The CBT strongly supports the reintroduction of a commuter rail service between Hamilton to Auckland. Our Hamilton members spent a considerable amount of time on this campaign, but unfortunately we couldn’t get buy-in from central Government and consequently the local councils opted not to pursue this.
We haven’t given up hope though – the electrification of Auckland’s rail network will present another opportunity to push the case for rail to the Waikato.
The CBT strongly supports the reintroduction of a commuter rail service between Hamilton to Auckland. CBT members have recently made a number of submissions on the Waikato Regional Rail Discussion Document, which has been put together by Environment Waikato (EW).
Of key note in the document is the potential for a Hamilton – Auckland commuter rail service. An EW study in 2006 found that the service would be feasible. Successful longer distance commuter rail services already exist in New Zealand between Wellington and Masterton, and Wellington and Palmerston North. These cities are a fraction of the size of Hamilton.
In 2001 the Hamilton to Auckland commuter service was stopped by Tranzrail due to low patronage, however that service only ran once a day and did not pass through Hamilton’s central underground station (which was built in the 1960s and has not been used since the late 1990s) nor did it come into Britomart station, which had not yet been built.
Find out more at www.votetrains.org.nz
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