‘Vision cast’ for Te Huia to connect Golden Triangle, and more

Saturday, 17 May 2025

The future of Te Huia could include an extension to connect the Golden Triangle and a central city station, according to regional leaders.

“Up to hourly” services, a Hamilton CBD station, train upgrades, electric rail and connecting with Tauranga were among the possible short and longer term investments discussed at Friday’s Future Proof Public Transport committee meeting.

With the Te Huia’s trial set to end in June 2026, options and possibilities for its future, including potentially extending the trial, were outlined in reports presented to the committee.

A Green Party policy released on Wednesday proposing to extend the service to Tauranga, adding stops in Morrinsville and Waharoa, had councillors discussing not only the future of the service, but how far it could go.

In light of “cementing” Te Huia, Waikato Regional Councillor Angela Strange asked for comment on “the vision that's been cast for it to go beyond connecting just Waikato and Auckland”.

Transport consultant James Llewellyn said while “in principle” they were “very interested” in exploring the extension of services over to the Bay of Plenty, it would have to be done within “a solid business case context”, and in conjunction with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

“They [Bay of Plenty Regional Council] will clearly have an interest and views around the benefits and indeed costs of a service from Tauranga through the Kaimai Tunnel over to Hamilton and then on to Auckland.”

“It's important that we do a piece of work which really tries to nail down the problems that regional rail will solve, that for example buses we provide already can't solve.”

Committee chair Bill Wasley pointed to the fact that the Waikato Regional Plan and Transport Plan talk about wanting to “embed” and “enhance” the role of regional and interregional rail.

He said the discussion was “consistent” with policy direction, “subject to it being attractive and deliverable from a business perspective.”

The Bay of Plenty would also have their own policy position, said Wasley, and there would need to be work done to align the two.

With the trial period funding for Te Huia ending mid-2026, Llewellyn, who’s working on three projects centred on the future of Te Huia said getting the trial extended would be the “key challenge”.

He said they would need to make a strong case in the end of trial review report, which is due in March or April 2026.

“That really is the critical issue here.”

He said a business case making the point that further investment in improving Te Huia will deliver ”significant benefits in excess of costs“ would also be key.

Details of potential improvement options that would address key complaints about Te Huia, mainly frequency, duration and stop locations, were also outlined.

Llewellyn said further investment in the service could include more frequent services “potentially up to hourly”, a maximum city centre to city centre journey time of two hours, “ideally shorter”, new stations at Pōkeno and Tuakau, and new “rolling stock” to replace the ex-British Rail 1970s Mark 2 carriages.

Strange asked Llewellyn to “touch on” what a Britomart-like centre for Hamilton could enable, and the “handbrake” that was electrification between Hamilton and Pukekohe.

“We are aware that KiwiRail are in the process of finalising a business case for electrification of the line from Tauranga through to Hamilton and up to Pukekohe where the current electrified system stops,” said Llewellyn.

That would be a “game changer” because it would mean they wouldn’t be limited to hybrid electric, battery or hybrid diesel trains.

“If that business case is ultimately funded by the Government it will represent a significant improvement to the capability of that line.”

“It will allow, for example, trains to accelerate and decelerate much quicker.”

Regarding a CBD station, he said Frankton Station was “not well located”, and would not make sense if the trains were to run hourly to Auckland or extend to Morrinsville.

“The key question…is what are the opportunities for a new central station in Hamilton to support that longer term service.“

Before the discussion was closed, Matamata-Piako Mayor Adrienne Wilcock added that she had herself taken the last train from Morrinsville to Tauranga with her children before the service stopped, over 20 years ago.

“There was an opportunity at some stage,” she said.

Wilcock said it would be an “interesting development”.

“The tunnel is the pinch point and there’s freight, so let's see how they understand the whole concept and see how it might work in the future.”