But consultant Roger Blakeley doesn’t agree with this sentiment and tells The Front Page podcast it’s not right to approach the matter simply from the perspective of how much money it makes.
“Simeon Brown from National made the point that the report says ticket sales constitute only 13 per cent of the operating costs of the rail service for Te Huia, but the point is that any public transport service in the world is almost always subsidised because these are public goods associated with people having access to really good public transport.”
Blakeley says that this also applies with popular examples like the train services in Wellington and Auckland.
“A third of income revenue is from ticket sales, a third is from ratepayer contributions by the council and a third is from Waka Kotahi’s, central government contributions.”
Blakeley says the important context here is that in two years Te Huia has built up a contribution of 13.4 per cent revenue, which is continuing to grow.
A special committee report out this week has suggested that Government should invest even more money in regional rail across Auckland.
One proposal, says Blakeley, would see the Auckland and Hamilton line also connected with Tauranga to offer rail travel between all three of these cities.
“What was being proposed is a train service that might leave Tauranga at 6.30am, get to Hamilton by 8am and then to Auckland by about 10.30am, and then that service would come back at the end of the day,” says Blakely.
Another suggestion included in the report proposed connecting Auckland and Wellington via an inter-regional passenger rail service.
“There have been recent developments that could support that,” says Blakeley.
“Budget 2023 included funding for 18 new hybrid trains, in part to replace the aged fleet of trains on the Capital Connection between Wellington and Palmerston North. Horizons Regional Council is leading an investigation of a North Island Regional Passenger Rail ‘Connector’ Service, which would connect Palmerston North to Hamilton, to join up with the Te Huia Service to Auckland. That could lead to an Auckland to Wellington three-times-daily return service.”
- So how likely is it that we’ll see any of these changes any time soon?
- Does Kiwirail even have the capacity for more work?
- What would it take to make our trains faster?
- Is there bipartisan support for any of these suggestions?
- And how important should climate change be in railway considerations?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page to hear if rail is really the answer our transport network needs.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
