The future of Hamilton\u2019s Te Huia Hamilton to Auckland rail service remains uncertain, with Waikato Regional Council looking at asking for an extra year of trial time – with the same level of government funding.<\/p>\n
Regional councillors will meet on Thursday to vote on a proposal to support, or not, sending a letter to the New Zealand Transport Agency\u2019s (NZTA) board asking it to extend Te Huia\u2019s five-year trial until June 30, 2027, and to maintain the NZTA\u2019s 60% Financial Assistance Rate (FAR).<\/p>\n
A draft letter from the council moots another year of trial, with reasons including the impact of Covid delays and repeated Auckland network closures in 2025.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0[train service](https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/waikato-times\/news\/124752741\/the-race-to-auckland–can-a-car-beat-the-new-te-huia-train)\u00a0has faced \u201cquite a few challenges\u201d that meant it only really got to run for three years and nine months of the five-year trial, the regional council\u2019s internal transport committee chairperson Angela Strange said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The future of Hamilton\u2019s Te Huia Hamilton to Auckland rail service remains uncertain, with Waikato Regional Council looking at asking for an extra year of trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":331678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[294,163],"tags":[9332,13716,9334],"class_list":["post-331642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-zealand","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-hamilton","tag-te-huia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t