Further but declining disruption for Auckland rail commuters

Friday, 21 June 2019

KiwiRail is bringing in staff from around the country to speed up the replacement of worn tracks in Auckland

Auckland rail commuters face ongoing disruption into next week due to urgent track replacements, but it could be only a handful of trains a day.

Cancellations at short notice began last Monday as high-tech track inspections by KiwiRail found new sections of worn track that needed replacing.

KiwiRail expects to work nights and weekends for months to check and replace worn track in Auckland.

Auckland Transport which runs the commuter services said better communication with network owner KiwiRail, will allow it to better manage services around speed restrictions imposed on affected tracks.

KiwiRail said it had so far checked only one-third of Auckland's rails, but that one-third included the oldest and most-worn sections, with 9kms needing replacement.

* Auckland Mayor Phil Goff slams KiwiRail's city train blackout 'unacceptable'

* Auckland train chaos: 5000 commuters delayed after signal fault halts trains

* Auckland train cancellations could continue this week**

Commuters have faced almost a fortnight of disruptions due to a combination of overhead line faults, the speed restrictions on badly-worn sections of track, and signal failures last Friday and Monday.

Auckland Transport had been taken by surprise with the speed restrictions imposed last week by KiwiRail, meaning fewer services could be run especially in the morning peak.

Eight were cancelled in the morning peak alone, on Monday last week.

Stacey van der Putten, AT's Group Manager of Metro Services said the number of cancelled services had fallen to just several expected today (Friday), and a similar level into next week.

Van der Putten said it was not yet clear how long disruptions would continue, as state-owned KiwiRail completed the rail-checking and replacement.

'We need to try to get it to happen quicker, and if we can do it by shutting down services earlier on some nights to enact that, we will do that to support KiwiRail,' she told Stuff.

KiwiRail said it had as little as 2 hours each weeknight available to close the rail lines to replace track, and was bringing in staff and specialised equipment from other parts of the country to speed-up the repairs.

While there had been a long-established inspection regime, KiwiRail said the introduction of new, high tech equipment which could test the deterioration in steel rails, had identified the worn sections.

'We need to cut out and replace those sections, some of which date from the late 1970s and 1980s,' said Todd Moyle, KiwiRail's chief operating officer.

Those sections of track are the Eastern Line and the southern line from Otahuhu, while the Western and Onehunga lines, and through Newmarket and Parnell were more recent and expected not to be so worn.

Auckland Transport runs the commuter services through contractor TransDev, but it is KiwiRail which is responsible for the tracks, overhead lines and signalling.

Commuter rail services hit a rough patch just days after After Transport celebrated the milestone of rising patronage reaching 100 million trips in a 12 month period.

The mayor Phil Goff stepped in demanding KiwiRail do a better job, after two signal system failures in five days, temporarily shut the network.

Moyle told Stuff that in the Wednesday failure, a contractor who should have been working on a nearby property, mistakenly cut through a fence surrounding KiwiRail's Auckland signalling centre, and turned off the power.

'There wasn't much more we could have done to prevent it,' said Moyle.

Back-up systems were still not working normally following the previous Friday power failure.

KiwiRail has promised to beef-up the system, and instigated two reviews.

Moyle said the checking and any new replacements would continue for several more months.

Auckland Transport said it would consider cutting some of the last night services to extend the overnight working time available to KiwiRail, and thanks to earlier warning from the network owner, was able to better plan how to minimise disruption, and give commuters advance notice through social media and AT's Journey Planner.