Ohhhhh we are getting so close! The Herald reports:
KiwiRail has agreed to present a proposal to Hamilton City within weeks on a trial daily passenger service to and from Auckland.
“We are refining a proposal to run a service using the Silver Fern railcars between Hamilton and Auckland on a trial basis,” spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said last night.
His comment followed discussions KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn and his passenger services general manager Ross Hayward held in Hamilton yesterday with city representatives.
City transport committee chairman David Macpherson said KiwiRail had offered to work on a proposal over the next couple of weeks to present various cost and timing possibilities to his council, which had allocated $250,000 in its budget towards a rail service.
He said the proposal would be based on two return services daily which, combined with the long-distance Overlander, would offer Waikato residents three trains a day to Auckland.
