A public transport trip across the motu
We're already just about half-way through 2025, so let's do a recap on public transport happenings across Aotearoa in the past six months.
While it’s been a tough time for public transport across the motu, there are developments of interest and encouragement that show us that people will use public transport that is simple, connective and as frequent as possible.
But firstly, some acknowledgements and recommendations are in order. I have mined the weekly NZ Transit Buzz reviews for the content for this post and highly recommend subscribing to this as well as to Greater Auckland, Multimodal Adventures and Better things are possible for interesting and topical transport, housing and urbanism content.
And secondly, a bit of housekeeping. Some readers struggle with my use of Te Reo Māori place names. To that I point out that firstly Te Reo Māori is an official language of Aotearoa/ New Zealand and, secondly, us Pākehā often unilaterally changed the names of places that already had names without bothering to ask the existing inhabitants if that was OK with them. That seems a tad rude to me so I make no apology for using Te Reo Māori place names as well as their Te Reo Pākehā counterparts to introduce each location.
Monday 3rd February 2025 - Pukekohe
Pukekohe Station reopened and electric train service started at the completion of the Pukekohe to Papakura electrification project. Electric trains now serve the major growth hub every 10 minutes at peak, every 20 minutes during the day, and half-hourly in the evening every day of the week.
Monday 10th February 2025 - Pukekohe
Te Huia added Pukekohe as a station stop, dropping Papakura at the same time. The new stop gives Pukekohe residents access to the Waikato while retaining the connection for Waikato passengers to the Auckland urban train network at Pukekohe and Puhinui.
Wednesday 12th February - Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland
The first test train travelled through the 3.45km City Rail Link tunnel under Auckland City Centre as the very first step in an extensive testing process in the lead up to the public opening of City Rail Link in 2026.
Friday 7th March 2025 - Te Papaioea/ Palmerston North
This week marked one year since Horizons Regional Council launched their fully electric bus fleet and new bus network into Palmerston North and Ashhurst, leading to a 41.3% increase in patronage to just shy of a million annual boardings at 999,415.
Sunday 27th April 2025 - Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland
Auckland Transport launched 26 electric double-deckers on the WX1 Western Express frequent service from Northwest Centre to the city centre via the Lincoln and Te Atatū bus interchanges. The capacity increase is to meet the growing demand from the new Northwest bus network launched in November 2023 which hit 5 million passenger trips in its first year and is now well above pre-pandemic patronage levels.
The WX1 runs every 10 minutes all day, every day of the week and every 15 minutes in the evening until midnight.
Monday 28th April 2025 - Tauranga Moana
Tauranga’s new permanent city centre bus stops opened on Durham Street, making it easier and more accessible for passengers to catch the bus. This relocated stops from the temporary hub further along Durham Street to a location closer to the University of Waikato Tauranga campus, city centre retail and Tauranga City Council’s new offices on Devonport Road.
Monday 28th April 2025 - Ōtautahi/ Christchurch
Metro’s Route 7 Halswell to Queenspark passengers saw the frequency of the service increased thanks to funding from Waka Kotahi/ NZ Transport Agency and Environment Canterbury.
The service now runs every 10 minutes from 5.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays and every 15 minutes outside of those hours, including on weekends.
Saturday 17th May 2025 - Ōtautahi/ Christchurch
The first of the revived Southerner train journeys set off for Ōtepoti/ Dunedin, being the first time since 2002 that a scheduled inter-regional passenger service has stopped at Te-Tihi-o-Maru/ Timaru and Dunedin. The four-day Southerner revival sold out in record time and is being repeated for a three day run from October 25th to 27th. Seats are still available and you can book here. I was fortunate enough to be on the first trip and highly recommend it. The scenery between Te-Oha-a-Maru/ Oamaru and Dunedin in particularly is simply spectacular and nearly completely missed by the State Highway 1 route over the Kilmog and Waitati Hill.
Friday, 30th May 2025 - Kirikiriroa/ Hamilton
The Te Huia rail service is one step closer to launching a Sunday return service to Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland which could be get underway as early as July with an indicative timing of the service leaving Hamilton at 3pm with a return service leaving Auckland at 6pm. As an aside, this means that once the Sunday service gets underway, Aotearoa would have a single inter-regional train with a public transport focus running every day of the year. Which doesn’t seem too much to ask for.
Monday, 30th June 2025 - Tāhuna/ Queenstown
Route 1 from Sunshine Bay to Remarkables Park via Queenstown town centre and Queenstown Airport gets timetable adjustments. It is frequent all-day, every day of the week, every half-hour late evenings and runs from 6am to 1am every day of the week.
Jacks Point gets a direct service to Queenstown town centre for the first time and Kā-muriwai/ Arrowtown gets a faster service to Queenstown via Malaghans Road and Arthurs Point. The current route 2 Arrowtown service will now run via Five Mile to Frankton Hub to serve the major retail areas on the Frankton Flats. More info on the Queenstown changes here.
Final thoughts
While the current government may not be as public transport friendly as its predecessor, regions around the motu are still getting on with the job of making the best of things and implementing service improvements when and where they can. As someone who has spent most of my career in public transport, it can often seem to be a thankless task so we should be grateful for the work of regional council and Auckland Transport staff, even as we urge them to do more, better and faster.
In this post, I’ve largely focused on service improvements but let me know in the comments if I have missed anything you consider significant.
Thanks for the update Darren.
Malcolm Rose. Stop displaying you racism and ignorance! If that is all you have to say, then if I were you, I'd shut while you're still ahead.