Mourning commuters ride with coffin

A protester who carried a coffin onto a train from Waitakere to Auckland this morning says the action went well and fellow commuters are on board with the protest's message.

Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) co-ordinator John Reeves said the group's demonstration, which also involved the grim reaper and a group of protesters dressed as mourners, was against the "death" of local rail services.

Ward O'Donnell and Jon Reeves display the coffin, symbolising the death of the Waitakere, Huapai and Kumeu train stations. Photo / Jason Dorday

Auckland Transport plans to replace rail services from Auckland to Waitakere and Huapai-Kumeu with buses from July.

Mr Reeves said the move was unpopular with commuters.

"The passengers don't want that," he said.

"Auckland Transport needs to learn the message - passengers want the rail service."

Despite the grim theme, Mr Reeves said there was a good reaction to the protest on the train.

"It was pretty jovial. People were laughing and pleased to see we had the grim reaper dressed as Auckland Transport," he said.

"They completely took on the message and quite a few commuters asked for a copy of our petition so they could get their workmates and family to sign as well."

An Auckland Transport representative addressed the protesters on the steps of the organisation's headquarters.

Mr Reeves was disappointed, saying he stuck to the "standard line".

"They still think buses are the best for the people of Waitakere.

"They will do a review for Huapai-Kumeu to see if there is growth and maybe it does justify trains which is a bit of movement because up until recently they weren't going to do that."

Auckland Transport spokesman Wally Thomas said the decision to cut the rail services was justified.

"There's only about 20 people a day who use the service," he said.

"People still have a public transport choice, it's just that it's bus instead of train. The bus is literally two minutes longer, so it's a very marginal time difference."

Mr Thomas said the decision could be reconsidered if demand increased in future.

"It's just not cost effective to continue to run it, but if and when there's more population and more demand we could restart it."