Labour has ploughed tens of millions of dollars into the very slow train from Hamilton to Papakura, and now the initial gloss has worn off it has proven to be a white elephant:
New figures reveal the Te Huia Hamilton to Auckland train is only a quarter full on weekdays.
Newstalk ZB can reveal there are just 34 people, on average, who ride the train on weekdays – the train has a capacity for roughly 150 passengers.
That means 75 per cent of the carriages are empty on Monday to Friday.
Newstalk ZB can also reveal revenue brought in by ticket sales on an average weekday is just $1679 – or less than half a million dollars a year.
Meanwhile, cash ticket prices for the service have gone up.
The numbers come from an Official Information Act request provided to National’s transport spokesman Michael Woodhouse.
He said the Government is losing money hand over fist on a project no one asked for.
“We believed this service just wouldn’t be patronised and we were right.”
He said when the service launched, there was a lot of fanfare with MPs and officials on the first trip.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was one of the first passengers – she and a number of other MPs were on the inaugural trip.
When the service launched in March, Waikato Regional Council chair Russ Rimmington was adamant it would not become a ghost train – even going as far as saying he would give away tickets, if necessary.
But Woodhouse said the numbers paint a very different picture.
NewstalkZB
It most certainly is a ghost train, with ghost passengers. What a colossal waste of taxpayers money.
Even with highly subsidised fares, no one wants to use it. It is too slow, too unreliable, and too inconvenient.
At least we have a new dictionary meaning for the word Huia – Noun. Def. Something very expensive that no one ever uses. Example. “The council built a really expensive skate park but it’s turning into a bit of a huia as no one ever uses it as the kids all use the skate park down the road.” Origin. Maori.
Huia, noun, example: “Everyone should ride the train”. Yeah Right/Huia kidding?”
Time to end the nonsense. It’d be cheaper and better for the environment to give each of those 35 people a free Tesla.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD