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An Auckland University student who uses the Te Huia to visit family in Waikato is disappointed passengers will have to pay the cost of extra travel when the troubled train stops 30km short of its inner-city destination.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency this week banned the year-old passenger rail service from Hamilton to Auckland from travelling any further north than Papakura after it failed to obey a red signal on two separate occasions.
This means passengers face a five hour-plus return journey and an extra $14 a day in travel costs.
Third-year medical student Taasha Clifton told the Herald that the extra cost should not be passed on to passengers.
“I think that it is quite bold of Te Huia to enforce that on its users when it’s not the user’s fault
“It’s actually the fault of the service. I personally think because it’s the fault of the service they should be covering that cost,” she said.
“If they weren’t running red lights, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
The subsidised bus replacement service between The Strand, Puhinui and Papakura put in place on Tuesday by KiwiRail ended today. KiwiRail has been approached for comment by the Herald about why the subsidy won’t continue.
From next week, passengers would need to connect to an Auckland Transport service at Papakura and use an AT HOP card to continue through Auckland.
Clifton uses the train service often to visit her family in Waikato and is also not looking forward to having to wrangle her luggage from one train to another.
“For me, it stopping at Papakura is really inconvenient because I carry a lot of luggage. A lot of people who go on Te Huia aren’t just using it for everyday, some are using it for big commutes,” she said.
“Trying to carry all my luggage onto the AT line is not that accommodating because there’s not any storage space.”
Clifton, who is based in Parnell, said having a car in central Auckland was inconvenient and expensive so having the option to travel on Te Huia was “fantastic”.
Te Huia train at its first official trip from Hamilton Rotokauri station to Huntly in March 2021. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
She said the fact that drivers had been running red lights was terrifying.
“The biggest thing that concerned me, more so than this being an inconvenience, is the safety aspect,” said Clifton.
“It’s very concerning to me that it was running red lights,”
“Thankfully no one was hurt but, you know, we don’t want to hear of a train crash because of red lights [not being obeyed].”
Asked if she would be hesitant to catch the train going forward, Clifton said “absolutely.”
It follows two separate incidents in less than a month in which the KiwiRail train driver failed to obey a red signal, putting the train at risk of colliding with another train.
KiwiRail executive general manager of operations Paul Ashton said the incidents involved two different drivers.
“There were different drivers for each of the incidents and a full investigation is undertaken any time a train passes a red signal. These investigations have not been finalised yet.”
The most recent incident was on Tuesday morning, according to Ashton who said the train was “not carrying passengers” when it overran a signal just north of Hamilton.
“There were no other train movements in this area, and it was outside the Auckland metro region,” Ashton said.
The other incident was three weeks ago and saw Te Huia pass a stop signal near Penrose. After this incident, Ashton said an investigation “opened immediately” and was nearing completion.
Caitlan Johnston is a breaking news reporter based in Waikato. She joined the Herald in 2022.
