KEY POINTS:
Helensville is back on Auckland's passenger rail map, after 28 years in the wilderness.
Members of the South Kaipara community lined their heritage railway station before dawn yesterday to cheer the arrival of the first train sent there since 1980 to carry commuters back to Auckland.
Bathed in a warm glow of lights from the restored 19th century building, the four-car train waited and a brass instrument ensemble serenaded the crowd as heritage trust members prepared a commemorative "tablet" to symbolise a clear passage for the 60km trip ahead.
The tablet, a circular disk of a type used before electronic signals, was presented to Veolia train manager Ray Gosai for safe delivery to Britomart with the 350 or so passengers who travelled there.
About 160 passengers who boarded the train at Helensville and two other new stations at Huapai and Waimauku, were joined by regular commuters at other stops on a passenger route which has doubled in length to provide the new daily return service.
But a doubling of peak-time services between Swanson and Henderson as part of an overhaul of rail timetables throughout Auckland appeared to relieve congestion yesterday at established stations along the line.
Mr Gosai, a guard on Helensville's last passenger trains before its commuter rail link was cut a generation ago, said he was delighted to be officiating at a rebirth.
"I went out on the last and came in on the first," he said after yesterday's 96-minute trip.
"There used to be old red carriages, with no heating and a dynamo [generator], so when we stopped the train the lights dimmed."
Although regular commuters leaving Helensville were outnumbered by wellwishers along for the ride, several identified themselves to the Herald as instant converts to rail, influenced mainly by punishing petrol prices.
Maintenance electrician Ross Buswell said although he used to drive an economical Honda Civic from Parakai to his job in Henderson, it had become too expensive for daily travel.
Vodafone transmission planning manager Stephen Elcoat expects financial and productivity savings from taking trains rather than driving from his Waimauku home to West Harbour to catch a ferry to Auckland.
Rather than being stuck in traffic and unable because of company policy to use his cellphone on the road, he is looking forward to working on his laptop computer during train trips to and from work.
Auckland Regional Transport Authority chairman Mark Ford, whose agency contracts rail services from Veolia, said it was imperative the local community support the service it had fought so hard to reinstate.
"We have built the stations, now we need you, the local people, to use it to make it a success."
Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, who has championed the Helensville rail cause with fellow councillor and Waimauku resident Christine Rose, said he had no doubt the officially 12-month trial would flourish and grow.
"Wherever and whenever rail services have been provided, the public of the Auckland region have staunchly supported them," he said.
"That is why over the past five years rail patronage has gone from two million trips per year to seven million - and we intend to go on until the job is finished."
The Helensville send-off was attended by Labour and Green Party politicians as well as electorate staff of National Party leader and local MP John Key.
Mr Lee read a message from by Prime Minister Helen Clark congratulating those involved in restoring the rail service.
