Michael Wood has got some moxie, for a short man. He’s rejected the mockery that has come the way of the slow train from Hamilton to Papakura, a train aptly named after an extinct bird:
Transport Minister Michael Wood has rejected commentary that the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train is too slow to succeed, saying it’s already faster than a car on certain days.
He maintained the journey, with at least a two-and-a-half-hour journey to Britomart, wasn’t too slow for commuters.
“Sometimes this service is as fast or faster than a car, and I want to be really clear about that, because I’ve been on those journeys when you’ve been absolutely stuck, and this is more reliable.”
Stuff
Really? With a car you can go around blockages; a train is stuck on its rails. But there is simply no way that this train is a viable alternative to a car to travel between Hamilton and Auckland.
Wood, who spoke to Stuff in Hamilton while visiting the rail-served Ruakura inland port development, said he was highly confident the service wouldn’t flop before the five-year funding was up.
Stuff
Bold move. It would have been cheaper to buy every commuter a new Tesla than fund the slow train running between Hamilton and Papakura…
He reiterated Te Huia was a start-up service in only its first few weeks.
Potential improvements included bringing the train to a more central stop in Auckland, adding more services, and creating more stops in towns between the cities.
Stuff
Not sure how adding more stops is going to improve the speed of a slow train. They are more likely to slow it down even further.
Someone needs to tell Michael Wood that he’s dreamin’. Perhaps he should be nicknamed Blind Freddy.
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