First week of Te Huia numbers revealed
It’s been a slow start for passenger numbers on the new Hamilton to Auckland train, with only a handful of commuters travelling on some of the trips.
Figures from Waikato Regional Council shows nearly 100 seats empty on every train after its inaugural journey on April 6. The train, known as Te Huia, can seat up to 147 people.
On the second day of the service, April 7, 21 commuters travelled on the earliest train from Hamilton at 5.46 am, and 40 took the second train at 6.28am.
A week later, figures from Tuesday, April 13 show 28 travellers took the earliest train, then 25 people at 6.28 am. Fortyeight people filled the train at Papakura back to Hamilton at 4.42pm.
The later return trip from Papakura at 6.25pm appears to have the lower passenger numbers, taking 12 back to Hamilton last Monday April 12 and Tuesday April 13.
But Waikato Regional Council chair Russ Rimmington told the service needed time to grow patronage.
‘‘No one is panicking yet, it’s been one week. We are giving this train five years.’’
Rimmington said he believed the success of the service was reliant on getting to Puhinui in south Auckland and into downtown Auckland on one train.
A regional council spokesperson said the Palmerston North to Wellington service, the Capital Connection, also started with a handful of passengers and now took between 250-300 commuters a day.
Rimmington believed the train had ‘‘more potential’’ than the Capital Connection, due to the larger populations of both Hamilton and Auckland, and the expected growth between the two cities.
Te Huia has come under scrutiny this week when a Waka
Kotahi-NZTA board member tweeted the train was ‘‘the worst of both worlds’’.
Board member Patrick Reynolds tweeted ‘‘Te Huia’s current pattern is both slow + poor coverage, worst of both worlds, is one-way effectively; no way to go AKL-HAM in a day, blows through stations it should serve.’’
But chair of Waka KotahiNZTA Sir Brian Roche said he was ‘‘extremely disappointed’’ by Reynolds’ remarks.