The North Island Main Trunk rail line between Auckland and Wellington is 680km long, mostly electrified, and low speed for intercity rail (80-100kph). It’s a major public asset, but woefully underutilised.
The line currently allows trains to run at around 80-100kmh – low-speed by international standards, but comparable to local highway driving. Upgrading the line to allow speeds that would be anywhere near competitive with flying (ie true High Speed Rail) would be wildly expensive, so let’s assume that’s off the table.
The train trip between the North Island’s two biggest cities takes around ten hours. This is only competitive for *non-time-sensitive* markets, i.e. for trips where journey time is not the critical benefit. The top end of this market, scenic day jaunts for tourists rich in time and cash, is relatively small. This market is already being served here by a [Kiwi Rail subsidiary, ](https://www.greatjourneysnz.com/scenic-trains/northern-explorer-train/)which also runs two South Island services on the same model.
