Is the controversial Te Huia service a forerunner of Hamilton-Auckland fast passenger rail? Photo / Supplied
There's been a call for the new Hamilton-Auckland Te Huia commuter rail service to be a focus of the Parliamentary inquiry into inter-regional passenger rail, as Waikato planners gear up for a fast rail future for the region.
In a submission to the Parliamentary transport and infrastructure committee, Waikato's transport planners have asked the inquiry to examine the heavily taxpayer and ratepayer-supported new Te Huia service as part of its terms of reference.
The submission, from the Waikato Regional Transport Committee (WRT), comprising regional and local councils and national transport agency Waka Kotahi, said Te Huia "provides a test case and best practice example of trialling inter-regional passenger rail in New Zealand".
Strong local political support and commitment had brought the commuter rail project successfully to fruition, it said.
The six-day-a-week Te Huia service, operated by the Waikato Regional Council in partnership with KiwiRail, was launched in April last year. After a Covid-challenged start, it was last month used by 6677 passengers.
While this is a big improvement on the 2177 passengers reported in March this year, with monthly numbers fluctuating between 4981 and 7609 since, it may not yet be enough to convince Te Huia's critics, who object to taxpayers and Waikato ratepayers being required to prop up a trial of the service until June 2024 with nearly $100m.
The Waikato Chamber of Commerce was a strong critic in February this year, publishing a report which concluded that with its weak patronage at the time, the service used an "extravagant" amount of public funding to do the job, was too slow, and was not achieving any of the environmental, carbon emission-reduction goals it was intended to.
But the critics haven't dampened Waikato planning leaders' enthusiasm for preparing the region for a rapid rail future.
Tainui Group Holdings, the commercial arm of Waikato-Tainui, has built a reputation for visionary planning with its Ruakura Superhub, a 50-year master-planned 490ha industrial, commercial and residential estate which opened recently and is seen as a gamechanger for North Island supply chain efficiency.
Chief executive Chris Joblin said fast commuter rail will be "crucial" for both Hamilton and Auckland in the medium term future and "will definitely come".
For this reason, TGH has an eye to reopening a long-mothballed underground train station as part of its multimillion-dollar redevelopment plans for 13ha it owns in the Hamilton CBD.
The station, owned by KiwiRail, is under Hamilton city's Centreplace retail complex, which TGH, with joint venture partner Kiwi Property, plans to reinvigorate as part of a wider redevelopment of the central city.
Joblin is confident the Waikato region will end up with urban metro rail and predicts a fast rail link between Hamilton and Auckland will be "hugely successful".
He believes Te Huia should be looked at as "a starting point" with the potential for a fast rail service from 2032.
"I think what we need to focus on is where it's going to end up, which will be in a fast and efficient point-to-point service between Hamilton and Auckland.
"The technology is there for Hamilton CBD to Britomart in under an hour. That's something that would be truly transformational."
The technology Joblin refers to is the Pendolino "tilting" train widely used in Europe that can run on the existing rail structure.
"There are ways now to create a much faster rail system with some greater electrification to get all the way into Britomart."
Meanwhile, WRT has asked the Parliamentary inquiry to consider the future funding of inter-regional rail, the need to develop an inter-regional rail strategy, and the need for an inter-regional rail authority.
It says the Waikato region is a nationally significant transport corridor with both the north Island main trunk rail line and the east coast main trunk line to Tauranga.
The rail lines carried more than a third of New Zealand's rail traffic and were the most used sector of the national rail network, WRT said.
The two main rail lines meet at Frankton, Hamilton.
"While our near-term focus is on ensuring the success of the Te Huia service, we are keen to see inter-regional rail opportunities extended (for both passenger and rail freight) particularly with an emphasis on enhancing passenger rail between Hamilton and Auckland and extending ... passenger rail to the Bay of Plenty," WRT said.
Hamilton City Council general manager, development, Chris Allen said his council was a strong supporter of Te Huia.
"Inter-regional rail is certainly something the council would like to see - fast rail connecting up Hamilton with Auckland and Tauranga."
Te Huia was "about the here and now" while high-speed inter-regional rail was the focus of planning work being led by the Ministry of Transport and involving local authorities.
Part of the city council's contribution was filling in the technical gaps, including identifying strategic train stops for a fast service in the city. A station at Frankton currently serves Te Huia in Hamilton city.
The Rotokauri transport centre in north Hamilton was a logical stop, another option was near the Seddon Park cricket ground.
Allen said it would be challenging to open the CBD underground station but the council was "highly supportive of that as a vision".
The station had only a single track when a double would be needed, and electrification of the line would be required.
TGH was asking for guidance on whether the proposal was technically feasible, Allen said. Considerations included legal titles.
Climate change and carbon emissions reduction and the need to move to alternative forms of transport, including rail, was now an important part of transport planning, Allen said.
The city council supported the call for the creation of an inter-regional rail authority.
"As a council, and through our experience with Te Huia, we know how hard it is for disconnected agencies to try to work together, to put in passenger rail when it's [the task)] got to be shared with Auckland metro, freight and inter-regional rail [entities].
"We say they need to be grouped up into an agency that has accountability and control, and a bit of authority as well."
On planning for fast rail when there were public doubts about the value of the Te Huia service, Allen said: "There's no question there are difficult conversations right now - but it's exciting as well."
Who would fund fast rail and any development of the underground Britomart-style station would be the subject of work such as the Parliamentary inquiry.
TGH's Joblin said reopening the station wouldn't be cheap.
"But we are aspirational. We just see a wonderful opportunity and if we can facilitate that...our role is more facilitation than doing it."
The Ministry of Transport said it was working to complete the business case on the viability of a faster rail service to connect Hamilton and Auckland. An interim business case had been developed between December 2018 and July 2020, when the transport minister had asked for the work to be extended to consider fast rail to Tauranga.
Details such as the final route and station and stop locations had not been confirmed.
The work considered introduction of a faster rail service in the next 30 to 50 years, the ministry said.
The change may add $25m annually to costs during a cost-of-living crisis.