Kaimai Express showed what regional passenger trains could be – Editorial
Heidi Hughes and Michael Carter are proponents of passenger rail in Tauranga.
There was once a time, still in living memory for some, when Kiwis living in the tiniest of rural villages could jump on a train for a day trip to their nearest city.
Kiwirail says almost everyone travelling between major centres in the first half of the 1900s took the railway. Trains delivered schoolchildren to the classroom, suburban workers to factories and offices, and thousands of day-trippers to beaches, parks, shows and racecourses.
New Zealand had more than 1350 railway stations in the 1950s, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage says – although “station” is a generous name for the tiny weatherboard sheds that serviced some communities.
During that decade, New Zealanders made around 25 million train trips a year – an average of more than 10 each.
But that decade also saw cars becoming the primary mode of transportation, while air travel picked up in popularity soon after. Passenger rail has been on the decline since.
These days, only two of our country’s cities have an urban commuter network – Auckland and Wellington. And those two cities are also destinations for the country’s only two inter-regional passenger services, Hamilton to Auckland (Te Huia) and Palmerston North to Wellington (Capital Connection).
That’s a far cry from rail’s heyday.
But a recent heritage excursion between Auckland and Tauranga has reignited the conversation about bringing passenger rail back to the regions.
The Kaimai Express heritage excursion made a special trip from Auckland to Tauranga, travelling through the 9km Kaimai Tunnel. It included sightseeing trips around Tauranga and its surrounding rural areas before returning to Auckland.
Tickets sold out within 48 hours, which passenger rail proponents said was proof of an appetite for passenger trains.
“We have the site, we have the tracks and we have the need,” Heidi Hughes, the director of the public transport-promoting Wednesday Challenge, says.
Hughes says growth across Tauranga, Auckland and Hamilton supported regional rail, and passenger services could coexist with freight, with the right planning and upgrades.
Kiwirail says expanded regional passenger rail services are possible – if the appetite from the Government and local government is there.
Establishing a new service takes a three-step process:
- Local councils need to establish a business case with a clear understanding of public demand.
- The service would require prioritisation in the region’s Regional Land Transport Plan, which is used by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to determine funding. The Government will then decide if it should be prioritised in the New Zealand Rail Plan.
- The councils and the Government will need to figure out funding and assets for the network.
In other words, it would take a lot of work and a lot of investment for regional passenger rail to once again become a reality.
But it is achievable, if we want it to be.
And with petrol prices the way they are, it’s no surprise that the push for more public transport options is gaining momentum.