I completely agree with David Dalton's letter saying Tauranga should have a passenger train service with Auckland. I agree too with the editorial view that Tauranga should have a suburban commuter train service. Tauranga is a growing city and is starting to develop Auckland style traffic problems.
Auckland is investing in it's rail system - Tauranga should do the same. KiwiRail has Silver Fern railcars which have recently been refurbished, sitting idle, which would be ideal for a Auckland-Hamilton-Tauranga-Mt Maunganui service. Auckland is currently electrifying it's rail network and will soon have a large surplus of perfectly good diesel trains.
A few of these would be ideal for a local rail service between Te Puke-Mount Maunganui-Tauranga Central-Omokoroa. Now is a perfect time to introduce a rail service for Tauranga while surplus trains are available.

Kathryn Arnold, Tauranga.