One assumes the only reason why it has not been mothballed is that Transport Minister Michael Wood would rather have taxpayers and ratepayers sink more money into a black hole of hopeless ideology than admit he was wrong.
Passenger numbers remain low at approximately 250 a day, which is half of its capacity. Saturday is the most popular day, no doubt boosted by Goldcard passengers enjoying a free trip.
Politik reports that National MP, Simeon Brown, claims the service was costing taxpayers $280 for each traveller. $280!ACT MP Simon Court made the pertinent comment: “Are you aware that the intercity bus service, which is air-conditioned, has free Wi-Fi on board runs about 14 services a day, starting at 4:20 a.m., running through to 7:20 p.m. from as little as $20 between Hamilton and Auckland Central…They’ll get you there in 2 hours, which is quite a lot less than Te Huia. Is there any need for Te Huia if we already have the private sector delivering these services much more efficiently?”
The obvious answer to that question is “No” but of course, things are never as simple as that when lunatics are running the asylum.
The response from the Waikato Regional Council’s Director of regional Transport Connections was, “I absolutely agree it’s not cheap, but I think if we’re looking at long-term mode shift and getting people off the roads and also using public transport, that’s something we’re quite keen to work with government on”.
So there you have it. The government is quite happy to pay $280 a person to get you out of your car and onto a slow train, with a hopelessly inconveniently schedule, to drop you off at a station where you don't want to be, at a time of the day that does not suit you.
That certainly does sound like Labour Party policy!
Perhaps National and ACT can add Te Huia to the long list of things it will reverse should they become government next year.
5 comments:
So you are saying it costs the taxpayer $70K per day to carry 250 people?
That sure sounds like something Labour would let run.
Maggie Thatcher always said socialism works until it runs out of other peoples money (or something like that).
As Forrest Gump said which sums up the current regime 'Stupid is what stupid does.'
Perfect.
It seems so obvious to everyone who writes and comments on this site. Te Huia was ALWAYS going to be a flop, costing all of us a large amount of money to transport a tiny number of people.
And, there was NO need for it, because as the article points out Intercity more than adequately, and at a fraction of the cost, covers this transport option better than Kiwirail in all respects.
Labour never fails to disappoint at being really bloody disappointing. Yet another cost-saving measure ripe for the picking.
The truly icredible factor is that the clientele is not predominantly maori/trace maori.
one can only hope for someone to claim a taniwha getting hurt by te huia and put a stop to this sinkhole of public funds...
It would be useful to know the patronage figures for each station per train. Perhaps an extra train on Saturday would be successful.
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