The Loco Loco Madness Continues . . . . .

Graeme from Frankton

I see that Gold Card holders have been getting free travel on the Loco Loco . It has been 'estimated' that this is 24% of the people using this train . I don't know whether that has been measured , or just estimated . They ( Government and councils -- also known as us ) have been throwing around $18 million a year at this ( it is suppoosedly going to reduce to $12 million ) , and no-one has accurately measured this ?
BUT also , is this Grandad and Grandma going on a day trip once a year to the big smoke , or is it someone over 65 , still working , getting their pay each week , plus getting a pension , plus getting free travel ?
It has also been 'estimated' that 30% of the users are from Auckland .
So Waikato councils are paying literally $millions a year each , to subsidise people going to work in Auckland ? And also paying for Aucklanders to travel at subsidised rates to Hamilton ( mainly ) but possibly the greater Waikato .
And last year it was decided that it wasn't losing enough money , so they have put on extra trains on Thursdays and Fridays , so it can lose even more money .
And now , you cannot make upo this madness -- it is proposed by the councils involved that Gold Card holders won't get free travel any more , UNLESS they travel on these 'extra' Thursday and Friday trains .
Presumably , these 'extra' trains aren't getting many people , so they will make the figures look better by saying 'Oh , we have had a 200% increase in patronage on these trains' or some other dishonest reinterpretation of the figures .
And you know what happens on the other days ? Well , obviously there will be less people ( about 24% if their estimates are correct ) or maybe a slight increase in paying passengers , as Thursdays and Fridays may not suit some Gold Card holders . Fair enough . Except these incredibly intelligent councillors don't seem to have realised -- it costs the same to run a train whether you have 60 people or 80 people on it .
As a matter of principle ( every return trip is being subsidised by between $400-500 per passenger per day ) I will not go on this train , but my basic understanding is it is almost never fully patronised ( except maybe some Saturdays -- that is ironic as it was originally 'sold' as being for 'workers' to get to work in Auckland , now it seems it is more to take shoppers away from local shops , and/or to take families on a day out to Auckland .
If it was cost neutral it wouldn't be so bad , but it is only recovering around 8% of what it actually costs , to me it make absolutely no sense on any level .
There are already several buses a day ( which are cost neutral -- in fact , they have to cover costs or they won't be there in a year ) and this train ( which not only costs heaps , it is taking passengers from the privately owned bus companies , and as far as I can work out , is about 8 to 10 times worse for the enviroment per trip than a bus is . So why do some councillors keep on with this idiotic train set ?