New Hamilton – Auckland commuter train to begin in August

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#2437536 13-Mar-2020 13:25

A rapid rail line is also being investigated that would travel at around 160km/h and get between Hamilton and Auckland within an hour:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120231612/government-investigates-rapid-rail-between-hamiltonauckland

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wellygary

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#2437542 13-Mar-2020 13:32

Obraik:

A rapid rail line is also being investigated that would travel at around 160km/h and get between Hamilton and Auckland within an hour:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120231612/government-investigates-rapid-rail-between-hamiltonauckland

"The Ministry of Transport was looking at a technology known as tilt trains, used frequently overseas, travelling at speeds of around 160 kilometres per hour. It would require building an entirely new, straighter line, and the trains would be electric. "You would be talking quite a few billion dollars."

Twyford is simply tossing out comments to make the trainspotters get all excited,

Spending billions on long distance electrified passenger rail when there are freight lines (Tauranga) needed more capacity is simply plain politics and looks nice on the election pamphlets in Hamilton....

I would file it with the

"Light rail to Mt Roskill will take four years to build," from Labour's 2017 election manifesto....

Obraik

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#2437546 13-Mar-2020 13:36

wellygary:

Obraik:

A rapid rail line is also being investigated that would travel at around 160km/h and get between Hamilton and Auckland within an hour:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120231612/government-investigates-rapid-rail-between-hamiltonauckland

"The Ministry of Transport was looking at a technology known as tilt trains, used frequently overseas, travelling at speeds of around 160 kilometres per hour. It would require building an entirely new, straighter line, and the trains would be electric. "You would be talking quite a few billion dollars."

Twyford is simply tossing out comments to make the trainspotters get all excited,

Spending billions on long distance electrified passenger rail when there are freight lines (Tauranga) needed more capacity is simply plain politics and looks nice on the election pamphlets in Hamilton....

I would file it with the

"Light rail to Mt Roskill will take four years to build," from Labour's 2017 election manifesto....

I really hope it's something that happens. Currently, our public transport lacks speed and convenience. It's a tough sell telling people to give up their car when it takes longer to go the same route via public transport. The country is overdue some proper investment in this.

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JimmyH

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#2437551 13-Mar-2020 13:55

The proposal looks nutty to me. It sounds warm and fuzzy, but I question whether the numbers even remotely stack up.

My understanding from an article I saw elsewhere is that the Govt plans to invest $90 million into trains and track to make this happen, for and expected 300 commuters. Go being generous and assuming that the trains etc depreciate at 4% per year, and that the government's cost of capital is 2% (the current Treasury capital charge on departments for investments is 6%), that's $18,000 per year (=$375 per week, assuming people work 48 weeks a year) per commuter in depreciation and capital costs. Before they have even paid for staff or other running costs.

Either they will price the tickets well north of $400 per week just to break even, or a large annual subsidy/loss will be involved.

And how many people will pay over $400 per week, to sit on a train for over 23 hours each week (2 hours 20 min each way x 5 days), to commute to work.

I would love to see the Treasury advice on this "investment".

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#2437560 13-Mar-2020 14:28

JimmyH:

I would love to see the Treasury advice on this "investment".

As if this govt will listen to any inconvenient advice. The same govt that banned oil and gas exploration with no public mandate, and are now investigating whether it should give the Minister of Energy power to “reallocate electricity or gas in situations of acute electricity or gas shortage.”

I love the idea of high speed rail, having travelled on many fast trains overseas, but I like things that stack up economically better!

It would probably be cheaper to fly the 300 passengers to Auckland.

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#2437565 13-Mar-2020 14:54

Dingbatt:

With giga-bit internet and 5G, there really isn’t a need for a lot of the organisations that are in the Auckland CBD to be there.

NZ business (especially anything from 50+ stuff) is too conservative. Even online businesses does not allow/motivate people to work from home, but ask them to get to office and seat at the desk working on the online platform.. go figure.

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#2437573 13-Mar-2020 15:33

AT are surely going to have to increase capacity from Papakura, if they actually get 300 people heading north from Hamilton. If the train is already full when it gets to Pukekohe, it won't be able to be used as one of the scheduled Pukekohe-Papakura services either. Same deal for the return trip. I do recall reading somewhere that AT were adding more three-car EMUs and more frequent services to increase overall capacity, so perhaps that will be the answer (Until it all goes pear-shaped like it did yesterday when a freight train broke down at the Otahuhu station which stopped passenger train movement until repairs were completed. Or the multitude of other issues/delays that seem to occur multiple times each week.)

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#2437589 13-Mar-2020 16:25

Noone would want to do that commute daily. Masterton to Wellington would be just about be the extreme amount of time, someone would want to travel on a daily basis.

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#2437591 13-Mar-2020 16:26

I often take the train from Pukekohe to Britomart and back.

There is barely time for a dozen people to get from one train to the next at Papakura, let alone 300. So sometimes I just drive to Papakura to avoid that hassle. Also the Pukekohe-Papakura train is often MIA.

Papakura to Britomart costs $6.40 one way (HOP card price), when I travel mid-morning. Does the price change depending on the time of day?

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#2437597 13-Mar-2020 16:46

No, adult pricing is the same regardless of time and day. SuperGold card holders have to pay full adult fare before 9am weekdays.

I think kids under 16 are free on weekends with the right concession on their cards (I think it's a loaded concession. Not sure about week days during holidays etc).

Unless it's changed recently.

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dt

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#2437641 13-Mar-2020 17:59

Obraik:

our public transport lacks speed and convenience. It's a tough sell telling people to give up their car when it takes longer to go the same route via public transport. The country is overdue some proper investment in this.

I had a mate fly in from overseas for a boys trip up north, he stayed with his parents the night before we went away with the plan to catch public transport to mine for a 6am departure.. turns out it was quicker for me to battle peak our traffic from north auckland to east auckland and back than it was for him to take public transport..

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#2437655 13-Mar-2020 18:17

dt:

Obraik:

our public transport lacks speed and convenience. It's a tough sell telling people to give up their car when it takes longer to go the same route via public transport. The country is overdue some proper investment in this.

I had a mate fly in from overseas for a boys trip up north, he stayed with his parents the night before we went away with the plan to catch public transport to mine for a 6am departure.. turns out it was quicker for me to battle peak our traffic from north auckland to east auckland and back than it was for him to take public transport..

That's kind of an outlier example. Given that funding is not infinite, public transport should first focus on the routes that the greatest number of people travel regularly, and provide a good service in that.

dt

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#2437659 13-Mar-2020 18:33

Gurezaemon:

That's kind of an outlier example. Given that funding is not infinite, public transport should first focus on the routes that the greatest number of people travel regularly, and provide a good service in that.

Yeah fair enough, was hardcase at the time nonetheless

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#2437694 13-Mar-2020 20:31

dt:

Gurezaemon:

That's kind of an outlier example. Given that funding is not infinite, public transport should first focus on the routes that the greatest number of people travel regularly, and provide a good service in that.

Yeah fair enough, was hardcase at the time nonetheless

Yeh, I bet. It's frustrating to need to go against or across the flow of where the most people need good public transport. But it is still a net good. It'll be a long while before we can get past needing a car per family for anyone who doesn't live in the central city, or can deal with the inconveniences of car-sharing, etc.

bmt

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#2438023 14-Mar-2020 15:40

Appears to be a roughly 40km journey from Cockle Bay to Albany. He wanted to arrive, by public transport, at 6am. Heh.

Think you'll find that even if East Auckland was served by any semblance of reasonable public transport he would still take a long time wanting to travel 40km across the entire city and arrive before 6am...

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