Final whistle for rail plan

A proposed commuter rail service to Auckland has run into a political storm with National MP David Bennett branding it a waste of time.

Hamilton City Council transport chairman Dave Macpherson has responded by saying Mr Bennett is out of touch.

The commuter service hangs in the balance despite a top-level meeting between Hamilton politicians and KiwiRail yesterday.

KiwiRail is to come back to the city council in about two weeks with a final price for a trial service for the council to either accept or reject.

But Mr Bennett today cast further doubt on the plan by saying the train wouldn't be able to get into the Britomart station.

A peer review commissioned by Environment Waikato of the original feasibility report on the service backs Mr Bennett's claims by talking of an "impasse" on fitting into Auckland's peak morning timetable at Britomart.

Mr Bennett also said the service would use old diesel railcars environmentally worse than cars, and the region shouldn't be asking for more Government money when it had a huge amount of money put into finishing the Waikato Expressway within 10 years.

He was reacting to criticism from Labour MP Sue Moroney who said he hadn't supported the campaign.

She suggested Mr Bennett appeared to have been scaremongering by suggesting the rail plan would somehow threaten the Government's expressway funding.

Mr Bennett responded by saying the Waikato Expressway was "a huge deal for us".

"You have to be realistic," he said. "The Waikato has received the biggest boost of any province by getting the money to finish the expressway within 10 years. From a political point of view you don't want to mix your messages.

"You have to look at what you are proposing. A service has been trialled here and it didn't work."

He said people didn't seem to realise that the train link between Hamilton and Auckland hadn't been electrified and it would cost a huge amount to do so.

"So what you're going to end up with is a diesel train that's not clean or green. You're going to end up with an old refurbished diesel train that's probably had its useful life.

"Why would you want to complicate it by talking about another form of transport that doesn't work anyway?"

Mr Macpherson said Mr Bennett was out of tune with 85 per cent of city residents who had supported the plan in a recent survey.

"The guy's living in the past," Mr Macpherson said. "If your local MP is chairman of the Transport Select Committee and he's firing off things like this without once having come to talk to us about our plans, there's something wrong with the man."

He said there had always been a problem getting into Britomart which is why the proposal was to take the train to Newmarket which had a rail service to West Auckland and a new shuttle bus service to central Auckland.

He agreed Silver Fern diesel rail cars were only a temporary solution until more modern trains were available.

Mr Macpherson said KiwiRail had said the only reason the original Waikato Connection failed in 2001 was because Environment Waikato refused to contribute an annual subsidy of $100,000. Otherwise it would still be going now.

Mr Macpherson hinted that for the council to accept KiwiRail's price for the trial, it was possible fares would need to be higher than the suggested $24 one way.

"We think people might have to be willing to pay a little bit more."

He said to drive to Auckland and park for a day would probably cost $40 in petrol and another $20 to $30 in parking.

He rated the chances of the trial going ahead as "better than even".

"I'd put a bet on it but I wouldn't bet my house on it."

- © Fairfax NZ News