Inter-City Trains Between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga? Yes Please

Five days ago (from when this article was written) I had posted the idea (technically reposted) of hourly inter-city passenger train services between Auckland to Hamilton, and every two hours out to Tauranga. I stated that we are not looking for Japan Bullet Train style services of 320km/h but more to the 160km/h services that run between Japanese cities as standard, and the TILT train in Queensland. The reason 160km/h is that both the TILT Train, and Japan standard intercity services run on the same narrow gauge of 1,067mm as rail does in New Zealand. No expensive laying down of broad-gauge rail tracks for high-speed rail, but can bring our existing narrow-gauge rail up to speed – as it were.