Buckle up for a ride behind the scenes of Aotearoa’s rail regulatory and rail safety frameworks as I share my personal perspective on Te Huia’s recent ban from operating within the Auckland electrified network.
Te Huia train from Hamilton to Auckland has had a rough ride and already faced significant challenges to its very survival (which I will go into in a subsequent post) before the shock announcement on Tuesday 11 July 2023 of the service’s enforced truncation to Papakura.
The was the result of a prohibition notice, issued under [Section 28 of the Railways Act 2005](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2005/0037/latest/DLM342601.html), by Waka Kotahi, which had the immediate effect of terminating the Te Huia rail service at Papakura. This means that the service cannot enter the Auckland electrified area and not stop at Puhinui, where it connects to the Airport Link bus to Auckland Airport, nor at Auckland Strand Station on the edge of Auckland City Centre. Te Huia customers travelling further into Auckland are now required to change to an AT Metro all-stops train or bus, using a different ticketing system, at Papakura Station. This service truncation significantly reduces the attractiveness of Te Huia as an inter-regional travel option and makes it less competitive with car driving in terms of the overall end-to-end customer experience.
