Auckland commuter rail closes after track fault
Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Auckland commuter rail services shut down early on Wednesday evening after a track fault damaged a number of trains.
Trains running on the Auckland Western line on Wednesday afternoon were damaged after lengths of old rail that had been replaced earlier this year ended up too close to the track.
“When the rail was removed it was left alongside the track for later collection, as is our usual practice,” said KiwiRail Chief Operating Officer Todd Moyle.
“Over the past week contractors have been cutting and stacking that rail ready for removal. On Wednesday afternoon it was found that a few units had clipped some of this rail.”
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Moyle said KiwiRail was “taking this incident very seriously and working with our contractors to understand how this has happened”.
“The line was closed while inspections were carried out along that section of the line to ensure all the used rail is stored safely.”
“We apologise for the disruption this has caused.”
On Thursday morning Auckland Transport said most services are now running to the standard timetable, but may be running with reduced seating capacity for the morning peak times.
AT advised motorists to refer to platform electronic displays or the AT Mobile App for current train capacity and available seating.
On Wednesday Auckland Transport said a damaged section of the track was detected around 4pm near Morningside on the Western Line, and that trains needed to be checked for potential damage.
The council agency said it did not know how many of the trains in the Auckland fleet may have crossed the damaged section, which has since been repaired, but hoped normal service would resume on Thursday morning.
AT said buses would replace all train services after 8.30pm, except for normal service which continues between Papakura and Pukekohe.
At one point one of the twin tracks on the western line was closed while peak hour trains returned to nearby stations until a reduced frequency service could resume.
It is the second major disruption to the Auckland commuter rail this month and has hit services just as Auckland Transport hopeda major series of track closures in late 2020 resolved safety concerns on the KiwiRail-owned network.
Service frequency on the southern line was reduced for four days in mid-June 2020, after KiwiRail found a series of worn sections that needed urgent replacement.
A series of line closures, each lasting weeks, occurred last year in Auckland after KiwiRail’s monitoring of worn sections of track, found problems that needed urgent attention.
KiwiRail embarked on a $200 million repair and replacement programme, including bringing in new machinery from Australia, to grind the surface of some tracks.
Auckland Transport, which runs the services on the state-owned track network, has been frustrated at the return of urgently needed repairs, just as rail patronage, hard-hit by lengthy disruption, was recovering.
Auckland Transport has added 15 new electric trains to its 57-strong fleet in the past 18 months, to cope with what had been strong patronage growth until Covid-19, and the 2020 closures, shed passenger numbers.