This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.
In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a handful of them each week.
I was lamenting the lack of intercity train options in Aotearoa recently and was hit by an all-too-common retort: the idea that New Zealand doesn’t have much of a rail system and trains can’t go where people want to go. This truthy little number is often backed up by the suggestion that New Zealand was designed for roads and it’s too late to try and do anything better with the rail network.
So I wondered, how much of this is actually true? It felt wrong to me, knowing that there are train tracks all over the country that pass through just about every city and town in the country. The rail network should be able to serve a whole lot of people and places very well. But I didn’t have any hard data on the topic to confirm that feeling, so naturally I needed to do some analysis.
There’re two things to work out to answer how many kiwis live on the rail network: firstly, where to people actually live in New Zealand, and secondly where does the rail network actually go to?
Where do New Zealanders actually live?
For the residential distribution I loaded up a population density grid from Stats NZ, which has a great 250m square grid covering the whole country loaded with census data. This gives some great info on the spread and density of population around the country and let me generate some great maps of density laid out over geography, take a look at these!
The density is on a colour scale where purple means very high-density urban centres, red is high-density suburbs, and orange is regular suburban population density. The yellow areas represent low density rural settlements and countryside living, while white squares represent rural areas that have at least one house in them.
There are some clear takeaways from these maps: New Zealanders overwhelmingly live clustered in small proportion of the land area of our country. We live in cities and towns or close to them, we live mostly near the coast or on plains, and we don’t live in mountainous areas. The main centres stick out clearly, with smaller cities and towns dotted between them like pearls on a string. Even when you zoom in to the low-density rural living, it’s still clustered along a relatively small number of roads branching out from nearby towns.
While we live in settlements right across the country from cape Reinga to the Bluff, we’re certainly not evenly spread out across the country. New Zealanders are highly urbanised and centralised in where they live. If you take a step back, this looks like near perfect conditions for intercity rail: population located in clusters of cities and towns dotted along a fairly small number of linear corridors.
Where do the rail tracks go?
So next up, where does the rail network go? Working this out is pretty straightforward too, thanks to KiwiRail having a lot of open data available online which shows where the rail network goes. They have the network, track types, and stations and facilities all coded up geographically for anyone to use.
The network of rail tracks is easy enough to map out but it’s the stations that are most important for access. I worked through the list of KiwiRail facilities to identify those that are currently, or were formerly, a rail station. New Zealand has a very large amount of train stations in almost all parts of the country. While most of them are now derelict or demolished, they still exist as a station or railyard in a legal sense on land that is still owned by the rail operator. So those station sites give us a good idea of where passenger trains could run if they were operated on the network. If you look at the network, it’s easier to list the places that aren’t on the rail system. In terms of main centres, it’s basically Taupo, Nelson-Golden Bay and Queenstown Lakes that never had rail connections. We can add to that Rotorua, Gisborne, the far north and Hauraki-Coromandel that sit on mothballed or abandoned lines. Pretty much everywhere else in the country with anyone living in it has rail to some extent.
So how many people live on the rail network?
From that list I worked out the catchment area of each of current and former station sites. I identified the closest station site to every point in the country, then I ran a fifteen-kilometre service area around each station along roads and pathways to limit the catchments to a reasonable distance. This translates to about a fifteen-minute drive, or about the same on coach or local bus. Intersect those catchment areas with the population grid, and we know how many people live close to each station location. It also tells us which station site has the most people nearby, and which the least, so it’s easy to put together a list of what the first priorities should be.
So the quick answer: 87% of New Zealand lives within fifteen minutes of a current or former rail station site on Kiwirail’s current rail network. That’s about 4.4 million people. Ok grand, myth busted. But let’s dig in a little further into the data and see what a feasible intercity passenger train system might look like.
What would a national rail network serving most Kiwis look like?
For a passenger rail network we’d naturally start where there is the most potential for demand. The stations with the biggest catchment are, not too surprisingly, stations serving our largest cities. Interestingly, you only need thirty stations across the country to serve two-thirds of the population, although these are spread across all the corridors of both islands. In the top thirty sites ranked by catchment, there are six stations in the Auckland region, five in the greater Wellington area, four in greater Christchurch, two each in Hamilton and Tauranga, plus one each for Dunedin, Palmerston North, Napier, Hastings, New Plymouth, Whangarei, Napier, Invercargill and Whanganui.
For a more useful look at the outcomes, I put together a network plan of routes and stations that you might actually operate to serve all these areas. This is based on extending or upgrading six existing intercity trains lines:
- Te Huia, between Auckland and Hamilton, and extended to Tauranga and Te Puke
- The Northern Explorer, between Auckland and Wellington
- The Capital Connection, between Wellington and Palmerston North, extended to Wanganui and New Plymouth
- The Wairarapa Connection, between Wellington and Masterton, extended to Woodville in the northern Wairarapa.
- The Coastal Pacific, between Picton and Christchurch
- The TranzAlpine, between Christchurch and Greymouth
We add to this two reinstated lines that used to run until the 2000s:
- The Bay Express, between Wellington, Palmerston North and Napier-Hastings
- The Southerner, between Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill
…plus two new lines, which I’ve taken the liberty of giving names to:
- The Northlander, between Auckland and Whangarei
- The Shirelander, between Tokoroa and Hamilton, via Matamata and Morrinsville (this is similar to the old Geyserland Express, but unfortunately the tracks to Rotorua have been ripped up, so Tokoroa it is).
Across these ten lines there are 100 stations that look like a good idea to serve. About half of these are main population centres, and half are smaller places that are on the line anyway. Overall, 80% of the New Zealand population live within fifteen minutes of these hundred stations.
So there we go. Kiwis overwhelmingly live on the rail network, or the rail network goes where Kiwis live. Either way upgrading or extending our six existing intercity train lines, plus adding four extra ones, would result in a intercity rail network that serves eight out of ten New Zealanders.
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Why do we keep wasting money on the Ham 2 Akl train and just put busses on until we upgrade the thing into a proper electrified double tracked rail system. That’s what we actually need not expensive little experiments that are slower than the bus and gives the chance for the anti rail groups to go “see it’s a waste of money and not that many use it” then cue the cycle of cancelling bringing back for a short while and cancelling again. Repeat cycle.
Auckland to Whangarei is a waste of money in general just develop a well connected bus network between the two cities look at increasing bus speed limits to 100kmh on the new expressways slated to be built between the 2 cities rail cannot and will never compete in the far north population is too spread out. The advantage of busses being they can continue onto Paihia-Kerikeri-Kaitaia which are popular tourist spots (well maybe not Kaitaia).
The won’t be an expressway to Whangarei in 30 years let alone soon. The small section from Warkworth to Te Hana is moving at glacial pace and National’s rural voter base is waking up to the reality that this is sucking money out of rural roads.
Yeah I know that but even so the point kind of still stands a Bus would be faster than a train and the route just doesn’t have the population density to justify a passenger train. Particularly when you need a bus to get to the No1 tourist destination in the North. The thing that will keep govts funding the expressway despite it obviously being over-priced is whenever the Brynderwyns is closed there is a new push to keep forging on hence why they have deceitfully left the Brynderwyns section to be built last. Warkworth to Te Hana is still politically popular on its own though and it’s not moving fast enough. Everyone hates the 80k crawl through the dome.
You may well be right, a decent quality bus might serve this route the best. Either way Auckland to Whangarei is a relatively small component of this post.
Thanks jezza, note I don’t disagree with the premise of the post I just thought I’d call out the BS that a train should be built between the two like Whangarei is the size of Hamilton or something. Can you imagine the subsidy that thing would be running at if Te Huia is 14% FBR. Road safety upgrades/new tolled expressways are the best strategy for the North. I’d just like to know how I said one particular route would never work and somehow that was taken as I disagree with the whole post. Note: I understand some people on the blog are extremely anti road at all costs so I will be more careful with how I word things next time.
To take a wild guess it might have something to do with your entire comment being negative despite supporting the gist of the post?
I have thought about running buses off the end of the busway to connect with a train at Wellsford which runs through to Whangarei on rail. So a commuter train leaving Whangerai at 6.00 am arrivingat Auckland 8.30 am sort of thing and vice a versa at night. Then an Auckland to Whangerai leg for general travellers much like Te Huia I suppose. Use the Northern busway it will probably be extended to Wellsford in a few years anyway. A couple of train sets. Don’t know could be worth exploring.
It’s a nice idea and all Royce but what’s the point? Just run the bus between Wellsford and Whangarei. No one has to get off to transfer the bus trip would be faster (especially in 15-20 years once the expressway bypasses the dome and Wellsford (yes bus will need to stop at Wellsford but the expressway would’ve removed all the traffic through the centre making the trip a damn sight quicker). Better yet you could run express busses that only stop at say Whangarei-Paihia or Kerikeri. Maybe even just extend the local bus to Te hana to prevent the bus having to make that stop shaving further time off the trip. Consider the possibility of raising the speed limit for busses to 100k on expressway sections and rail starts to look a poor option indeed. I’m willing to fund a big upgrade of the H2A rail network (full electricfication and faster rolling stock) but I am absolutely not going to vote for the nutty idea of passenger rail to the north when it won’t even stop at the destinations people really want to go.
Yeah Mountain I tend to agree. However let’s assume the Northern busway can provide congestion free transport to Wellsford and rail provides a comfortable service from there. Because we are using buses the service could start at Newmarket then travel via the hospital,university then Britomart and onto the busway. So the transfer to the Auckland Public transport network will be made at Wellsford. Off course a bus or buses could probably do the same thing so why don’t they. I am sure there would be passengers who would make the trip just like there is for the. Capital connection and Te Huia.
Ok what I am envisaging is three train sets with one return service from Whangerai and one from Auckland. All trains will connect with the busway at Wellsford. The Whangerai early morning service will transfet the majority of its passengers at Wellsford then continue to Auckland providing commuter transport to people from Helensville etc. And vice a versa at night. The service from Auckland will provide a leisurely trip at civilised hours for passengers. The commuter trip via the busway will probably be an hour quicker than staying on the train and will deliver more passengers directly to their destination than if they arrive into Britomart by train.
THERE USED TO BE A RAILCAR SERVICE FROM aUCKLAND TO wHANGAREI WHEN i WAS A LOT YOUNGER .wE USED IT SEVERAL TIMES TO VISIT Whangarei .
AND IT GOT CANNED BECAUSE BUGGER ALL PEOPLE USED IT.
There are no intercity buses scheduled to arrive in Auckland between 6.25am and 10am. Why wouldn’t they do buses for peak commuter time? Cos the motorway traffic is shit and it would take four hours to get to downtown AKL.
So yeah, there’s your answer.
Could do buses to Pukekohe and transfer to train there.
Have you been a long distance bus recently? Cramped, vomit inducing and dodgy ventilation.
Yes most intercity bus experiences aren’t the nicest (partly because of the quality of the roads) but who is going to fund a train between AKL to Whangarei and who says we have to do ones with poor ventilation. We have to be real here the chances of getting a frequent passenger train between Akl-WHG are about 5% of the chance of an expressway getting finished between the two. That’s just reality and we need to learn to live with that. Note I’m not saying trains aren’t superior just for that particular route you’re joking if you think a train would ever be economically viable. (To be fair an expressway isn’t either but it’s politically viable)
Mount Colah – Passenger train services between Auckland and Whangarei would be part of the national national regional passenger rail network as outline in this concept plan: https://www.publictransportforum.nz/articles/article/new-zealands-regional-passenger-rail-network-20-08-2022/
Sorry I utterly reject the premise of that statement. I completely refute that Rail between AKL-WHG will ever be economically or perhaps more importantly politically viable. A bus service between AKL-Paihia stopping at Whangarei is much faster and cheaper and perhaps more importantly has a chance to cover most of its costs. I know it’s not the very best service and rail would be nicer and all but show me how you would fund it, remember you have no political will on your side unlike the completely uneconomic expressway, note how I’m not saying the expressway makes economic sense but it has political will. I know you’re probably not in favour of democracy but that’s actually how it works GOVTs can do insane things like raise speed limits despite evidence, political will is their reasoning which is always the No1 reason for stuff to happen. (Just note I believe Bishop is being less honest than Brown about the speed limits as he keeps repeating the lie about economic benefits where as when pressured brown would say “look ultimately we ran a campaign on raising speed limits we won the election and that’s what we’re doing” or “65% of NZers have told us they want higher speeds” so I suppose in terms of rail between the two cities it might happen not because of economic sense but political though I can imagine the headlines if that is bought up before the Brynderwyns are bypassed. So yes maybe it’ll happen but don’t hold you’re breath for the next 50 years because that’s how long you’ll probably have to wait before it’s even looked at. Let alone actually finding it with shovels in the ground. Although you know the best way to build a case for it would be to prove there is any demand with a bus.
Mount Colah – This is not about ‘here & now’ neoliberal, short term thinking and planning of Baby Boomers and Gen X, it is about long term thinking and planning for Younger Gen Y (born 1990), Gen Z (born 2000), Gen Alpha (born 2010) and Gen Alpha (born 2025) and what would be their travel options be for these generations, as there is no guarantee these generations will able to afford to buy, owned, maintain and operate a car.
The national rail network is the country’s second strategic national land transport infrastructure asset and is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than the State Highway network will ever be, which receives large tax payer subsidies as fuel excise tax and RUC’s do not cover maintain and operating costs of the network.
Whangarei is connected to the national rail network which is used by freight trains so why not include passengers trains considering the Land Transport Management Act has been amended to allow regional councils to work together for inter-regional public transport and of course, the roll out of the national ‘tap & travel’ contactless payment system – Motu Move, across the country, allowing for the re-introduction of inter-regional passenger rail services between Auckland and Whangarei connecting with local and intra-regional bus services.
A 220 seat 4 carriage, bi directional rail car equates up to 220 non essential car use or four 50 seat single deck coach’s or three 65 seat double deck coach’s per one way journey.
It would be more cost effective to build a double track rail corridor for both passenger and freight rail services between Auckland and Whangarei when direct and indirect costs are factored in, than a 4 lane expressway.
A 40 wagon plus locomotive freight train equates up to 40 single double trailer heavy trucks of the road per journey.
The country needs to break its addiction to current neoliberal ‘here & now’, short term thinking and planning which is holding the country back and start to do ‘outside the square’ long term thinking and planning that factors in global geopolitical, economic, trade, manufacturing with its associated supply chains and health uncertainties and the unpredictable, disruptive effects of a warming planet.
Like I already said Kris rail is great etc. BUT it’s not going to happen Whangarei before the expressway is finished and you know it. If any govt gets distracted on passenger rail (freight would be politically accepted) they will be turfed out fast. Council can work together that’s great just know if Auckland or Whangarei council tried to waste a single cent on this both ratepayers would be fuming. It would be the white elephant of the century. Te huia is $90 per passenger trip subsidy on the rate/tax payers. I cannot think of a case of when you would use that over the bus or driving. I will be supporting upgrading the Hamilton- Tauranga- BOP area rail networks for passenger services. I’ll even support upgrading the northern rail line to handle more freight. But passenger rail to Whangarei? You must actually be joking. People may be concerned about all the climate stuff now but in about 10 years that probably won’t matter people are starting to become fatigued as already seen in America (noting I’m Gen Z so should be super worried). Your nutty Whangarei train will only increase emissions and pour money down a endless pit. Even I am a massive train lover but will not support this particular service it’s just a waste and will only make it more difficult to start other more plausible lines. “Remember the ghost train to Whangarei” will be the political catchphrase whenever a new rail network is talked about.
As a counter to the negativity poured on the concept of AKL-WRE passenger rail, I would offer the Wellington-Masterton (Wairarapa) rail service. Masterton’s population is 30,000 as against Whangarei’s 100,000. Yet the Wairarapa service is successful with a lot of political will sustaining it. It is even set to get upgraded with new trains and an improved timetable.
Straight population-numbers are not the entirety of what makes a rail service succeed.
Mount Colah is giving put-downs, we-can’t-change excuses and nonsense derived from failed economics.
“who is going to fund a train…”
“We have to be real here the chances of getting…”
“That’s just reality and we need to learn to live with that”
“you’re joking if you think…”
“I completely refute that xyz will ever be economically or perhaps more importantly politically viable”
“I know you’re probably not in favour of democracy but…”
“don’t hold you’re breath for the next 50 years”
etc etc etc yawn.
Useful for a novelist, perhaps, to fill out the dialogue in a group of boylies playing men. But not really helpful in NZ’s big transport discussions.
helpful for pushing the ideology of the previous transport minister though. 80km/h urban speed limit, $30 billion highways, “it’s undemocratic to question the status quo that I like”
Seems you can’t even read the gist of the post. Your long pro-road speeches are getting boring.
There is a good point in there though – sometimes ideology can actually hinder progress. Take Dominion Road for example where the only two options seem to be standard buses on an indirect route (the right wing), or expensive LR that will never get built (the left wing).
Will we ever get frequent passenger rail to Whangarei? Probably not. Could we get a cheap and reasonable public bus service that you can use your national ticketing card on – yes its possible, but no because neither party would support it.
Further: A better rail line would be cheaper than a four lane expressway over the same distance.
yes
Te Huia attracts older people and families who would find a trip by bus difficult due to the absence of toilets. I hope they get the journey time down, but I found the fare quite competitive with the bus. They have few staff and lots of passengers, which helps keep costs down. It would be nice to see some equivalent trains in the lower North Island. Both the lines to New Plymouth and to Napier run through small towns with centrally located railway stations. And an Auckland-Wellington service which is affordable for ordinary people would be desirable. Rather than aiming for perfection, it is best to make a start now, and improve the service.
Thanks Yimby, Note I do really want to see passenger rail between AKL-HAM succeed. I think it needs double tracking and electrification to make it work. The fare is “competitive with the bus” because it is subsidised to the tune of 86% per passenger. I do think it’d be worth to see how some of those other routes would go with the ex te huia rolling stock when they hopefully give it the upgrade it needs.
Auckland to Hamilton is double tracked, except for one short section and one bridge. Operationally that doesn’t matter.
It’s also largely electrified. Dual mode trains would have more than enough charge to bridge the gap.
Mount Colah – Te Huia is New Zealand’s first subsidised inter-regional public transport service and a key component in Waikato’s urban and regional public transport network.
While most of the stations have survived on the Napier line, which retained services until about 20 years ago, not so in the west. The two biggest cities on the route, Wanganui and New Plymouth, had their stations completely removed – a deliberate move, I believe, to make things difficult for any restoration of services.
With the best will in the world, Auckland to Wellington taking circa 8 hours on the train is never going to be an attractive option against a 1:05 minute flight.
It’s about the journey and environment sometimes, not the time it takes. Like in Europe can fly or train.
I would take the train from akl to palmy. Often it’s hard to get cheaper flights unless you book far ahead. I would never taking intercity, but ax train I would take.
Hamilton to Wellington
Hamilton to Palmerston North
Auckland to Parapaurumu
Hamilton to Parapaurumu
All covered by one service
jezza – Travel from Auckland to Wellington using contactless ‘tap & travel’ using Motu Move, can be done, using frequent Waikato regional passenger train services between Auckland and Hamilton, two daily return services between Hamilton and Palmerston North and frequent daily services between Palmerston North, Wellington and onto Masterton.
This additional to the daily proposed Northern Connector book & travel ‘inter-city’ between Auckland and Wellington.
It seems you are not a regular Te Huia train and InterCity coach traveler between Hamilton and Auckland.
Te Huia like with its sibling the Capital Connection train between Wellington and Palmerston North, are the beginnings of the re-introduction of regional and inter-regional passenger rail services.
Between 1936 to 1978, New Zealand had a extensive regional and inter-regional passenger rail network using 52-24 seat single ‘carriage’ bi-directional and 88 seat twin carriage railcars.
By the way, Te Huia is now stopping at Pukekohe instead of Papakura and has a ‘cleared path’ slot between Pukekohe and Puhinui reducing travel times on the the Auckland metro rail corridor being quicker than buses that get stuck in Auckland’s chronic car congestion especially of the Southern Motorway.
The 88 seat rail cars were a big reason regional rail disappeared in NZ. They were a mechanical disaster from day 1.They ended their time in the 1970s with a series of fires while in service. Then it was back to the 1940s carriages which were never going to last much longer.
Again, a political decision. Cummins offered to re-engine a number of the 88-seaters for free as a trial, but that was rejected. Such re-engining was/is standard practice elsewhere (even happened here, earlier, with the single-unit Standards – most of which survive).
It isn’t a waste of money.
Buses get stuck in the same general traffic all through South Auckland.
What is unique about NZ that rail can’t work? That city pair (size, distance) is ideal for a rail service anywhere on earth.
It isn’t instead of any State Highway, growing it to a viable complement to driving helps keep the parallel highway functional longer.
Why does passenger rail terrify some (anonymous) obsessives?
Well you can’t just make a statement “it isn’t a waste of money” where’s your proof? 86% subsidy per passenger is by no means “not wasteful” $90 per passenger whichever way you look at it. I’m a glad you asked that question abouts what unique about NZ, it’s the political landscape. Note we have a voter base who is overwhelmingly pro car and cagey about any cycleways or active modes/PT. Remember the active mode bridge across the harbour that Labour quickly canned when they saw the polls? Or the AKL light rail quickly scrapped when the new govt took over? How is the AKL to WHG expressway getting funded despite it being a money pit? Politics, simple as that. Cancelling the Brynderwyns section would be political suicide for any govt especially if another slip occurred while it was there term in office. So yes most projects we do in this country are a waste but it’s up to voters to decide where and when we ignore that in favour of just getting what they want. Remember Te Huia could still be over by next year (may get funded because of the election/ may not) I hope one of the parties just says we are going to upgrade it into a fast rail track. So yes Patrick you are actually kind of sounding like the PT version of the expressway lobby. “It isn’t a waste of money” blank statement no evidence to back it up. Provide proof it isn’t a waste of money then we can have a genuine discussion. Don’t try the usual tactic of saying “look at the subsidy for roads” I’ve already acknowledged that and know it’s wasteful.
Your numbers are baseless.
I have written extensively on this very site on Te Huia, including references to real economic evaluations of it. Not made-up bullshit from politicians feeding outrage to hide their own unreal plans.
Furthermore you have no idea of the scale difference in the tiny subsidies for Te Huia compared to multiple billions on the huge laundry list of mostly low value proposed state highways. These numbers are discoverable.
The current government’s plans have an annual shortfall of $6b. Annual. Stopping Te Huia will do nothing to fix this insane and unaffordable programme.
Here for example:
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/12/05/kirikiriroa-rising/
So I provide factual numbers you call them baseless. lol. And then as regular as clockwork you go on about expressways compared to rail when I already said I acknowledge they are wasteful too because you deep down know it’s a waste (so are the expressways). It’s hard to take someone seriously when I already acknowledged the expressways were a waste but your only argument to try and hide the fact Te Huia is a waste of money is to bring up more wasteful expressways. You accidentally proved my point because you just can’t help but have a dig at expressways whenever an argument isn’t going your way.
As someone who uses Te Huia and drives this route, I’m so glad for Te Huia!
The sooner we get it back to Britomart though the better.
Buses can go swivel, they will never be more then a footnote.
Great piece Nick! I think an interesting overlay on this would be state highway traffic volumes as they are a reasonable indicator of movement between locations. I think it would highlight the value of the golden triangle rail lines and the line from Wellington to New Plymouth.
On the other side it would likely highlight the gap between Taupo, Rotorua and Tauranga.
I suspect the SH traffic volumes might show that often, there is not enough of a delay on the SH to outweigh the extra time required to drive/bus to and from a train station instead of driving directly or using one of the existing inter-city buses.
I think we need a single national land transport infrastructure agency which builds, maintains and extends the rail and road networks and charges users based on distance travelled, and congestion and pollution effects. It would be interesting to know, if that could be done, what the balance would actually be.
Excellent analysis. Thanks.
NZ took a very expensive and unaffordable path by going down the roads-heavy, mono modal route. It’s time to shift back to a better balanced, more affordable and more sustainable system.
Our ancestors would be confused and likely appalled at what happened last century.
To be honest, most of us are confused and appalled about the happenings our ancestors caused.
Unless Te Huia gets new rolling stock these extension to the BOP will remain fantasy. They only have 12 carriages or 3 trains. And there’s only 17 AK carriages for long distance trains.
I think that’s a given. My gut feel is new rolling stock will come around under the next centre-left government, especially when we see the new rolling stock between Wellington and Palmerston North.
Passenger trains going to Tauranga is going to need some work on the Kaimai tunnel, which is unlikely to be anytime soon.
You’d be surprised what you could do with three trains.
That’s enough for a train each way to Hamilton every two hours all day, or a bit less regularity with three peak direction departures, including morning and evening trains to and from Tauranga.
They need servicing and maintenance. This is old cobbled together equipment. The locos leak oil etc. No good trying to run an intensive service with minimal old stock. That just leads to no shows and breakdowns.
You know what’s worse than occasional breakdowns and cancellations? Not having any service at all.
Great analysis, if all the money going into so-called roads of national significance was to be spent on reestablishing the rail network, transport would be more efficient and emissions would drop. Unfortunately the current government is in the pockets of the road transport industry, so status quo prevails
Breath of fresh air thankyou.
Would not kill the ORC and DCC to put commuter services onto existing lines in Dunedin. Especially since they already own a passenger rail company.
Loved that idea of the Shirelander to get to Hobbiton. That would be a great weekend out, so long as they built some decent hotels at Hobbiton – accommodation is pretty dire honestly.
With changes to the Land Transport Management Act 2003 allowing regional council’s to work together on developing inter-regional public transport services and the introduction of the national contactless ‘tap & travel’ payment system and a national rail network that connects 13 of the 16 regions in the country, there is no reason to re-introduce regional/inter-regional passenger rail services with connecting local/regional bus/coach services, across the country as outline in this concept plan: https://www.publictransportforum.nz/articles/article/new-zealands-regional-passenger-rail-network-20-08-2022/
Where might we find the list of stations ordered by catchment? I’d be interested to look through that.
Uh it’s on my laptop, I’ll see if I find a way to post it.
There was actually a rail connection to Kingston which is at the Southern end of Lake Wakatipu Queenstown. Look up the Kingston Flyer
It’s what the Earnslaw was built for – to connect Queenstown with the national rail system at Kingston. If you go aboard it, you’ll find the old NZR logo stamped all over the seats and other fittings.
Complaining about rail subsidies then asking for additional roading ones, lol.
Why no mention of tilting trains, which could probably cut times by a third on many curving routes?
Beause that wasn’t the key point of the blog? That was about rail lines and catchments. Why not talk about electric trains vs hydrogen trains too? Because it’s not the key point of the blog.
The state of Victoria is a good example, lower density than the North Island and more expensive train and coach network.
*extensive
The Southerner connected 4 of the five largest cities in the South Island. Now there is nothing. How did it ever make sense to can it?
Also work began to connect Nelson with Blenheim in 1960 after the line south that never made it to the West Coast network. A new government stopped it (National, Holyoake) Now Nelson is so much bigger and growing fast and such a line would easily be profitable in my opinion
Connecting Nelson to Blenheim and to the West Cost network would sensibly introduce resilience to the transport network.
Thanks, Nick. Great story. I read first on LinkedIn and enjoyed even more on second reading.
One of the great analysis gaps we have wrt driving is that we can count the cars on a road but we can only very crudely infer their start and end points. Whereas with integrated ticketing we get all that data for all stops and all passengers. It makes it so much harder to assess to what journey a road is of value so the conversations revolve around guesses and reckons. Whereas for PT the data is all there and the naysayers have a cherry picking field day.
I live in Picton. During the summer, the Coastal Pacific runs daily, and does not run at all in the winter. On the shoulders it runs Thursday to Sunday.
And the cheapest fare Picton to Christchurch or VV, $177.00 one way.
I have been on to KiwiRail several times to suggest filling empty eats at, say, $89.00 one way or $170.00 return. They will not entertain this, so if I want to go to Christchurch it is cheaper in my car. Even cheaper on the InterCity bus, but nearly six hours on a bus doesn’t work for me.
So in the winter, you have a really nice train sitting in Waltham yard in Christchurch earning zero dollars. Is this any way to run a railway?
I think Wellington to Napier and Wellington to New Plymouth are starters, but although there would be subsidies, over time they should be able to break even, and later a profit.
However, the powers that be in KiwiRail are not willing to seriously entertain new ideas, so I am afraid this idea is dead in the water.
The local councils are starting to push for extension of services to Whanganui using the planned new bi-mode trains. Just need a new station at Aramoho (to future-proof services to New Plymouth).
Interesting even impressive numbers of people living 15 mins from a possible rail station. I wonder what part freight rail has with respect to the viability of running passenger trains. Not enough freight trains then the maintainence on that particular section of track is run down to many freight trains then there is not enough room for passenger trains. So I expect New Plymouth probably falls into the first category while Tauranga and the Kaimai tunnel the later. Then we could look at passenger trains carrying courier type freight. I know that sounds pretty unlikely but it used to sort of work back in the day.
Royce – It is happening in the UK with Varamis Rail – https://www.varamis.co.uk/ using former C321 EMU’s.
Can happen here in New Zealand using former Auckland SA passenger rolling stock hauled by existing DF and DX class locomotives, as Kiwirail has 11 SA carriages in storage.
It also can be a commercial operation for one of the 5 larger rail organisations.
Love train travel. Can’t understand why Ak to Tauranga (return) is not on the plan considering the lines already in place and used AND AND why can’t they attach a couple passenger coaches to log/ container trains?
Thanks Nick – I’m all for it ! Used to take the train from Wellington to Napier, and sometimes the Grasshopper from Napier to Gisborne – while that one has long gone, the Wellington to Napier train service could be easily reinstated. Much more enjoyable than driving – or that horrible bus journey!
And I would love to be able to go from Auckland to Wellington (and back again) by train – again, much preferable to the Bus or my driving my car. I guess the real option is between flying or taking a train – the old system of having 2 trains a day, each way, still makes perfect sense to me. One in the morning, one at night.
COnnecting coaches feeding train passengers could generate extra passengers too. A train half the way is better than a bus the whole way.
Note that the rail tracks to Rotorua haven’t been removed and there was no mention of Sratford to Okahukura line which is only missing a very short piece of track (a rail overbridge north of Taumarunui).
Just a few points on AUCK to WREI.
1)The NAL is quite windy and slow. So runs at a lower speed. Would be 4 hours if more. So not good for commuter.
2). The line continues past Whangarei to Otiria, and then is privately owned to Opua, which is in the bay of islands. So a weekender holiday train from auckland to the bay of islands would be popular.
3) for commuters I would say helensville to auck would be best. Run it like that Monday to Friday, then do the bay of islands one on weekends.
Helensville to Swanson or Henderson shuttle train would prob be more viable operations wise for a commuter service. would only need 2 multiple units, 1 in reserve to run an hourly service; easy transfers to the Western Line, and future Northwestern rapid transit – they really should extend the WX1 to Huapai asap
Buses replaced trains on many intercity routes as they are more flexible whereas trains operate at a fixed cost regardless of whether there are enough patrons to cover the cost of the service.
Given that 50% of NZs population live the n the golden triangle (Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga) there should be better intercity links between them.
I’d love it if there were a high speed train running the length of the North Island… Unfortunately I’m unlikely to live long enough to ever see the pollies even think about that.
Yes Golden Triangle is where we should prioritise.
“I’d love it if there were a high speed train running the length of the North Island… Unfortunately I’m unlikely to live long enough to ever see the pollies even think about that.”
Well the Politicians in the last government did commission a study into high/higher speed rail from Auckland to Hamilton but came out pretty expensive of course.
It’s a good question! Answer “not enough” to serve the biggest city Auckland! There really needs a focus on our biggest in particular Auckland in providing new Heavy Rail corridors! It be great for National leading into their next election campaign to pledge more Heavy Rail corridors particularly in Auckland since our current frequent bus routes are becoming over-capacitated and stuck in clogs of congested corridors which people get from a to b particularly on peak times on weekdays journeys slower. A lot of national’s current policies won’t fix the ‘cost of living’ but providing more Heavy Rail projects will address the ‘cost of living’. Heavy Rail fast, convenient, frequent and accessible for everyone. The more Heavy Rail corridors there are in Auckland, fares become cheaper since more people see the convenience or accessibility of riding Heavy Rail meaning patronage be higher. It be good for people socially and economically of all backgrounds. Small Businesses across Auckland would be benefiting and there’d be more people spending a lot more on big events, retail shopping or social events. Biggest benefit opens up the housing market! Property Investors always see the benefits of ‘fast transport’ like Heavy Rail, since it’s convenient and accessible for everyone. Key reason why they invest in constructing high density apartments for retires or parents finished parenting right by ‘fast transport’. A lot of Aucklander’s particularly ‘retires or parents finished parenting’ are having to go long distances to work, if there was more Heavy Rail in central areas in Auckland, a lot of ‘retires or parents finished parenting’ would move into central parts of Auckland and open up family homes for people starting family and opens up the rental market for rental investors.
With the Transport minister claims about Battery-Powered Trains should take a look and read. There’s safety risk with ‘battery-powered trains’ is cells inside lithium powered battery cells. But when lithium batteries are corrupted, they can experience thermal runaway – meaning a cell undergoes uncontrollable temperature rises, making a fire hard to control and extinguish.The kind of “catastrophic event” that could cause would be a crash or a derailment in which a cells is damaged by derailment, any fire or . But when lithium batteries are corrupted, they can experience thermal runaway – meaning a cell undergoes uncontrollable temperature rises, making a fire hard to control and extinguish. Tunnels are probably the riskiest area in a rail environment, probably the worst things to deal with when you’re evacuating people are smoke and fumes, vapours, gases that are toxic.
Also another problem is how distance of Battery-powered train can travel. Battery-powered trains won’t be able to travel long distances due to the batteries since how the batteries are premature product for trains, it’ll take couple of decades before we see a reliable Battery-powered train without any breakdowns or issues. We can’t be getting rid of current overhead lines for our current Heavy Rail lines or by saying “were not doing more Heavy Rail with overhead lines ” cause of costing aCause right now Battery-powered train are not ready and won’t be ready any-time soon due to a-lot of experiments to be assessed before become reliable matured train.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e7dxzl6w9o
It be great right now if Transport minister was ‘in-support’ of more Heavy Rail corridors in Auckland instead of building cheapest(cheap-skate) option of busways/light rail, not a suitable solution for particularly central Auckland corridors and other frequent corridors!
The more Heavy Rail corridors in Auckland, the more housing development we see in Auckland and not build it on more greenfield’s and sending people further-further commuting distances away to & from work. Often people are commuting long distances to work here in Auckland particularly the ‘retires or parents finished parenting’. A shorter commute by living in central Auckland would be solution by building more Heavy Rail corridors to entice property investors/developers to building high density developments nearby the designated Heavy Rail corridors in Central Auckland corridors! Not only that there’d be more family homes available on market and for people living/owning one or two bedroom apartment in CBD areas(Downtown, Midtown, Parnell, Grey Lynn, Eden Terrace, Newmarket, Mt Eden ) be moving opportunity to move to the suburbs and open up to propter investors to become landlords so it grows rental market for younger people.