Save the Capital Connection

*Disclaimer: all views are entirely personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Kiwirail, TranzMetro, the RMTU, or any other player in the rail indsutry.*

In September of 1995, my family arrived in New Plymouth after emigrating half way around the world from Wales. I lived there until I moved to Wellington for university, and for a while after that my family stayed there. For the last few years however, my Dad has lived in Palmerston North. This has been great for me, because I've been able to catch the Capital Connection to go visit him, my stepmother, and my young half-brother. 

The Capital Connection is the only non TranzMetro service that receives a Kiwirail staff discount of 75%, meaning I can get a return trip to Palmerston North for under $20. Even without this discount though, the cost of the journey plus its ease and facilities (on board bar, woo!) makes it a very attractive service for connecting between Wellington and Palmerston North. Both times I have stowed my bike in the luggage van and then cycled the short distance from the station on one end of town to my Dad's house on the other side, and then done it all in reverse to get home again. Taking Palmerston North's generous (well, versus Wellington!) cycle lanes into account, travelling to Palmerston North without resorting to a car becomes a very attractive option when this service is available. Unfortunately, the Capital Connection is being threatened with termination for some really stupid reasons.

According to Kiwrail, the Capital Connection is set to run at a loss of around $700,000 in 2015-16 if Kiwirail has to fund the service alone (http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/67474959/Regional-council-considers-subsidy-for-Capital-Connection-in-budget). Given Kiwirail's extremely tight budget due to the Government's reluctance to invest in rail, and the short-sighted requirement for SOE's to do nothing more than make a profit, it makes perfect sense for Kiwirail to axe the service in this scenario. If no one else came to the party on funding the service, I would reluctantly agree with Kiwirail - there are a lot of essential repairs to the Wellington network alone that could be achieved with that money. However, that isn't the point - the point is that the Capital Connection is being treated as part of Kiwirail's 'Scenic Journeys' network, when it is anything but. 

The Capital Connection is undoubtedly a commuter service. The vast majority of its passengers are commuters, and as for the scenery there really isn't that much to see. Maybe that's because I grew up in the 'Naki and I'm used to seeing endless farmland, but honestly there's nothing particularly scenic about that journey. The real service it provides is a fast, efficient, catered service between two of New Zealand's major cities. This type of rail service is extremely common in other parts of the world, particularly Europe. By connecting two cities via a transport corridor which is entirely separate to the road infrastructure it is possible to promote commerce, reduce congestion, and expand the range of housing options available to people. Tory Governments in Australia and the UK are quite willing to invest billions of dollars/pounds in rail infrastructure because they recognise the importance of using rail to relieve road congestion. National seem to have missed the Tory memo on this however, and are hellbent on pouring endless dollars into uneconomic roading projects while doing their best to ignore the rail network entirely. Those trucking industry campaign donations are hard at work!

So why haven't the New Zealand Transport Agency included the Capital Connection in their commuter network subsidy before? I've no idea, but I suspect a Transport Minister or Chief Executive in their infinite wisdom at some point saw it as a way to save money. Either way, NZTA are now (potentially, upon various conditions) willing to come to the party on part funding the Capital Connection alongside the two regional councils who benefit from the service - Horizons Regional Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council. According to the article linked above, Horizons and GWRC would fund a quarter each of the projected shortfall while NZTA would fund half - that will mean approximately $175,000 for each regional council and $350,000 for NZTA based on the $700,000 shortfall figure. This figure could potentially be closer to $500,000 though.

On the 24th of March, Horizons Regional Council voted unanimously to fund the subsidy up to a maximum of $110,000 a year for 5 years. The fact that the vote was unanimous is an extremely important signal to central Government that the people of Palmerston North and Manawatu want this rail link sustained. However, $110,000 will potentially fall slightly short of a quarter of the service's current shortfall. Based on a shortfall of only $500,000 Horizons would need to front $125,000 a year. The extra $15,000 could probably be found if needed, but hopefully NZTA would pick up slightly more than half of the tab to cover this instead in recognition of the unanimous vote achieved by the council. As far as I'm aware, GWRC haven't voted on this matter yet but the article states that: "A spokesperson for Greater Wellington Regional Council said no provision had been made in its draft Long Term Plan for a subsidy to fund the train."

On the whole, it looks as though the service will potentially survive beyond its current termination date mid 2015. This is not an inevitability however - many people have been making a concerted effort to retain the service for their communities. A group called Save the Capital Connection have launched a strong campaign to retain this vital link. You can check out their facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheCapitalConnection?fref=ts and their website here: http://www.savethecapitalconnection.nz/ There are many things you can do to help them out, such as signing letters and sharing promotional material through social media. Labour MP for Palmerston North Ian Less-Galloway has also been advocating very strongly for the service - see here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/67454685/Campaign-to-save-Capital-Connection-train-service and here: http://www.iainleesgalloway.co.nz/blog?view=47

New Zealand's rail network could be doing so much more for us if central Government were willing to invest more into it. We have the bones (although some of them are in need of some TLC) but now we need the muscle - we need central Government to invest in services that connect New Zealanders with each other, relieve road congestion, and reduce C02 emissions. That means subsidising commuter services which connect our provinces; purchasing, upgrading, and maintaining modern commuter carriages; and upgrading and maintaining our rail infrastructure so it can perform at its optimum. Please lend your support to Ian Lees-Galloway and the Save the Capital Connection campaign so we can retain this vital rail link!

*31/03/2015 Edit: Typical Central Wellingtonite aye...I completely forgot to add that the Capital Connection serves as an essential rail link for the towns it connects between Palmerston North and Waikanae, which is where the Wellington suburban network terminates. Otaki is part of the Wellington region, yet it has been left out of the network with electrification ending in Waikanae. Otaki needs a rail connection to Wellington, and the Capital Connection is the only one it's got! A separate blog post will be coming about this quite soon anyway though.*