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Auckland commuters can look forward to more trains and better service when New Zealand's newly renationalised railway hits full steam, but exactly how that will happen is still unclear.
The Government offered no further details on the implications for Auckland as it unveiled KiwiRail, the rail assets bought from Toll, and named former Prime Minister Jim Bolger as its chairman.
Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said there would "absolutely have to be" more trains and better integration with the rest of the country.
"An integrated state-owned railway is the best way to ensure that the necessary investment takes place to make rail a strong performer within the wider national transport system," he said.
"More trains is a given but it's how those are managed and the degree of integration between Auckland metro rail, the national rail operations and metro rail in Wellington. There will need to be some careful thinking about that."
Mr Lee said the ARC was confident of achieving standardisation of rail services across the country.
"In the past there's been a feeling that Auckland is an unknown quantity but we're catching up with Wellington and that momentum has to continue."
He described yesterday's announcement as a "symbolic step" in the renaissance of New Zealand's rail network.
The Rail Development Group will report back to Finance Minister Michael Cullen and SOE Minister Trevor Mallard in early August with recommendations for the structure and management of the rail network, which will include the management of the Auckland network.
The KiwiRail establishment board will manage the service until decisions about how it will be run are made. The Government already has a separate state owned enterprise, OnTrack, to look after the tracks.
Kevin Ramshaw, public affairs manager for OnTrack, said it was "essentially day one" of a new rail system for New Zealand and the benefits for Auckland had yet to be seen. "We'll be working with the new entity on how to integrate our operations to be as efficient as possible and provide even better service to our customers."
Arthur Bruce, New Zealand country manager for Veolia Transport, which operates Auckland's passenger rail services, said it would be "business as usual" in the short term. "However, we see it bringing stability and investment to the industry and not just to long-haul freight services but also for metro services."
He said there was room for "publicly-prescribed, privately-provided" rail services to continue to add value to Auckland rail.
- NZPA
