Friday, August 5, 2011

Justify THIS!

Auckland-Hamilton is a hr drive: roughly $20 petrol, $40 return. So how can $90 be justified for an Akld-Hamilton return train ticket?!
There'll be three special Akld-Hamilton train services during the *yawn* Rugby World Cup. None of them leave from Akld's central city Britomart location, so travellers have to get to the designated stations first...
The matches are:
Friday Sept.16 - All Blacks vs Japan
Sunday Sept.18 - Wales vs Samoa
Sunday Oct.02 - Wales vs Fiji
The adult prices:
Ellerslie, Newmarket, the Strand, Glen Innes, Middlemore, Manurewa to Hamilton return $90
Papakura-Hamilton return $80
Pukekohe-Hamilton return $75
Huntly-Hamilton return $60
WTF??!! $60 for a return from Huntly!!! It’s not much more than a 20min drive, and the public transport bus service does it for $8 return with a bus card!
Mind you, who is this service aimed at? Aucklanders who want to see these games? Nuh, as only one match features the All Blacks. These are more likely targeted at tourists who need to get to Hamilton, so they're better than a rental car anyway. Coming from overseas, tourists’re more used to trains taking them where they need to go. The prices are higher than they would otherwise be though, because everyone's trying to scalp the tourists, aren’t they?
Ha, welcome to New Zealand!
Then again, if the service is NOT patronised (whether because of the inflated prices or otherwise), the NZTA will turn around and say: “Look, not enough train passengers, we should build more motorways.”
Either way, the public can't win with public transport...
(...thanx to AKT)

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