A regular train service connecting Hamilton with Auckland will begin next month making return trips from Frankton to Papakura twice a day during the week, and once on some Saturdays. The government put more than 80 million dollars into a five-year trial of the Te Huia service, with another 12 million from local authorities. Karyn speaks with the Chairman of the Waikato Regional Council, Russ Rimmington.

In Karyn's weekly catch up with the Mediawatch team, Colin Peacock talks about reports of increasing aggro and menace on the streets of the capital. Also, doubling down on political polls, and RNZ stalwart slapped down for straying out of his lane.

Tens of thousands of primary school children are going to learn how to recognise stroke symptoms and be able to act quickly through the "St John in Schools" programme. Jacci Tatnell is St John's head of community education and she joins Karyn to explain the programme.

Australia's Westpac Banking Corporation has confirmed it's considering the potential sale of its New Zealand business. In an update to the stock exchange, the parent bank says it's looking at whether a sale would be in the best interests of its shareholders. Karyn speaks with the CEO of Business NZ, Kirk Hope.

A year ago today New Zealanders started lock down levels to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Tonight Karyn Hay speaks with epidemiologist Michael Baker about New Zealand's approach including the latest positive Covid-19 case - an MIQ worker at Auckland's Grand Millenium Hotel who has recently been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Parliament is sitting in urgency tonight so that the Government can push through changes to the bright line test in the housing package it unveiled this morning. Legislation for other changes, including removing the ability of property investors to offset mortgage interest against rental income, will be passed at a later date. Karyn speaks with CoreLogic's senior property economist, Kelvin Davidson, about the new housing package.

In our trip to the regions tonight we're on the West Coast where the West Coast Regional Council has been accused of causing coastal erosion by allowing big companies to take too much gravel from riverbeds. Retired Grey District Council harbour supervisor Cedric Trounson has some questions for the council and so do NIWA who have noted the same problem of coastal erosion on the West Coast due to the extraction of too much gravel. Cedric is concerned that gravel extraction from Grey River was starving Cobden beach of the gravel it needed to protect the foreshore, and was making it even more vulnerable to storms.

Once a fortnight on a Monday night we chat technology. Tonight we have possibly the busiest man in tech, Sir Ian Taylor, from Animation Research. Sir Ian's company provides the graphics for the America's Cup and for sports fixtures across several countries. But things changed drastically on many fronts when lockdowns prevented travel and sports tournaments were cancelled. Now, Animation Research is doing all the same tournaments virtually.

Susana Lei'ataua talks to the BBC's Pete Ross in London for our weekly look ahead to the big international news stories coming up this week

The Corrections Minister, Kelvin Davis, is calling for an urgent overhaul of the way women prisoners are treated. Judge David McNaughton found last month that Mihi Bassett and two other inmates had been treated inhumanely in Auckland Women's Prison. At Bassett's sentencing today he said she had suffered enough and would not get extra time on her sentence for arson at the prison in 2019. Professor Tracey McIntosh is co-head of Te Wananga o Waipapa School of Maori Studies and Pacific Studies at University of Auckland.