They actually are quite specific in what they want, they want a restoration of all our intercity rail services, to a level of service that existed back in the nineties. It's not about commuter rail, as many commenters here seem to think.

In other words, they want the government to spend a few hundred mill on rolling stock, and still more on other subsidies, on a service that would take nearly twice as long to go between Auckland and Wellington as a bus. They've completely lost touch with reality.

This is also ignoring the fact that diesel rail isn't that much better than road transport, and can even be worse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In other words, they want the government to spend a few hundred mill on rolling stock, and still more on other subsidies, on a service that would take nearly twice as long to go between Auckland and Wellington as a bus.

Driving time WLG <=> AKL is about 7.5 hours. Assuming a 15 minute break every 2 hours, that's about 8.5 hours. It's 650km, so that's about 76km/hour on average. I'm sure a train can go as fast / faster than that; definitely not <40km/hour like you suggest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The northern explorer is 10h 15min Auckland to Wellington, and travels almost exactly the same distance.

I thought it was slower, but it's still much slower than road transport.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yep as right now it's a scenic route, so no focus on speed. I agree, right now it's not a very good alternative to driving. That's the point, that should be improved; it should be faster than driving.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It's actually faster than a bus somehow, although a bus ticket is forty bucks.

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