work, or require the train’s facilities. 300 people per day and 75 per train isn’t a whole lot when there are 20,000 people using the expressway.
> Alexis – the current patronage isn’t sufficient.
> 300 people per day and 75 per train
Your numbers are pretty old now, and there’s ~200 seats on the train, they’re almost always all full by now. Please do not demand weird things like forcing people to stand the entire ride, and do not even move the goalposts, please. If you want to demand higher patronages, please tell the Capital Connection cough up another train for Te Huia from their stables, thanks.
Anecdotal evidence isn’t the same as statistics, look at the graphs above. I can see patronage between 300 and 450 per day with 4.8 trains running per day. That’s not full at all – not even close.
The reason we have traffic on our roads is because they’re so good, ideally the train would be the same, with everyone cramped intially before forcing the government to add more services
I’ve rechecked just in case — the number of 200 is too high, the seating capacity is actually much lower of that. The current whole capacity of the service tops at the 450 daily on monday-thursday due to the seating.
Overall though, patronage continues to be trending upwards.
> That’s not full at all – not even close.
How much do you want??? Do you understand what’s the actual daily capacity? Like, specifically, what would constitute “full” for you? And then looking at the current capacity of British Rail Mark 2 carriages?
You said yourself that there are 200 seats on the train. Therefore, accounting for 4.8 trips per day, it would be good to see daily passenger numbers exceed 900, where NZTA and Waikato District Council would be forced to fork over more cash for higher frequency services. People standing on a train is a good problem to have, which means that there is real demand for that route which can be captured.
No, it’s much less than that, I misestimated from memory. It averages to around ~35 on each carriage
147 seats on board. Therefore at least 700pax/day would represent a successful service.
https://www.tehuiatrain.co.nz/faqs/on-board/
Yeah, and then we look at the graph below “Weekend ridership is looking good too, highlighting that this is far more than just a commuter service.” and see the rightward column being already >500 with all the promises to grow further.
And the “Even so, Te Huia is starting to see usage approaching the new target:” graph too.
So make it a weekend only service? No matter how you frame this, trains are running half-empty because there is no demand. You only take it once every week or two, I’ve taken it twice and gave up on the idea, while many others look at the journey times and don’t bother.
The week of 22/04 had ANZAC day on Thursday, of course you’ll see recreational travel on Friday. It will be back down for the next period again unfortunately.
> while many others look at the journey times and don’t bother.
I implore you to finally get outside your car-centric bubble and literally ask real people who are riding the trains.
The 300 people living in cities of 1.7 million and 165,000 respectively.
I know why they like the train, but I also know why others don’t – and that’s the real issue. We need more people taking it rather than patrons convincing each other that it’s the next best thing since sliced bread.
Jack, It’s a “Starter trial” service. To get this good patronage with all the shortcoming and issues is proving it’s viability to go forward with incremental improvements.
Journey time (like you say) and lack of city centre ending points probably the main thing holding it back. Adding some much needed stops like Pokeno & Te Kauwhata would also boost it’s usefulness.
David L, re the video – The train on that trip sure was a good self advertisement.
How come you get to decide that this is good patronage? It’s the classic budgeting trick – set your target to something you will achieve rather than what you should achieve, and voila – you just secured funding for the next budgeting period without breaking a sweat.
I mostly consult for council regarding built environments (don’t work at Intercity as you assumed below) and have seen what “incremental improvements” look like in that sector. In short, a farce allows those in charge to get what they want now – while promising and never delivering on major improvements down the line.
There’s currently no plan to move the starting point from Frankton or to speed up running time by altering the alignment. If a robust business case showing the benefits of doing this (and I’m sure there are plenty) is presented, I’m all for it. Getting to Hamilton CBD from Auckland CBD in under 90 minutes on the train would be wonderful and I’d use it anytime I needed to go to Hamilton. However, it seems like what we get is a half-assed service which is useful for some and paid for by many.
If anything, this trial has shown that there are people who would take the train no matter how long it takes due to comfort/accessibility/etc. It’s a shame we already knew this as a result of having the old Waikato Connection and its predecessors 20 odd years ago – a service which ran faster and had around 100 passengers per train. If I recall correctly, this was set to grow by 5% p.a., meaning that we should be getting around 320 passengers per journey today. We’re going backwards and another trial won’t fix that.
Jack, you’re doing a farcical goalpost moving. This is, honestly tiring.
A consistent patronage of 700/day would be great – I haven’t moved the goalpost.
Grant claimed that this is just a trial so it can afford to have fewer, but I disagree since a trial has been done many times before and this one hasn’t gathered any new meaningful insights which weren’t already known.
“147 seats on board. Therefore at least 700pax/day would represent a successful service.”
How did you calculate your figures Jack? That 147 is total, not each carriage.
I calculate with every seat filled on every service for 6 days there and back would be 686. Suggesting 700 is pretty unreasonable, not many if any PT services are maxed like that across all times and days, and if so it should get more funding to provide more services.
147×28 runs = 4,116, divide by 6 days for average daily = 686.
@Jack
“Getting to Hamilton CBD from Auckland CBD in under 90 minutes on the train would be wonderful and I’d use it anytime I needed to go to Hamilton.”
It’s important to keep it going as there is plans or some sort to build a station under the shopping centre getting built in Hamilton. This could be funded or partly by the shopping centre, like Sylvia Park was.
Haven’t had time to see if there has been an update on this since April 2021:
“Tainui Group Holdings (TGH) and Kiwi Property announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture over Centre Place North to the New Zealand stock exchange on Thursday.
The $71 million initiative paves the way for the creation of a new heart for the city, including numerous new stores and a proposed multi-storey office development in the vacant space on the corner of Victoria and Ward St.
The agreement will revitalise the mall and will include investigations into “reactivating” one of the country’s first underground train stations.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/124715107/underground-rail-station-in-central-hamilton-could-be-resurrected-as-part-of-major-mall-revamp
See also the Regional Rail document on this site which was done before this but mentions redeveloping the station – needs four tracks from the current one.
147 pax per train seated, multiplied by 4.8 avg trips per day gives you 705.6 maximum seated daily patronage, or 588 Mon-Wed and 882 Thu-Fri.
I calculated using weekday trips since the scheduling was more consistent and that’s how the targets are set, but your estimate of 686 is close enough to not matter.
You’re right, if there was such high demand we would need to increase funding and provide more services – but that’s a good thing. Meeting latent demand leads to an economic equilibrium and everything functions better, both from a social and economic point of view.
Most PT services aren’t maxed like that, but they also don’t run at specific times of day to maximise demand nor do they try to compete with profitable commercial operators.
I’ll restate my previous comment: this trial is merely repeating the Waikato Connection and those services before it. There’s no reason why a real decision should be made – either we upgrade the service with a real station in Hamilton and high – or at least higher – speed running, or we can the service altogether.
If the shopping centre train station gets built, great! Reevaluate a business case then and see how it holds up. Don’t run a sub-par service with the hope of it improving in the future while doing nothing at all.
Keeping it going for another two years is questionable when there is nothing more to learn. Either there is demand or there isn’t, and is the low demand caused by the quality of the service or the viability of the route? Once you figure these things out it paints a clearer picture of what to do moving forward. However we probably know how this will end – Te Huia will get scrapped come July and another “trial” will spin back up in 20 years with an even slower journey time to rub it in.
Lots has changed since those other Waikato services ran Britomart & electrification on the Auckland network. To be honest, especially now in retrospect having Covid, this blog said the service was a bit early mainly due to not being able to enter Britomart, Pukekohe electrification & pre CRL. Insisting that I think it would be foolish to can it now given two of those factors will be completed in two years. It takes time to build patronage especially with so much bad press on the mattter.
Build one or two more stations in the meantime and see the pax rise.
Te Huia is in essence three 50 seat coaches linked together traveling on a ‘steel’ road and not subject to traffic congestion and disruptions on the Auckland Southern motorway and the constant maintenance of the Waikato Expressway.
Yet you fail to mention that even in a worst-case scenario, it will be slower than via the expy even without adding in a bus from Frankton to where you actually want to go.
Jack, in the case of cancellation, I will buy a car and become one of many people that will slow down the expressway even further.
By also doing a big trade-off that the car will demand ~3-4 hours of attention from me on a day I’ll need to make a Hamilton-Auckland trip, and therefore I’ll become a tired menace on the road for you.
It’s just that simple. Do not measure everything in simplistic terms of “faster/slower”.
It’s much slower than it could be due to rail works and congestion in Auckland. Just the Papakura Pukekohe electrification project has slowed Te Huia by 15 minutes or so. In reality, even with the current ancient rolling stock, the train could do the trip in around 2 hours. This is why the trial must continue because many of the rail upgrades are nearing completion which will substantially improve the Te huia service.
Did you even read the article at all? As said:
“A lot of fuss was made by National and others about the size of the subsidy on a per-trip basis, which forgets that the trips are also very long. It’s useful to note that the subsidy per passenger kilometre is similar to – or better than – other public transport services.”
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I4x3KbBBqjyrwyvQksvaesiDrFSW7uiRpAj0Qdwfyhw/edit#gid=527389994
Also, at current patronage levels, subsidies are around $65 per passenger. Not my calculations, got them from a Reddit thread.
Those operating costs don’t include unrecoverable CAPEX incurred during the establishment of the service. Building a station in the middle of nowhere and acquiring old trains isn’t something that will be useful moving forward.
However, it doesn’t really matter if it’s $200, $77.65, or even $50 – the point still stands. If Intercity can do it and turn a profit, so should Te Huia. I can book a ticket for between $20 and $60 for next Monday – depending on what time I need to get to Hamilton CBD. It’s absurd that Te Huia would need to charge more than their highest fare just to break even and provide a slower service while doing so.
The reason why public transport can be subsidised in a city makes sense – it is objectively better during peak traffic, allows those who don’t have parking (like me) or those who aren’t old enough to drive yet get to work and get around, and ultimately boosts economic activity. There is also no competition from private operators so if AT decided to get rid of their bus routes tomorrow, people will be physically unable to get there without driving. Regional transport has more vague benefits and I’d guess the BCR of Te Huia is <1.
Intercity merely existing and offering its services at the current prices decimates the case for Te Huia unless you're an avid rail fan, love wasting time, or want a gold-plated service that suits everyone.
I understand Gary's comments above regarding how some people have different needs, but public transport is for the masses. We can't afford to gold-plate services to increase pax by five, two, or even one per service.
> decimates the case for Te Huia
No, it absolutely does not. The intercity buses are pretty inaccessible and are horrible to take, and were basically a monopoly that forces people endure long shoebox trips. If they’ll even decide to update their buses and make them a little more bearable – then okay. But after I rode them multiple times — never again. I’d rather get a car and be a tired road menace than endure again the impossibility to even pee.
You claim that a bus is horrible while saying that a car is better. They’re fine and likely have fewer CO2e per passenger than Te Huia does at the moment.
If tomorrow, both Intercity and Te Huia were forced to charge the exact break-even price ($80 and maybe $20 respectively) which one would you take, assuming that you couldn’t buy a car?
Now then, is the accessibility of the train and convenience of having a bathroom worth $60? Maybe for you it is, but the 300 daily passengers will mostly disappear, not even mentioning any sort of passenger growth.
> which one would you take, assuming that you couldn’t buy a car?
I really really prefer being able to chill out safely with a laptop on the desk. I cannot do that on InterCity, at all.
I’ve already been forced to take more expensiver but faster flights on AirNZ from Hamilton to Palmerston North for example, because Intercity is that bad, and money savings from taking Intercity do not make it worth it at all. I really prefer not developing cricks in my neck.
It’s all comfort. Te Huia is comfortable, AirNZ/Originair is faster and is comfortable too. These goddamn shoebox buses? No.
Great, so you would be happy spending over 3 grand a month on your commute – the majority of my salary.
It’s fantastic that you can afford such luxuries, but the average New Zealander and Te Huia patron cannot. The difference currently subsidised is almost entirely a deadweight loss.
Like, I’m not kidding, it’s easier to fly from Hamilton to Wellington and take Capital Connection to Palmerston or book a $300 flight on Originair; though I gotta acknowledge that I can afford it, while others can’t. But the Intercity buses are _that_ bad, yes. 11 hours shoebox ride…
> over 3 grand a month on your commute
You’re making assumptions. I travel to Auckland around once per week/two. I’m mainly answering to your weird question of “what would you take”, which did not mention that it would be _daily_. If it would be daily, the reasoning would be different too, including moving to Auckland. However, really not a lot of people take Intercity and Te Huia daily, for multitude of reasons, and this should be noted.
Turn’s out Jack must work for Intercity…
Joking about you working for InterCity 😉
The train is not really a competition for InterCity, as someone already commented, but can help build non-car mode share with complementary connections & synergy of the network as a whole.
Excerpt from that article linked at bottom of the post:
Sarah Thomson, a councillor from Hamilton city – which put millions of dollars into a Rotokauri station to support Te Huia – was also adamant the service should stay.
“It would be a massive loss to New Zealand Inc if we were to lose Te Huia.”
Waipā’s deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk asked “why wouldn’t we continue?”
“The trends are very, very encouraging and we’ve got to start somewhere.”
It can easily take 100 minutes to just get out of Auckland, let alone the rest of the journey!
Te Huia avoids congestion and actually decreases congestion by taking cars off the road (saving on road maintenance in the process). NZ is about the only developed country that I can think of that doesn’t have regional rail (except for Te Huia). Even Ireland has just gone and installed and restored passenger rail all over the country.
You’re right, at the absolute worst afternoon peak the journey times are comparable, and only if you exclude to/from Frankton. What about any other time?
NZ not having regional rail is a symptom of our population density. Ireland is 3x and thus it’s more viable.
> NZ not having regional rail is a symptom of our population density.
Ah, a classic “chicken and egg” problem again. Parts of Australia have a fair bit of successful commuter trains despite even less population density, so it’s really not a valid argument.
There’s other countries that have less population density too, for example Norway, with just 15 people per square kilometer. It has a well-developed railway network.
Even the United States understand the benefits of having Amtrak, despite having very high automobile ownership.
Bang on.
People like Jack is why NZ is quickly becoming a farcical backwater of a country. Ok it takes 2 hours 40 mins but you know it will always take that long so you can plan it. When it finally gets back to Britomart with electric trains it will explode with patrons and be quicker.
Given the amount of data available from across the world and even NZ’s own past, there is no reason for Te Huia to still be on live support. It should be a permanent service now.
As for buses, NZs long history of them alleging to be better then rail, and then disappearing soon after the rail service shows that to be a complete lie.
A bus is a poor poor cousin of long distance rail.
The actual problem with 2 hr 40 mins ride is that it’s actually artifical, forced onto Te Huia by AT and Kiwirail. It actually can run much faster, under 2 hours, but what you can do with AT…
Talking of Ireland, Dublin and Cork are similar in size to Auckland and Hamilton, though further apart. Trains depart each city every hour. Same thing with Sydney to Newcastle and Wollongong. Unfortunately NZ’s not allowed good PT because we tend to follow North America rather than Europe.
The difference between Norway, Ireland etc and NZ is not really density. Its just ideology. They invested, we didn’t. They have great services, we don’t. We chose to subsidise driving, but not rail. It’s really that simple.
They chose to do it. We chose not to.
And when we finally do invest to get good services, we (likely) cut it because it’s not world class and making a profit from Day One (Te Huia). We will never have the services of Norway and Ireland if we don’t invest in the future. The best time to invest was any time up until today. The next best time is tomorrow.
Jack – Te Huia is not slow in theory. It is currently slow along the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor due to speed restrictions imposed for the rebuild of the rail corridor for CRL plus it doesn’t have priority over AT Metro train services.
Remember, the 3rd Main rail hasn’t been completed and ETCS level 2 is currently not operating. Once 3rd Main rail is completed and ETCS level 2 is operating, Te Huia will be faster along the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor.
Outside the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor. Te Huia has been clocked on average of 98kph and depending on the driver to 108kph.
With regards to your comment – ‘You’d need to convert the line to enable ~200kph operation, shift the alignment, and build a new station in Hamilton just to make it competitive with road transport.’ the estimate cost of upgrading the rail corridor between Pukekohe to Te Rapa is $3.2 billion to track speeds up to 160kph, with electrification and high capacity ETCS (European Train Control System) level 2.
With regards to your comment about Frankton Station, both the Waikato Regional Council and Hamilton City Council is aware of the issue and suggestions has been made to provide bus transfers between the Transport Centre and Frankton Station.
There has been suggestions to use Hamilton Central Station located near the Transport Centre but due to high frequency of freight trains passing through the station, it is impossible to terminate at Hamilton Central, so the service would need to terminate at Ruakura which earmarked for increase urban development.
The key is that the government is not going to invest in rail even though it is proven to have a higher benefit to cost ratio than building roads does.
With the Government halting and dismantling rail in the 90s it’s no wonder that our old engines on our old tracks aren’t able to go as fast as they should be able to go.
Remembering that this is a bare minimum service that is operating under constraints due to a lack of CAPEX expenditure into the upgrade of the line. Then it does pretty well.
And yes Auckland Didn’t want the service because they’re Auckland and think they’re better than everyone and “who would ever want to travel from Auckland to Hamilton” well guess what Aucklanders are using Te Huia to come down to Hamilton. So are we going to get them to start coughing up money?
You also have to remember that this started just before COVID and got shut down. All kinds of travel are still recovering from the change in travel behaviour from COVID, not just the trains. So when we look at the totality. We see a service that was slated to never succeed by the powers that be, achieving some remarkable results given the lack of Funding and Support from Auckland Council and NZTA. Imagine what it could do with the right support and the investment into upgrading the rail lines and trains.
It’s also about the reduced environmental effect that running the train does compared to having 250 extra cars on the motorway
And think about it this way. The more people you convince to use the train. The smoother and less congested your drive to Auckland will be.
Intercity Bus service from Hamilton to Auckland is disgusting. I misread the Saturday timetable last month and missed the 9AM trip back to Auckland on Te Huia and had to pick up an Intercity bus. I was pleased that it wasn’t full and the driver didn’t talk the entire time, but when people upstairs filled the entire bus with cigarette smoke for most of the journey I decided I’d never go again. After that was a mad dash in the rain to my ferry connection. Just a miserable experience. It’s as bad as Greyhound busses in the US and that’s really saying something.
I really wish that they would have invested in more services on Te Huia, and that Auckland saw it as a service for Aucklanders who wanted to go to Hamilton. I’ve really wanted to use the service but the fact that there is no train back on Sunday afternoon means it’s no use for a weekend trip to see my friends there. Even so, I want to see it continue!
Yep! Not to mention the state of the toilets at Sky City. I was going to ride to Kaiwaka, turns out it was $70 plus booking fee, so I got to Sky City and went to buy ticket there. They still wanted a booking fee!?? Wtf I caught a local bus to Wells ford and got a lift the rest of the way. Total price $10 from memory
I think you may have forgotten a title here
Yes, I agree more services & connections closer to the CBD would vastly increase the patronage & travel experience for the Te Huia railway network. A change in attitudes by Local & Central Government would make a big difference. Give Regional & Local authorities the power to improve this rail service. Government must prioritise growing revenue & passengers over cutting costs & not dictate transport policy from Wellington.
Intercity is part owned by KKR a USA based investment fund. Having worked and driven both modes I can assure you just for safety I’d rather ride by train. Safety interlocking, (in event of micro sleeping or heart attack) better
maintenance and well trained drivers for one. Ritchies were a horror story for both driver hours and maintenance, it could only be worse with overseas owners, who are only interested in profits. The Capex for building new stations being lumped into overall cost of service is creative accounting at it’s best. The station “in the middle of nowhere” hmmm really? There’s a transport hub that gets a footbridge over railway and a host of other public utilities that wouldn’t otherwise have been built. All Te Huia needs now is better connectivity with the rest of the network including buses in Hamilton and the rest of Auckland network.
It would be good if Auckland Council could support this service to some degree. Currently the timetable allows a very short day trip from Auckland to Hamilton on weekdays only. Patronage would improve greatly if the service was set up to work well in both directions.
It would make a lot of sense. More than a fifth of passengers are from Auckland. Probably a far higher percentage of passengers who use it ‘occasionally’ are Aucklanders, too. We have less need of it for commuting, but we have significant need of it for trips away.
I have a meeting in Hamilton next week running 12-4. I would take the train if I could, but the timetable doesn’t allow it.
Yes need to move eventually to an hourly frequency.
For Easter I caught a bus to Napier, as no trains could take me there. I wanted to take Te Huia back from Hamilton to AKL, but with only two to three trains per day, not that helpful for travelers. We need more train journeys, not less, and anybody who catches trains knows this.
I suspect that our current prime minister is more of a catcher of planes than trains, so perhaps he should have some meetings sitting on trains?
I am an Aucklander with little reason to visit Hamilton, but we should all be connected.
Trains are the safest, fastest, and most relaxing way to travel. They always were and always will be.
Too bad we live in a Pacific Milk Powder Colony 🙁
bah humbug
You can’t trust National when it comes to rail. They’ve even gone as far as mentioning private coach companies (such as Intercity) do the job better. Even with NZ First in government, who had been a voice for rail transport during the last Labour government, will unlikely influence the final decision.
Meanwhile patronage continues to outperform expectations, including a record 794 passengers who travelled on April 26, the day after ANZAC Day.
New Zealand First have completely dumped on rail this time round. Can’t be trusted to run a bath
The shite in charge will not last a full term, even in NZ’s too short election cycle.
Just have to weather the storm until then.
Te Huia might not survive, I’m still afraid. Though after sacking this lot we might be able to get new dual-mode trains to answer and repair their ideological destruction.
Grown up countries (and indeed a number of 3rd world countries too) would just bite the bullet and invest in modern, well functioning passenger rail over a key route like Auckland to Hamilton – we all know that passenger rail works well all over the world, New Zealand is no different.
What’s needed is a fleet of new hybrid trains, similar to trains being developed for the lower North Island. New hybrid trains will be able to access Waitemata (Britomart) station when the CRL opens using overhead electric traction, this station has two terminal platforms which could be used for this purpose.
Te Huia also needs additional stations, (Claudelands, Hamilton Central, Ngaruawahia, Te Kauwhata, Pokeno etc) and an expended timetable to make the route more attractive and flexible to users.
Eventually services should be extended to Cambridge and then to Tauranga.
New Zealand could have a fantastic asset here, all it needs is the political will, central government leadership and a plan for staged improvements.
“we all know that passenger rail works well all over the world” – there are obviously many factors to consider, for example:
– Most people in NZ own cars and there is a competing expressway which is almost always quicker
– Are there enough potential users to justify a higher frequency, or is it always going to be once a day and of very little overall benefit?
It’s already more than once a day and the Expressway is not almost always quicker.
Yes, Jimbo’s comments show the kind of myths that can be banded around on these sorts of things.
OK but I wasn’t far off. The service has an estimated running time of 2 hours 40 minutes from Frankton to The Strand. Google shows the same trip typically taking 1 hr 20 min to 1 hr 50 min by car at 6AM on weekdays. Yes an extra return trip was added 8 February 2024 that I was unaware of.
I don’t really have an issue with Te Huia, but before we spent more money on something better we’d need to know that a lot more people will use it. Billion dollar plus investments need a very large user base.
Chicken and egg though, Jimbo.
“There are no roads to this greenfield development. Before we built any, there should be at least this many people from that neighbourhood driving to and from their homes.” – said nobody ever.
I own two cars, live near a motorway NZ could only dream of but still use rail where I can as it’s so less stressful. No worries about pollution, parking, congestion charges, accidents, road rage, and I can enjoy a beer too without endangering myself and others.
Claudelands is on the East Coast line. No line to Cambridge. An industrial spur stops at Hautapu. Tauranga yes but keep going to Mount Maunganui. Then you have multiple options for Auckland trippers not to mention Waikato trippers.
Is only a matter of relaying 4km of track to Cambridge CBD and then upgrading the existing branch – easy
And this is how we should be doing it. Piece by piece.
If its good enough for the regional highways, to break up the cost and make it seem more palatable, it should be good enough for rail.
Of course, a continuation of the railway line from Cambridge to Tirau and then on to Rotorua (via a reopened line from Putāruru) would be super.
Not that anyone has the appetite for building railway lines at the moment 🙁
The is all part of the Waikato Rail Network initiative. Task at present is to get Te Huia funding for the next 2 years.
“Grown up countries (and indeed a number of 3rd world countries too) would just bite the bullet and invest in modern, well functioning passenger rail over a key route like Auckland to Hamilton”
Yes, *even Australia* would sort this out no problem.
The chamber of commerce review (unless I missed something) didn’t take into account the cost of buying a vehicle, plus the operating costs of maintenance and insurance. However these costs are included in the Te Huia service so i dont think its a fair comparison.
They divided the entire cost of the project including the Rotokauri bus station and pedestrian overbridge, by one years patronage.
Oops I didn’t write that very clearly, what I meant to say was their comparison to the expressway was ridiculous given they only took the road costs into account but ignored the fact people need to buy and maintain cars to use the expressway. It’s not really possible to fairly do a proper side by side comparison like they attempted so they made the expressway seem artificially cheap and the train artificially expensive.
It’d be interesting to see how much super gold card passengers are contributing to the low 14% farebox recovery. i.e. what would the equivalent recovery be if they were fare paying.
The government must reimburse the operator for those?
Reimbursements for SuperGold card users is bulk funded yearly.
The 14% farebox recovery statistic includes the SuperGold and Community Connect reimbursements. The ticket sales only cover about 7% of the operating cost.
Calculations here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I4x3KbBBqjyrwyvQksvaesiDrFSW7uiRpAj0Qdwfyhw/edit#gid=913383324
I live in Hamilton, and if I need to go to Auckland, the first thing I check is if I can make the trip via Te Huia. I will be going this week. I may not be a regular user, but not having to drive and being able to get some takeout and eat dinner on the ride home are really nice. I would really like to see the 5 years played out as originally agreed. Give the service a chance! The only part I don’t like is that last train service arrives in Hamilton after 8pm, and Hamilton city buses end their service at 8pm on weekends, so I still need to drive to and from the station.
In my mind the five year trial should really be extended to seven years anyway because it started up in between the COVID main lockdown periods.
Regarding Hamilton’s public transport. I have noticed how it has improved quite a lot over the recent years, but I agree it needs a later night service.
I see that great “Orbiter’ route runs frequently, “, with services operating at least every 15 minutes on weekdays between 6 am and 6 pm. Services operate every 20-25 minutes outside of these times.”
I would suggest on the weekend they should at least run this flagship service as well as their “Comet” & the “Meteor” (great names BTW) past at least 9-10 pm at a 20 min frequency.
It’s all these “little” factors that can make a big difference to usage & mode-shift in the longer term.
It is being worked on. At the moment is to get more ‘bums on seats’ and additional funding to improve Waikato’s Hamilton urban ‘metro’ and regional bus services.
Justin – it depends where you live in Hamilton.
Te Huia schedule arrival at Rotokauri is 8.07pm (Monday to Friday) connects with the following bus services to Hamilton transport centre:
– 8.15pm 9 Nawton with a schedule travel time of 26 min
– 8.20pm M1 Meteor with a schedule travel time of 32 minutes
– 8.30pm C1 Mahoe Comet schedule travel time 23 minutes
Te Huia schedule arrival at Rotokauri is 8.02pm (Saturday) connects with the following bus services to Hamilton transport centre:
– 8.05pm M1 Meteor with a schedule travel time of 32 minutes
– 8.11pm C1 Mahoe Comet schedule time 23 minutes
If using the Orbiter services the following connect with Te Huia schedule arrival at Rotokauri at 8.07pm (Monday to Friday) :
– 8.15pm Clockwise
– 8.15pm Anti Clockwise
ahhh yes, was looking at Frankton times. Maybe a bit tight if the train is delayed? But perhaps the train is early on Saturday’s particularly. I’ve only used it once to Frankton, but have enough on my Bee Card already to do another.
The bus departure times have been designed for Te Huia arrival at Rotokauri.
There is padding in Te Huia timetables, so in most cases Te Huia arrives early into Rotokauri.
Delays is caused within the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor.
On the subject of “unachievable” targets being set by National as go/no-go thresholds for providing funding, I seem to remember the same tactic being used by the John Key government on the City rail Link proposal. “Let’s set an unachievable target of 20 million trips per year on Auckland’s rail network before we fund the CRL (so we can hopefully kill it, hehe)”. Well 20 million trips was exceeded and Sir John Key stayed true to his word and ordered his reluctant govt to fund the CRL.
Let’s hope the same thing happens with Te Huia. Hehe.
Yes indeed. the more optimistic theory is that they are just trying to push for all that they can out of the service so a win-win for everyone.
One thing for sure is this press is perhaps good advertising, if you haven’t tried it out yet and new users, now is a good time in case it is canned.
You can get off at Rotokauri and catch a bus from there. The buses from there meet the last Te huia service.
Zippo – Correct. Te Huia schedule arrival at Rotokauri is 8.07pm (Monday to Friday) connects with the following bus services to Hamilton transport centre:
– 8.15pm 9 Nawton with a schedule travel time of 26 min
– 8.20pm M1 Meteor with a schedule travel time of 32 minutes
– 8.30pm C1 Mahoe Comet schedule travel time 23 minutes
Te Huia schedule arrival at Rotokauri is 8.02pm (Saturday) connects with the following bus services to Hamilton transport centre:
– 8.05pm M1 Meteor with a schedule travel time of 32 minutes
– 8.11pm C1 Mahoe Comet schedule time 23 minutes
Surely once the wiring to Puke is done, works will stop and it might enable (a call there and) higher frequency.
And if bimode stock was procured for the Wellington region – it would be perfect here too (AC/DC fun aside but perfectly manageable) – for a run under the wires and thus into Britomart.
Just doesn’t seem enough of a fair go, and it’s tracking positively. And with CRL, general usage and rail interest will spike I’m sure. Another few years and I think it would become a settled thing.
Every train is many cars off the road. Why won’t people get that?
Yes, “Every train is many cars off the road. Why won’t people get that?” Totally agree. Also, by reducing carbon emissions. The Government needs stop switching money from KiwiRail’s freight & passenger rail Infrastructure to only funding roading projects that are designed to only suit mostly one occupant drivers on our roads.
Great post & agree with the thoughts of most commenters so far.
The Future Is Rail community-led group/website has a current campaign to “Protect Te Huia” see https://thefutureisrail.org/te-huia
Think this sums up what I agree should happen to ensure long-term viability:
– Faster speeds
– Hybrid electric trains
– Termination at Britomart
– Stations at Pokeno, Tuakau, and Te Kauwhata
They are having a public meeting at the Pokeno Hall this Sunday 2:30 pm which I might attend, ironically hard to get there due to public transport options that would take me about 2 hours in each direction with limited weekend buses. There are Intercity options at higher prices but because they follow SH1 during the “return to city Sunday afternoon heavy traffic” (incl. motorway works), I think it won’t be that much worse going via the 44 bus to Pukekohe then the 394 bus to Papakura bypassing all that.
You need Ngaruawahia too. If it’s regular enough, you’ll see patrons take the train from Huntly and Ngaruawahia like they used to until the service was axed by previous closed minded NZ Rail and govt figures.
Train to Hamilton that is, functioning as a proper rail service.
Martin – Not at the stage. There is no platforms at Ngaruawahia so there is costs to build them. Whilst Ngaruawahia is seeing population growth, it is not enough for current Te Huia services to stop at Ngaruawahia, as there is on average 5 people boarding at Huntly.
That’s due to it not being an actual Waikato suburban service. When patrons near Hamilton see it as a viable option to head to Hamilton for work, shopping etc, those two satellite towns will generate significant custom.
Ngaruawahia and Huntly are becoming part of Hamilton’s ‘metro’ in regards to public transport.
Longer term I would see all the North Waikato towns & Pukekohe on an hourly all stopper service in both directions. ie: Stops at:
Central Hamilton (*Frankton until possible)
*Rotokauri/The Base (start/end point)
Ngaruawahia
*Huntly
Te Kauwhata
Pokeno
Tuakau
(then into Auckland region)
Pukekohe
*Papakura
*Puhinui
Waitemata/Britomart (*Strand if not possible)
* = current stops
Then, for a slightly more premium price an express service each way, leaving at these times:
6:00am, 7:30am, 12:30pm, 5:30pm & 7:00pm
Central Hamilton (*Rotokauri until possible)
*Huntly
Pokeno
*Puhinui
Waitemata/Britomart
Good even spaces, keep it really express & sounds like the Auckland Metro service will offer some form of express from Pukekohe & the other Drury plus Paerata stations.
Maybe swap or add in Te Kauwhata if it grows bigger in population than Pokeno.
There need to be weekend morning trains FROM Auckland as well. Personally I’d visit Hamilton more often if I could get there on a weekend by train.
Te Huia is Kiwirail’s vision for regional passenger rail in New Zealand, yet the service has become everybody’s whipping boy for the wrong reasons.
Te Huia train is becoming an important component in Waikato’s regional public transport network, giving 30% of the Hamilton’s metro population and communities on the Hamilton to Auckland rail corridor who, for what ever reason, do not own or have accessible to a car and want affordable, accessible travel between Hamilton and Auckland despite claims by Te Huia’s critics there are frequent coach services between the two centres.
Like with Te Huia’s Wellington cousin, the Wairarapa Connection train, operating between Wellington and Masterton, being a passenger rail component in Wellington’s regional public transport network, both trains have high subsidies.
Te Huia is the only fully subsidised inter-regional passenger train service in the country.
Te Huia fleet consists of three 143 seat 4 carriage and locomotive sets of which two are used for normal operations and one set being a back up for any emergency.
With two operational train sets, Te Huia can operate a schedule of 4 return services per day Monday to Friday, 3 return services on Saturday, 2 return services on Sundays and public holidays excluding Christmas Day, Good Friday and New Years day.
To achieve the schedule, one train set would need to be based in Auckland at Kiwirail’s Otahuhu depot being in essence overnight stabling and crewed by Auckland based crew. All maintenance will still be undertaken at Te Huia’s Te Rapa (Hamilton) maintenance facility. In a recent concept schedule, allows for train sets to switched at Frankton for maintenance with out any service disruption.
Those who travel on Te Huia regularly, prefer a limited stop service with stops at Rotokauri important bus/train interchange, Huntly, Te Kauwhata (future station), Mercer (a future station with connecting bus services to Pokeno, Tuakau, Port Waikato and Pukekohe), Pukekohe can be added once the station is fully operational, Papakura, Puihinui and The Strand.
The future of Te Huia is good, once the upgrading off track between Papakura and Pokekohe is completed towards the end of 2024, ETCS (European Train Control System) level 2 is introduced 2024/2025 allowing for faster speeds along the Auckland ‘metro; rail corridor and Auckland is integrated into the national ticketing system 2025/2026 allowing for seamless payment of travel between the Waikato and Auckland regions.
By the way, Te Huia is in essence three 50 seat coaches linked together traveling on a ‘steel’ road and not subject to traffic congestion and disruptions on the Auckland Southern motorway and the constant maintenance of the Waikato Expressway.
The only part of the service that needs limited stops is in Auckland. In the Waikato it should service every major town it passes. There is ample slack on the lines to increase speed to make up for the extra stops.
More stops = more users = better value for money.
Tuakau is such an obvious candidate. It has a station site just up the road from the high street. It has never been developed and is there for the taking. It could be reopened as an island platform. The total cost would be about $5 and it’d reconnect the town with Pukekohe and beyond.
Darren Davis wrote about this last October in much more detail and it’s worth re-reading.
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2023/10/19/new-train-stations-for-the-upper-north-waikato/
> With two operational train sets, Te Huia can operate a schedule of 4 return services per day Monday to Friday, 3 return services on Saturday, 2 return services on Sundays and public holidays excluding Christmas Day, Good Friday and New Years day.
It would be great to see them actually run this frequency!
Earlier services to Hamilton would unlock day trips from Auckland to Hamilton, Sunday services would enable weekend trips either way, and Public Holidays would also get a lot of usage.
It really feels like a chicken and the egg situation – it won’t get the usage unless they invest in the additional services.
ETCS L2 is not currently funded and is unlikely to be in place till the early 2030s
ETCS L2 is funded for the Auckland ‘metro’ rail network due to the CRL.
You can see the ETCS cabinets as you travel between Pukekohe and Papakura.
The current ETCS L1 wouldn’t cope with the planned high frequency of AT Metro trains being planned once CRL is fully operational.
An interesting comparison is too look at the investment made by the State of Victoria in Australia. Ballarat and Bendigo, which are smaller cities than Hamilton and are located similar type distance from Melbourne, as Hamilton is from Auckland, have at least hourly services throughout the day. https://www.vline.com.au/Timetables/Train-coach-timetables
Some of the issues with Te Huia is it didn’t have enough investment at the start. There needs to be more stations on route and it needs to work for people from Auckland to get to Hamilton and back in a day whether that is for work, business or pleasure.
The lack of track capacity in Auckland which means it will catch up to the passenger trains in Auckland which average just over 50km/hr with stops. This means slower journeys. Ideally the journey time even with extra stops should be less than 2 hours, ideally 1hr 45 minutes. This would make it reasonably cost effective for a 2 hourly service throughout the day with 2 train sets.
Charles
The slow time is a major limitation at the moment. It takes 2:40 to travel the 140km route, which is only 53km/h. This also means the services have to leave really early and arrive quite late.
Getting the speed up to 70km/h (with electrification and new rolling stock) would enable 2 hour journeys, e.g. leave HAM at 7am and arrive in AKL at 9am, which would be much better for commuters.
Te Huia is not slow in theory. It is currently slow along the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor due to speed restrictions imposed for the rebuild of the rail corridor for CRL plus it doesn’t have priority over AT Metro train services.
Remember, the 3rd Main hasn’t been completed and ETCS level 2 is currently not operating. Once 3rd Main is completed and ETCS level 2 is operating Te Huia will be faster along the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor.
Outside the Auckland ‘metro’ rail corridor. Te Huia has been clocked on average of 98kph and depending on the driver to 108kph.
You need to travel on Te Huia more 😉
An interesting comparison is too look at the investment made by the State of Victoria in Australia. Ballarat and Bendigo, which are smaller cities than Hamilton and are located similar type distance from Melbourne, as Hamilton is from Auckland, have at least hourly services throughout the day. https://www.vline.com.au/Timetables/Train-coach-timetables
Some of the issues with Te Huia is it didn’t have enough investment at the start. There needs to be more stations on route and it needs to work for people from Auckland to get to Hamilton and back in a day whether that is for work, business or pleasure.
The lack of track capacity in Auckland which means it will catch up to the passenger trains in Auckland which average just over 50km/hr with stops. This means slower journeys. Ideally the journey time even with extra stops should be less than 2 hours, ideally 1hr 45 minutes. This would make it reasonably cost effective for a 2 hourly service throughout the day with 2 train sets.
Charles
Oh, I took the train from Melbourne to Bendigo and back yesterday.
I caught the 07:02 from Southern Cross; it arrived in Bendigo at 08:57. The fare was $10.60.
The train was a three-car DMU and was quite full there and back. Many passengers, including secondary school students, got on and off at intermediate stations. (At one there was a sign BEWARE OF SNAKES featuring two slithering serpents.)
Southern Cross is not a healthy place to work or even pass through.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-06/melbourne-southern-cross-station-air-pollution-data-revealed/103486852
Anyway, we will still be able to enjoy regional rail travel – not just between Auckland and Hamilton.
Still utterly crazy that Kiwirail hardly talks about the Fourth Main. Everyone knows it is needed but until it has been through the guts of a business case, it simply “cannot” be mentioned.
They should be planning to do it as soon as the third main is complete; not sitting around playing paralysis-by-analysis.
They should have been done together. Think how much money has been wasted by deliberating, talking about it and then ripping up permanent way just put down for the third line. Good ‘ol backwards NZ.
No one should be surprised about NZTA being damp on Te Huia – it’s fundamentally a roading organization, being the current for of what was once the National Roads Board. It’s also phenomenally an advocate of trucking, as well as all other things that run on roads, but not bicycles…
It is a complete travesty that it has anything to do with rail in any shape or form, but it is judge, jury and (sometime) funder. If that role belongs anywhere it should be with a revamped Ministry of Transport. Currently, both organisations are blinkered roading and trucking advocates. A bit like the trucking lobby group Transporting New Zealand, which seems to have had a range o names since it was was called the Road Transport Federation – you’ll all remember that the last Muldoon era MInister of Transport, Tony Friedlander, became its leader after he was dumped in the 1984 election. It helped that he’d scrapped the old distance limit for long-distance trucking. In some countries such “jobs or the boys” is considered possible evidence of corruption, but not squeaky clean NZ.
Ngaruawahia possibly, but it is so close to both Huntly & Hamilton The Base where existing stations are so “they say” buses can handle that. Also the catchment/scope for near further population growth is limited by the geography there (hills and river).
Any public transport trip takes longer than a car have a look on the AT planner. Pukekohe station is a big bit of an overkill. Te Huia can easily stop there or sail straight through. There is a bus service from Pokeno and Tuakau. The third main will soon be finished. There are regular bus services between Hamilton and Huntly which can be used to transfer to the train. This leaves Te Kauwhata needing a station. It already has a platform but of course it needs work. I wonder how much Kiwirail would charge to get it up to standard.
Trying to get even one rail station built is very difficult in NZ. Pokeno is the obvious location, central to the North Waikato area and growing fast.
Yes I think even with the difficulty with an ideal station location there now with the “old” and “new” areas I think it should be done before at the same time or after Te Kauwhata (easiest and progressed the most from what I understand).
Regarding Pokeno, build it in the old location pretty much I would think behind the shops (say between HIgh & Market St, active mode link from Hitchen Rd/Bridge) and ideally change the zoning density & type to mixed use to allow some good little apartments with shops under type thing. Even just apartments would be a step up. I don’t know what the current zoning is, I tend to focus on Auckland guff like that, so don’t have the planning maps at my fingertips (Pokeno should of been in the Auckland super city in my opinion, but that’s a discussion for another time). Apparently the developer for all that new Pokeno housing area has a location provided for to some degree, but I’ve not heard where that would be.
Put it in the old location, and have good frequent buses and other access to it, don’t build a big park and ride please.
However I am not holding up too much hope but it’s surprising the numbers are as good as they are when you consider it has to travel to the Strand. I would like it to continue. Who knows if the Auckland train networks ever starts to function up to its potential and we see a sustained shift to public transport plus futhur sprawl between Auckland and Hamilton Te Huia will flourish.
My guess is that the residents of Pokeno are more likely to be travelling north in the morning, so that should be the priority. There is a potential big uplift in adding that station, though we need to ensure that despite adding stops, the overall journey time is coming down. Which means getting efficiencies, somewhere.
For the other proposed stations south of Pokeno? I get the feeling these folks are more likely travelling to Hamilton and back. If there are some additional sets floating around, a counter peak service getting the north Waikato commuters into Hamilton in the morning and back later could be a goer.
In short, just add Pokeno first. Take the 100 passenger uplift (25%) as a quick and easy win, and a proof of concept that the demand is there for more stops and better services
Just a thought to help increase the patronize on the Te Huia WHY DOES it not stop to pick up and set down passengers at Pokeno a stop there would only mean a five minutes or less delay and there is a large population at Pokeno many wishing to get to Auckland city or those parts south
is it not worth considering for people at Pokeno with very limited public transport????
Exactly. Come to the meeting at Pokeno Hall this Sunday 2:30pm about it and saving the Te Huia from the axe in general.
Warren Taylor – The reason Te Huia does not stop at Pokeno is there is no platform/s. To build a station at Pokeno will depend on the platform and passenger facilities design could cost $10-15 million which raises the question who pays for it.
Pokeno is not part of part of the Auckland Metro rail network which finishes at Pukekohe and the town is in the Waikato region with the current local bus services in Pokeno and between Pokeno and Pukekohe is funded by the Waikato Regional Council.
Future regional and inter-regional passenger rail services between Hamilton and Auckland under Better Passenger Transport New Zealand’s Waikato Regional Passenger rail initiative, has 10 return daily services between Hamilton and Auckland using bi mode, bi directional 4 carriage train sets. operating a mixture of ‘express’ limited stop and ‘all stop’ services.
In the mean time, Te Huia needs to increase services to 4 return services per day.
I’m a kiwi who has been based in Europe for the last 20 years and came back this month. My first trip to Hamilton from Auckland was on this train. Trains have been my first choice of transport for many years and I thought this train had all the hallmarks of a European local service. That’s a good thing, affordable, good service and on time! Many people bemoan the lack of infrastructure in NZ. Don’t get rid of a service like this.
It does feel like there are a lot of factors which might have them relent and give this more of a chance – which in turn would see better patronage and interest:
> Electrification to Puke ending means less construction, closures, more possibility for more frequency. It could stop here also if useful.
> Third Main opening (and more?) will enable both quicker journeys and more frequency
> Bi-mode stock would enable: modern passenger experience, far quicker journeys, quieter/green credentials, and importantly: terminating in Britomart
> New stations potential exists e.g. Pokeno as discussed
> CRL opening will see much higher frequency metro connections and renewed rail buzz. Plus quicker journeys to CRL stops with an easy change (somewhere – see above re wires – otherwise build a Strand Eastern station and a ton of TOD there!)
Plenty of changes to come which might give this a fighting chance. Time, of course, helps too – and the notion of people having something taken away.
Plus things they could do like onward/free metro journeys, more counter-peak and weekend service…
Intercity is a much better option–imagine what they could do with the $84 subsidy given to Te Huia.
I’d like to see them compete on an even playing field. Offer Intercity what Te Huia gets, $84/passenger or 75% of the fare, and see how they go. They could blow the Te Huia numbers out of the water! I don’t know why it wasn’t done years ago.
You could even make it conditional on them installing toilets on the buses like Greyhound buses in the USA have.
Yeah true, but for the creative accounting of the subsidies, lumping in building stations, bridges, accessible toilets etc. The competition to Intercity (Mana) was interested in running a service, before Te Huia was implemented. The thing is the compliance costs to set up a new service are exorbitant. Given the existing infrastructure was destroyed years ago. Slowing down the service by building stations like Huntly that were previously mainline island platforms, replaced by a bus stop structure, new signalling, crossovers etc because locals can’t be trusted to stand at a station without being run over or wanting to burn the thing down, true story.
Another one who thinks buses are equivalent to trains. You obviously haven’t used Intercity and know nothing about how awful long distance bus travel is in NZ. It’s been tried for years, subsidised or not and does not appeal. They can’t even accomodate bikes let alone wheelchairs.
I live in Waharoa and used to be an infrequent user of the service, catching the train up and coming back with my daughter who used to live in Auckland.
I realise that extending the service to Matamata or Tokoroa would be impossible, but I will not be using it again as I can’t get home again from Hamilton.
BTW Jack – the population of Eire is 5.3 million, roughly the same as NZ. Difference is that they get massive EU subsidies!
The service was great, the train travels at line speed all the way to Pukekohe, then crawl from there to Papakura where I would catch AT. The works between Papakura and Pukekohe are taking far too long and, despite the fact that KR rebuilt the formation during current work, they are carrying on speed restrictions to build it again. We were 15 minutes early at Papakura on the last trip I did, despite the crawl.
Why can’t we get this back?
https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/93/Auckland%20Railway%20Station