It remains to be seen how much covid-19 will impact the Hamilton to Auckland rail service

A tentative early-November start date has been marked, after initially plans to roll it out on August 3.

The lockdown resulted in work on the Huntly and Rotokauri stations - as well as work on carriages in Lower Hutt - having to stop until restrictions eased during Levels three and two.

However Waikato regional councillor Hugh Vercoe says before the pandemic, they were expecting high patronage.

He says covid-19 has put a lot of question marks up in the air -- they note from the bus service around Waikato has dropped considerably.