Western Bay of Plenty residents are calling for a passenger service between Tauranga, Auckaland and perhaps Hamilton to be reinstated.

In recent weeks, the Weekend Sun's letters pages have bulged with support for reintroducing a passenger rail service between Tauranga, Auckland and perhaps Hamilton.

Tauranga historian Jinty Rorke and Colonel Allan Coster are among those calling for the reintroduction of a passenger rail service between Tauranga and Auckland.

Investing in a Tauranga-Auckland fast rail passenger service will benefit local commerce and tourism, but requires significant Government investment and vision.

This is the call from New Zealand First transport spokesperson Brendan Horan, who is backing a growing community campaign to reintroduce Tauranga's passenger service.

'It needs buy-in from the city and from the Government. If you have a look at what has happened in Tauranga over the last 16 years… we've hit a bit of a stagnation sort of point really where there seems to have been very little long-term planning.”

Brendan says the Government is currently practicing austerity, which means a return of the passenger rail service is unlikely.

'New Zealand should be investing in a long-term plan to benefit New Zealand and New Zealanders, and have an efficient and fast passenger rail service.”

He says there are many benefits to having an efficient rail system, but says railway tracks aren't being utilised properly.

'They are running down KiwiRail. They are laying off maintenance workers. It's quite clear that they don't seem to have the rail infrastructure of New Zealand as their number one priority.”

The Strand, Tauranga – showing the first train to cross the Railway Bridge in 1924. The Monmouth Redoubt can be seen to the left of the train. James Meagher, a driver for New Zealand Railways who was lent to the Public Works Department, drove the first train over the bridge. Photograph from Tauranga City Libraries

KiwiRail general manager Deborah Hume says KiwiRail is always happy to consider adding passenger rail services, as long as they are financially viable.

'As a State Owned Enterprise we are mandated to operate in a commercial manner, and unfortunately there is simply not enough demand to cover the cost of establishing, operating and maintaining a rail service for passengers travelling between Auckland and Tauranga.”

She says the fixed operational costs of running a train are very high.

'Operational costs alone for a commuter service between Auckland and Tauranga would be more than $2 million a year and the service would require around 700 passengers to use it daily for it to be commercially viable.”

These figures are based on the Capital Connection commuter service between Palmerston North and Wellington, which is under threat of closure with the approximate 630 daily passengers meaning the service is 10 per cent under the $2.2 million break-even point.

For KiwiRail to look seriously at operating a Tauranga passenger service it needs 'guaranteed passenger demand”, but management believes demand is far short of the required levels.

Bethlehem pensioner Tim Pickford says a passenger service would make it easier to visit family and friends in Auckland, but he accepts it would be difficult to get enough customers.

'It would be great – but the problem is we don't have the population and the Government don't have the spare money to subsidise it.”

The call for reintroducing the passenger service came from Tauranga's David Dalton who, in a letter to The Weekend Sun, argued the Government has a duty to provide a transport system that does not rely on diminishing oil resources at high prices. He argues the Government must provide KiwiRail with funding for a fleet of electrified railcars.

Te Puna's Jenny and Michael Grose believe a twice-weekly passenger service, which could be linked to an existing freight service, would be a boost to tourism and benefit all Western Bay residents.

Railway engine, Mt Maunganui, about 1920s. Photograph from Tauranga City Libraries.

The Government has been repeatedly criticised by the Opposition for pouring too much money into roads and not enough into rail. Yet, even during the ‘golden age' of passenger train services, rail travel was challenged by motor transport with New Zealanders quick to embrace cars. Today the reverse is happening and rail passenger services are looking more tempting, says historian Jinty Rorke.

'It just seems to me that if we want to get more cars off the road and stop accidents… then having people able to move between our big cities by rail is a very efficient way for tourism now.”

Jinty says reinstating rail passenger services would also provide a safer journey for senior citizens.

'[Road travel has] got a lot more daunting for older people. I know a lot of people who won't drive to Auckland, and certainly not within the city, or on the motorway network.

'Whereas, if you have a train that deposits you at the bottom of Queen Street, with good connecting buses, suddenly you would be able to go up to the theatre, and to go shopping and that kind of thing. Even to go to the art gallery.”

During the 1920s, New Zealand passenger trains carried more than six million tonnes of freight and about 28 million passengers country-wide each year. Railway travel was a familiar part of daily life.

Trips were made between major centres for work and social events. Children also took the railway to get to school.

In 1928, the Taneatua Express was established to provide a link between Tauranga and Auckland. It travelled to Te Puke daily. The service to Taneatua was cut in 1959 due to dwindling traffic, but continued between Te Puke and Auckland until 1967 when it was withdrawn.

Jinty, who came to Tauranga in 1976, says the rail service, introduced in 1928, proved revolutionary.

'It meant that people could actually go by land up to Auckland instead of having to go by sea. So that was a really significant part of the history of the railway.”

Rail passenger numbers declined in the late-1920s, with New Zealanders turning towards travelling by road and air.

After long periods of fluctuating fortunes for passenger rail, including a fleeting service through the Kaimai Tunnel from 1978, the Kaimai Express was introduced in 1991.

It was a long-distance passenger train operated by the Tranz Scenic division of KiwiRail, which was known as Tranz Rail at the time of operation.

Operating from December 9, 1991 – October 7, 2001, the passenger train service ran between the North Island cities of Auckland and Tauranga through Hamilton.

On June 26, 2001, Tranz Rail announced the closure of the Geyserland Express, Kaimai Express and Waikato Connection passenger rail services.

The Kaimai Express was labelled as being too uneconomic to continue and operated for a final time on October 7, 2001.

Jinty says the light rail service mooted would move people from the suburbs into downtown Tauranga without there being the parking problem.

Passenger train services were the heart of networking New Zealand's main city centres, she says.

'It's difficult to get to Tauranga from Auckland airport without taking a bus back into central Auckland and then getting a bus from Auckland down to Tauranga. Really there should be some better way of connecting the main centres.”

Jinty says bringing back the passenger rail service would be like bringing back a piece of Tauranga's history.

'It was something that was particularly well used in the 1920s, 30s and 40s.”

Ex-farmer Colonel Allan Coster, who has lived in Tauranga for about 70 years, says he travelled by railway when his parents lived in Te Awamutu.

'When there was no petrol you travelled by train. It was a good service. A number of people used the service.”