Weekly Review No.133
Inside this edition: Train groups welcome ex-KiwiRail shunters to fleets, more City Rail Link ad campaigns begin and Te Huia fares to increase.
Kia ora and welcome to the Weekly Review. We are where you are, follow us on X, BlueSky and Instagram @NZTransitBuzz.
Transport investigators are convinced the 2024 grounding of Interislander’s Aratere ferry with dozens on board will not be repeated.
Works on Westgate Bus Station are nearing completion, with most of the major site works completed and only a few minor work sites remaining. Crews are currently planting the landscaping, fitting wall covers, installing glass and pouring footpaths.
The base for the station signage beacon has been cast and electrical cables have been pulled, ready for installation. The traffic lights to access the station have been partially installed, with some signals still to be fitted.
The Eastern Busway project has shared renders of the final stage of the Eastern Busway, Whakamaumahara – Guys Reserve to Botany Town Centre.
Works are underway at Ritchies Westgate bus depot to add electric bus charging infrastructure. The chargers are being added where the Pavlovich Coaches used to be parked and are the same brand of chargers installed at other depots.
With the cost of fuel at an all-time high, Taupō District Council Tūrangi councillor Sandra Greenslade says her ward needs a commuter bus.
Transport investigators are urging the 183 passengers who were on board the TranzAlpine when it broke down inside a tunnel north of Springfield to come forward as part of a formal inquiry.
A Taranaki school says it has received a “final warning” over the behaviour of pupils from the school bus company and is pleading with parents to speak to their children.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council will end the Baybus OnDemand trial service in Tauranga South in December. Council said it had strong patronage and customer satisfaction, but needed a significant ongoing subsidy.
Start-up Kara Technologies is nearing the public launch of an AI sign language platform that will translate announcements into NZSL using a hyper-realistic digital avatar, with AT lined up as the first major partner for train, bus and ferry updates.
The project, built in partnership with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Foundation, has spent more than two years digitising the unique gestures, facial expressions and body movements that make up NZSL.
Bad behaviour is said to be the reason a Taumarunui-Hamilton bus service is being cut, but the mayor’s not buying it. The 40-seat shuttle does a daily round trip, taking not only hospital patients but also regular travellers if spare seats are available. That will end on June 26 when it is replaced by a smaller, health-only shuttle - leaving no public transport that can get people to Hamilton and back in a day.
The Taumarunui Rail Action Centre have welcomed shunting locomotive Tr920 to their collection. These shunting locomotives have been phased out and some have been scrapped with others being sold to various railway Heritage groups in New Zealand.
Goodwood School in Cambridge has purchased a 1976 Daimler Fleetline double-decker bus previously owned by Robbies Double Decker Travel. The bus will be transformed into a multi-purpose space for staff and students once restored.
Invercargill City Council has agreed not to move forward with a proposed increase in the city’s public transportation fares in the upcoming financial year.
The decision to continue with current public transportation fares, rather than move forward with the proposed increases, would have a 0.09 per cent rate impact within Council’s 2026/2027 Annual Plan.
Kinetic Group have transferred ex GB8936 from their Māngere Depot to their Glenfield Depot and the bus has been given the N prefix, now living as N8936. It is unclear when it will return to Urban Service, but it is believed to be used as the replacement for NB5950, which was damaged and written off in a crash in late 2026.
Construction work on 29 of the 30 level crossing safety upgrades along the Wairarapa Line is complete. Surfaces have been renewed, pedestrian lanes installed, and safety barriers in place (but not operating yet). The barriers come online in early 2027.
KiwiRail has identified three potential construction partners for delivering the ‘design sprint’ needed for the Government to proceed with funding the Marsden Point Rail Link. The three companies are: Acciona, a Downer/HEB joint venture, and Martinus Rail.
Auckland Transport have unveiled a new advertising campaign ahead of the City Rail Link opening. Posters appear to be localised to the installation region, showing the local train stop and another destination on the new line.
A park-and-ride system servicing Waikato Hospital could be trialled as soon as next year, with land by Frankton railway station floated as a possible location, a Hamilton City councillor says.
Auckland Transport is proposing to create a new stop on Lake Road for route 814, move the bus stop next to the Belmont Shops playground (bus stop 3488) and add a new bus stop layover on Williamson Avenue for route 805.
Work to redevelop Port Marlborough’s ferry infrastructure is gathering pace with the main contractor now appointed. HEB Construction will help with design review and manage planning and logistics for the new wharf and linkspan.
Waikato regional councillors have voted to increase Te Huia fares by 25%, meaning adult one-way fares from Frankton to the Strand would cost $32.50 with a Bee Card.
Councillors also agreed that services would remain largely the same for the final year of the trial. Patronage for March and April is up 52 per cent compared to last year, with fewer track disruptions meaning more services and better reliability. Council noted that higher fuel prices were likely encouraging more people to leave their cars at home.
A temporary train platform could be built at the tiny settlement of Hopuhopu to accommodate a massive influx of visitors for next year’s Te Matatini Kapa Haka festival. The festival, one of the nation’s biggest cultural events, will be held at Tūrangawaewae Marae at Ngāruawāhia from February 23-27, 2027 with organisers forecasting up to 100,000 visitors over the course of the event.
During the King’s Birthday rail closure, crews lifted three 26-tonne, 20-metre beams to form the pedestrian overbridge at Ngākōroa Railway Station. Crews also installed reinforced steel, poured the bridge slab, & drilled hydrant pipes underneath the track. The hydrant pipes will be used to transport high-pressure water for firefighting.
KiwiRail says nearby stations Drury and Paerātā will open in the next few months, with Ngākōroa to follow in 2027
Passengers will notice security guards on board some Dunedin buses. ORC is trialling the security service, using qualified uniformed staff on board buses on routes across Dunedin six days a week from 2.45 pm to 9.15 pm during term time.
The guards will be monitoring behaviour to help make the buses feel safer and more welcoming for everyone. On-board security on Dunedin buses will be trialled for the next two months. ORC is planning to introduce it on Queenstown buses later this year.
Whangarei District Council have installed T2 cameras on Kamo Road and Bank Street that monitor vehicles using the lane during its operating hours. The cameras are set to be made live in the coming months. The T2 lane is open between 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday and is always open to buses.
Via Greater Auckland: It is now over three months since the fuel crisis started as a result of the Straight of Hormuz being closed. And, while petrol prices have largely disappeared from the headlines, the data shows we’re definitely seeing what you might call a “Trump Bump” in public transport and cycling numbers.
Auckland light rail. Transmission Gully. Dunedin Hospital. The Interislander ferry replacements. Not just multi-million-dollar infrastructure projects, but ones that have been paused, delayed or cancelled by various governments. Research carried out by economist Shamubeel Eaqub has found stop-start decision-making over the last 25 years has cost taxpayers an estimated $11.8 billion
Waikato Regional councillor Liz Stolwyk says she will look into complaints from regional bus users that stops have been dropped from the Cambridge, Kihikihi-Te Awamutu and King Country services without communication other than via the bus driver.
Ōhaupō now has only one stop instead of two, which left one person who spoke to The News having to go all the way to Te Awamutu and back again, a round trip of 22 km. This report follows similar complaints from Cambridge users.
Mainline Steam Heritage Trust have welcomed former KiwiRail shunter TR897 to its fleet. TR897 will be based in Plimmerton and will be used to shift, organise, and manage MSHT’s heritage rolling stock.
All pedestrian level crossings across Auckland’s passenger rail network now have automatic safety gates, part of a city-wide rail safety programme for when CRL opens later this year. The final pedestrian safety gates were opened this week at O’Neills Road in Swanson.
To be ready for City Rail Link, 26 pedestrian safety gates have been installed and 15 level crossings have been closed or replaced with a safer connection over the past 10 years. Across the network, a programme of about 250 other safety improvements at rail level crossings are close to completion – including footpath improvements for pedestrians, lighting and signage upgrades, tree trimming and median island treatments.
New pedestrian bridges at Glen Innes, Takaanini and Te Mahia stations to replace level crossings are due to be opened in the coming months.
Ken Turner has revealed that a new Geotech Report commissioned by Watercare has been done on the Nihotupu Tramline depot and shunting yards and the 100 meters of track has been given a clean bill of health.
The news comes after a visit to Jacobson’s Depot by 40 delegates attending the 2026 FRONZ Conference in Auckland.
During the Weekend of May 31, the Omnibus Society took delivery of a Mk2 AEC Reliance #374, which arrived from Masterton. Crews also relocated the Thornycroft inside to be worked on. The Greenline Isuzu also made the move and in future will go inside.
Goldfields Railway has shared an update on their track closure. At this time, they do not have a date for restarting passenger trips. While trips are suspended, crews have been performing maintenance on wagons and locomotives, including the open and bike wagons.
As KiwiRail retires its diesel shunts, they are being replaced with a 110-tonne capacity electric shunt vehicle (ESV) from Zagro. These are already in service at KiwiRail’s Hutt Workshops.
Following customer feedback, Metro Canterbury has added two new pickup locations for their Event Direct services.
The new locations are:
Princess Margaret Hospital
Barrington Mall
Bookings are required in advance and close at 5 pm the day before the event and can be booked on the Event Direct website.
BayBus are trialling new bus stop signs at 33 bus stops in Tauranga to make it easier for passengers to check live bus information while they’re at the stop. The new signs include a QR code that links directly to live departure information for that bus stop.
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