Six ideas to secure Te Huia's Future

With Te Huia now having funding secure through to 2026, now is the time to secure its future as a permanent service. Here are six ideas on how to do this.

[Apologies for the lengthy hiatus from posting. No, I’m not dead - just in Australia working on public transport in Queensland. But I’m back and fully intending to resume regular blogging.]

For the uninitiated, Te Huia is a regional rail service between Hamilton and Auckland, running on a five year trial from 2021-2026. It runs twice a day Monday to Wednesday and Saturdays, three times a day on Thursday and Friday, and does not operate on Sundays, public holidays nor over the Christmas - New Year break. It has had a range of challenges and as I said sarcastically in a previous post of mine, “it has suffered more assassination attempts than Fidel Castro.”

Te Huia at Rotokauri Station. Photo credit: Darren Davis

Firstly, an enormous shout-out to the huge efforts from the Waikato and across the Motu that ensured continued funding by Waka Kotahi for the remainder of Te Huia’s five-year trial period. This was a sign of people power at its finest with diverse groups coming together for a common cause and speaking with a single voice. Kia kaha!

Even though the Waka Kotahi funding assistance rate for Te Huia is dropping in steps from 75.5 per cent to 70 per cent in 2024/25 and 60 per cent in 2025/26, Waikato Regional Council is stumping up the difference from its reserves. Waikato Regional Council, Hamilton City Council and Waikato District Council deserve significant kudos for sticking with Te Huia through its various existential challenges. Without sustained political momentum and stamina over many years, along with strong public support, we simply would not have Te Huia.

Now for some ideas on how to entrench Te Huia as an integral part of Aotearoa’s public transport network.

1. More station stops in the Waikato

I have covered work to date on additional station stops in this earlier blog post. I recommend reading this to get up to speed if you’re not familiar with the history.

There isn’t much to update on this which is sad, given the strong growth in the Upper North Waikato communities on the Te Huia route that are not station stops for the service. And it’s sad to note that the Waikato District Council Annual Plan does not include funding to advance work on station stops in their district at Tūākau, Pōkeno and Te Kauwhata. In particular, most employed people in Tūākau and Pōkeno work in Auckland but currently only have local bus service as far as Pukekohe.

However, Waikato District Council is investing in park and ride at Huntly Station which is a positive. But work does need to proceed at pace on serving the fast-growing Upper North Waikato communities, which have extremely limited transport choice apart from driving.

However, hope is not lost. Waikato District Council this year deferred doing a Long Term Plan by one year and instead produced an Enhanced Annual Plan for the 2024/ 2025 financial year. This means that the opportunity is not lost to include funding for new stations in its Long Term Plan process which will now take place next year. One option to contribute to station funding could be a targeted rate on the catchment area for individual stations. This would ensure a tight connection between payee and beneficiary as everyone, including car drivers, benefit from increased use of public transport.

2. More frequency

The unfortunate consequence of Waikato Regional Council having to dip into its Te Huia reserves to fund the increased local funding share is that it takes away a potential source of revenue to fund Te Huia service improvements.

It’s worth recollecting that the original trial for Te Huia was intended to build up to three return trips on weekdays, two return trips on Saturdays and a single return trip on Sundays. However, as I outlined in an earlier post, Waka Kotahi refused to rephase existing committed Te Huia funding to enable this to happen. This has limited Waikato Regional Council’s ability to fund service improvements beyond adding an additional return trip on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 8 February 2024.

Those service improvements generated significant patronage improvements, giving the truth to Jarrett Walker’s famous maxim: “Frequency is Freedom.”

But now that much of the Southern Line Rail Network Rebuild of the Auckland metro network is due to wrap up in January 2025, it is timely to ask why there shouldn’t be Sunday and public holiday Te Huia services from that point.

For example, a single Sunday and public holiday return trip could come up from Hamilton mid-afternoon, connecting via Puhinui Station to Auckland Transport’s Airport Link bus, enabling easy access for Waikato folks to evening international flight departures from Auckland Airport as well as enabling weekend trips away by rail for Aucklanders. This service could return early evening to Hamilton, in turn enabling Waikato folks to have a weekend in Auckland and travel by train in both directions.

Another idea would be to make unbooked seats on KiwiRail’s Great Journeys of New Zealand Northern Explorer train between Hamilton and Auckland available at Te Huia prices to maximise both revenue for KiwiRail and maximise affordable train travel choice between Hamilton and Auckland.

3. Better bus connections at both ends

There are three places where bus connections to and from Te Huia are pretty good - Rotokauri, Papakura and Puhinui. And two places - Hamilton Frankton and Auckland Strand - where they are lousy to non-existent.

At Hamilton Frankton Station, commuter buses from Tokoroa and Te Kuiti, that only operate a single peak trip per direction, are parked up during the day. They would be better utilised for providing trips into the Hamilton Transport Centre, for example meeting the the 12:15pm arrival from Auckland and connecting to the 2:05pm departure for Auckland.

The Tokoroa and Te Kuiti connector buses spend their day asleep at Hamilton Frankton Station. They would be more useful ferrying Te Huia customers between the station and the city centre. Photo credit: Darren Davis

For early morning departures, some early trips on the 3 Dinsdale or 19 Bremworth buses from the Hamilton Transport Centre passing Hamilton Frankton Station on Queens Avenue would be of assistance to better connect Hamilton City Centre to the station.

As for Auckland, AT’s 755 bus does serve Auckland Strand Station. From the city centre, this stops right outside Auckland Strand Station. But in the opposite direction, it involves crossing State Highway 16, the major truck route connecting the Port of Auckland with the motorway network. While there are pedestrian signals not far from the station entrance, the nearest inbound 755 stop is over 200 metres away and lacks shelter. As such, it leaves much to be desired in terms of safety and customer experience.

In the inbound direction, having a connecting bus waiting right outside the station to take people into the city centre would be a significant improvement in the customer experience. This is something that Auckland should be providing to support the success of Te Huia.

4. A station stop in Pukekohe

Rail electrification between Papakura and Pukekohe and the upgraded Pukekohe Station are soon to be completed. But urban train service is unable to resume from Pukekohe until early 2025 as work needs to be completed on the Rail Network Rebuild between Papakura and Pukekohe in the intervening period.

This leaves Pukekohe without any train service - suspended since work started on the electrification project - for up to another eight months. So it would seem obvious that Te Huia could stop at the upgraded station, at least in the meantime, and thereby give Pukekohe residents access to rail, including the ability to access the entire Auckland metro rail network by transfer at either Papakura or Puhinui stations.

This would be a significant benefit to both Te Huia and to Pukekohe and would enable Pukekohe to have some train service while waiting for the completion of the Rail Network Rebuild in January 2025. And this is a benefit that Auckland should be prepared to pay for.

5. Auckland paying its fair share

When it comes to public transport, both the origin and the destination benefit from having the service. The origin benefits as it gives people access to the service and the destination benefits from people making use of what the destination offers - and this includes spending money at the destination.

Auckland benefits doubly from Te Huia. First, from people in the Waikato spending money in Auckland. And secondly, from Aucklanders who use the service to get to the Waikato. At present, the Waikato is paying for both of these benefits to Auckland.

22% of Te Huia’s customers are from Auckland. Source: Te Huia Customer Satisfaction Survey 2023, page 34, Waikato Regional Council

According to Waikato Regional Council figures, 22 per cent of Te Huia’s passengers are from Auckland¹. Therefore, just over one fifth of Te Huia’s benefits are accruing to Aucklanders. In this instance, would it not be fair and equitable for Auckland to be contributing one-fifth of the opex for running the service?

6. The need for more speed

Let’s be clear, Te Huia does not need to break the land speed record for it to be successful. But it could do with a few measures to speed it up, especially within the Auckland rail network where many of its delays occur.

From my various trips on Te Huia, the rough split of timing is as follows:

Hamilton to Pukekohe - 86 kilometres in 90 minutes - average speed 57 km/h

Pukekohe to Auckland Strand - 52 kilometres in 70 minutes - average speed 45 km/h

Between Hamilton and Pukekohe, trains generally run at line speed varying from around 60 km/h through the single-track Whangamarino Swamp section to 80 km/h from the Whangamarino Swamp to Pukekohe and up to 100km/h on some stretches between Hamilton and Te Kauwhata.

The Whangamarino Swamp may be scenic but it sure as hell isn’t fast with train speeds limited to a maximum of 60 km/h. Photo credit: Darren Davis

In the immediate term, there’s not much to be done with the Auckland metro network until the Rail Network Rebuild wraps up on the Southern Line. But KiwiRail, the rail network controller, does have a nasty habit of dispatching a northbound metro services from Papakura just before Te Huia, guaranteeing that Te Huia will be stuck behind a metro service at least as far as Westfield Junction. Letting Te Huia go first would give it a clear run at least as far as Wiri Junction, especially as Te Huia is generally ready to depart before the metro service.

But from January 2025, the rail network rebuild is scheduled to be complete to Pukekohe, enabling resumption of previous line speeds with the lifting of many of the remaining temporary speed restrictions. This should enable some worthwhile speed improvements.

The opening of the Third Main between Wiri and Westfield Junction could enable faster northbound journeys for Te Huia but would most likely involve building a third platform face on the western side of Puhinui Station, or an additional turnout north of Puhinui Station.

Now that Te Huia is finally represented on the KiwiRail timetable committee, hopefully its voice will be heard in the competing priorities between itself, AT Metro services KiwiRail freight and Great Journeys of NZ services, for smoother movement through the busy Auckland metro network.

Longer-term, the double-tracking of the current slow single track section through the Whangamarino Swamp would achieve significant capacity and travel time improvements for freight and passenger transport in the Upper North Island. It would also mean that the entirety of the North Island Main Trunk line between Auckland and Hamilton would be double-tracked (except for the Ngāruawāhia Rail Bridge).

Final thoughts

Te Huia has a two-year period before its trial is due to be completed in mid-2026. This means that work needs to start now on the step needed to guarantee its long-term success as an important part of the national public transport network.

While some of the above suggestions can be implemented quickly, others will take time, such as new station stops, so it’s imperative that this work starts now.

The Waikato has put in the hard yards and deserves our gratitude for this. Now it’s Auckland’s turn to step up to the plate and make a positive contribution, given that it is a significant beneficiary of the service, yet contributes nothing towards it.

We should not assume from the recent Waka Kotahi funding decision that Te Huia’s future is secure. It is still in a trial period and the more successful the trial is, the more likely it is that Te Huia will become a permanent service. Two years may sound like a long time, but the wheels of transport planning in Aotearoa can spin very slowly and two years will disappear very quickly. The time for action to secure Te Huia’s permanent role is now.

1. Te Huia Customer Satisfaction Survey 2023, page 34