Getting back on track for a weekend holiday

How easy is it to plan a long weekend away in Aotearoa New Zealand if you are not going to drive or fly? InterCity buses offer some options. But what about a train trip, perhaps also taking your bike? Maybe, heading out from Auckland to Hamilton to explore the city’s world-famous gardens, visiting their museum and walking the river trails. Or, in the summer, travelling from Auckland or Hamilton to Mt Maunganui for a beach weekend? Friday evening until Monday afternoon in the mountain town of Ohakune? For those in Christchurch, a couple of days in Dunedin? Visiting wineries in Hawkes Bay?

Unlike the rest of the world, a weekend adventure, even over a normal two-day weekend, by train in Aotearoa New Zealand is virtually impossible. Few long-distance passenger rail services remain and those who do make it extremely difficult to plan a weekend away.

But it was especially bad during Labour weekend 2024. During that public holiday, most metro train services were not operating in either Auckland or Wellington due to railway maintenance and upgrading. That made it especially difficult to run longer distance passenger trains that use these networks for part of their journeys.

This affected Te Huia. But instead of explaining why it was not running due to rail work, a rather bizarre explanation was given by its operators. Te Huia normally runs on a Saturday. However, if you go from Auckland to Hamilton for a weekend, do not expect to come back on it. Even on a normal weekend, it does not run on Sundays.

Just before Labour weekend, Te Huia’s Facebook page announced the train was not operating over the three-day weekend.

This prompted a series of comments suggesting the trains should run on such weekends. The response from Te Huia operators was that the train is a ‘public service’ and that most public services do not run on long weekends. Tell that to hospital staff, those who police our roads, the crew of inter-island ferries and, of course, airlines.

The idea that it could not run due to rail works would have been more palatable. However, commenting on these shutdowns, rail consultant Michael van Drogenbroek noted:

“The social license to cancel all trains over all lines on many weekends and all public holidays for maintenance track possession is coming to a end and the excuses are wearing thin for some. In just about every other place worthy of note in the World these global network closures for years on end (and it has been the case for many years here in NZ now) on whole networks do not occur. They are much more limited despite many rebuild requirements from time to time.

Once CRL is open, the third main and network rebuilds complete by 2026 this should not continue in this manner - there are far too many comprehensive track possessions for a railway and it must be well outside the norm bandwidth regardless of track work required. We all understand a need for some track possessions given the amount of works underway but quite simply the quantum and frequency of these track possession closures is getting out of hand and must be addressed as a matter of priority in both Auckland and Wellington.

We need stronger informed clients (AT and GWRC) on the rail to push back on the easy option for the network provider KiwiRail on continuous network possessions for now what has been well over a decade.”

But unfortunately, the ‘end’ in Auckland or Wellington will not be soon and, in Auckland, will get worse before it gets better. It has just been announced that Auckland's train network will have to close for 96 days as part of a final push to get the long-awaited City Rail Link (CRL) finished and ready for 2026. The first major shutdown will go from 27 December 2024 until 28 January 2025. In Wellington, there remain regular weekend shut downs.

Had the Capital Connection been running over 2024 Labour weekend, it too would have been affected by the rail maintenance work. However, the Capital Connection, linking the Manawatu and Horowhenua to Wellington, never runs on weekends or on public holidays. It is operated as a once daily commuter train, sitting idle on rail sidings between these trips.

Sadly, it is also not used for events, such as taking people from out of the Wellington region to and from a sellout rugby game or a concert. Yet, on 19 November, with people travelling from Palmerston North to join the protest Hikoi in Wellington, the train was so full it could not pick up passengers south of Levin. Te Huia was used to bring mourners to the tangi of the Maori king.

But what about the ‘commercial’ KiwiRail operated Northern Explorer? Sorry, you were also out of luck planning a long weekend away. Over Labour weekend there were no services from Wellington to Auckland and just one train from Auckland to Wellington, travelling on Monday.

But even at the best of times, it is not possible to plan a weekend trip from Wellington to Ohakune, unless you want to make it a four-day weekend. The Northern Explorer does not run daily. It is primarily a tourist train, catering for wealthy travellers from all around the world, not a ‘public service’ for ordinary kiwis.

In contrast, just across the ditch, for those many kiwis now living in Sydney or Melbourne there are many options for a longer distance weekend train trip. Unlike New Zealand, these are true ‘public services’.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, we should not be catering only to those who can drive. Even for those who choose to fly, there are places that it’s difficult to reach by plane or flights simply do not exist, such as a link between Wellington and Ohakune. And there are people who take climate change seriously and want to use very low emission train travel.