Auckland Rail: Years of disruption until network fully up to speed
Tuesday, 27 July 2021
Auckland rail commuters face nearly four more years of disrupted travel until an unprecedented programme of maintenance and network upgrades are complete.
KiwiRail, which owns the track network, is part-way into a five-year programme which kicked off after reports in 2019 revealed decades of under-spending had created a safety risk due to wear-and-tear.
The latest nasty surprise for commuters has been reduced speed and frequency on the southern line since mid-June, when track inspections found a series of track-changing “turnouts” needed replacement.
The euphoria of the arrival Auckland’s world-class electric train fleet in 2014, lasted just over five years before it became apparent, the trains were far flasher than the ageing tracks they ran on.
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KiwiRail’s chief executive Greg Miller made a safety-based decision that a major upgrade was needed, and after the highly-disruptive initial phase in early 2020, expected the next years would be less dramatic.
“The biggest high-risk area has been done, the first 134 kilometres of rail (renewed), 22,000 track sleepers (replaced), the next phase is the turnouts adjacent to platforms,” Miller told Stuff.
“That is less of an impact on services because the train is already slowing for platforms – the network can operate for commuters quite well with turnouts (being replaced) close to platforms.”
The southern line hit for passengers came as Auckland Transport – which runs commuter services – had been hoping for a re-build in patronage after Covid-19 lockdowns and changed work patterns.
Auckland Rail Patronage had peaked at an annual 22.3 million pre-Covid-19, but has slumped to 12 million – with 40 million still the target by 2031.
Auckland Transport said patronage for the second week of the school holidays compared with the same week in 2019 – showing rail was still suffering more than other modes.
“We had overall patronage of 80 per cent (compared with 2019) with ferries at 97 per cent, buses on 80 per cent, and trains at 73 per cent – showing the result of closures and reduced reliability,” said Mark Lambert, the general manager of integrated networks.
Lambert hoped the southern line could return to a normal timetable and frequency within a fortnight, and begin rebuilding patronage.
He described as a “challenge”, AT’s target of getting overall public transport use up from the 64 million trips taken in the year to July, to 82 million in a year’s time.
KiwiRail’s Miller took a glass-half-full view of the scale of investment and the nature of the work going into Auckland’s network.
He said the company had seen 500 people work on the network for up to a year, while the investment included new long-term maintenance machinery and stockpiling turnouts for future replacements.
Later phases in the programme included upgrades for the $4.4 billion City Rail Link (CRL) tunnels due to open in late 2024, by which time the network passenger capacity will more than double from 40 million to 90m.
A third southern track will provide more capacity and flexibility for future track maintenance, and extending electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe will remove ageing diesel units.
The familiar pattern of line closures at weekends, nights and in summer will continue until the CRL is commissioned.
Miller said the fact that there had been less disruption in past decades was partly due to less maintenance being done than required.
“We don’t ever want to go back to where we were a decade ago, by not maintaining it well enough,” he said.
“Ninety trains an hour is really significant, and with that intensity comes more maintenance and more capital.
“Ultimately the commuters of future generations will say that was a great investment, without knowing the intricacy,” said Miller.