Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton, who has lobbied for regional passenger rail in the King Country for many years, is pleased Labour is pursuing further investigations on the issue.
However, he has questioned whether the Government had the political will to finally see regional transportation services boosted in this way.
He said one major problem for KiwiRail was that, at present, it lacked the rolling stock to put on more passenger services, and the Government would have to be willing to put the money up to provide the carriages required.
“I am not sure of the detail, but I just get the idea that they are kicking the can down the road. While communities, including ours, are really keen to see some kind of rail passenger service in the regions, it seems Central Government is not overly interested in it.”
One ray of hope was that Labour seemed quite keen to “pull the pin” on Te Huia, the passenger service which had been carrying up to 500 people between Hamilton, Huntly and Auckland. Ironically, if this happened it could potentially be beneficial for the King Country, freeing up resources to run regional passenger services further south.
However, when it came to passenger rail, Weston said each of the parties seemed to be far more interested in demand in metropolitan areas.
“They like to provide train services for commuters in Auckland or Wellington. They want to increase the viability of rail passenger transportation in the cities, but they never really get into any detail when it comes to the regions.
“I am saying they should be careful what their messaging is to New Zealanders. Instead of saying ‘meet the demand’ I think the message should be ‘meet the needs’. In places like Taumarunui, where we have next-to-no public transport, we are going to be seriously disadvantaged (without passenger rail).
“It’s all very well promoting the benefits of passenger transport and particularly rail, but if you are only going to promote it in metropolitan areas, what a waste of time.
“I don’t think policies of Labour and the Greens have so far reflected the full picture in terms of rural needs. But giving priority to passenger trains makes so much sense when it comes to filling the need for efficient transportation and reducing emissions.”
Waitomo Mayor John Robertson said the mayors on the Auckland to Wellington route did a lot of serious work two years ago on submissions to KiwiRail supporting the need for regional rail services.
“So, I applaud the news that there are to be further investigations into in this.
“There are real opportunities for passenger rail on shorter routes, for example, a train stopping at Taumarunui, Te Kūiti and Ōtorohanga on its way through to Hamilton; running both ways, mornings and evenings.
“When you look at rolling stock like the Auckland commuter carriages, they would be very suitable for extending to runs of this type. Any further investigation should look not only the long-haul routes but also into passenger trains carrying people between smaller towns (like ours in the King Country) and larger cities like Hamilton.”
Ōtorohanga Mayor Max Baxter said as far as he was aware the Government was looking at the viability of a passenger train service between Auckland to Wellington when most of the work on investigating this had already been done two years ago.
“Of course, it would be great, but it would have to be self-funding,” Max said.
“Every town along the route of that journey (from Auckland to Wellington) would want it to stop at their station. And as soon as you started incorporating all those stops, the economics and efficiency of it all would no longer work.
“If you have a commuter rail service, then the last thing you want as a commuter is hopping on at Auckland and stopping 20 times on the way to Wellington. Great as a scenic trip but not as an efficient commute.
“The other thing is that the investigation, as far as I am concerned, has already been done.
“Rather than investing in another case study it would be worthwhile for the select committee to contact KiwiRail and ask for the information that has already been obtained.
Would Max like to see a train stop in Ōtorohanga?
“Yes, for sure; I think there should be just the one stop along the journey, Auckland, Ōtorohanga Wellington,” he said.
