Auckland trains to run at half speed for six months due to urgent track repairs

Thursday, 13 August 2020

Auckland rail commuters face six months of disruption after KiwiRail decided 100 kilometres of worn track should be replaced urgently.

From Monday, the network-wide speed limit will be cut from 80 kmh to just 40 kmh and Auckland Transport will cut the frequency of commuter services to 20 minutes, half the current peak level.

Some trips may take 50 per cent longer than at present.

“We understand this will be frustrating for commuters and do apologise for this disruption,” KiwiRail’s chief executive Greg Miller said.

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The work will be the biggest disruption to Auckland’s rail network since electrification was completed in 2014.

“We hope to add some extra services at peak times to ensure that we can meet passenger demand, but this speed restriction will unfortunately mean longer journey times for all our customers of up to 50 per cent for this temporary period,” Mark Lambert, the general manager of integrated networks, said.

The state of Auckland’s tracks has been an issue since mid-2019 when localised urgent repairs were made on damaged sections of track.

In September 2019 Kiwirail announced engineers would walk the full 200 kilometres of Auckland track to check the levels of wear. That work would take one month.

A media statement from Kiwirail on Thursday did not make it clear when the scale of the work required was known and when decisions upgrading its urgency were made.

Commuters make 22 million trips on Auckland’s network annually and it carries six million tonnes of freight.

Miller described the six-month programme as “anticipated” and said it was part of the $1 billion programme to modernise and prepare the network for the growth that will come with the City Rail Link, due to open in 2024.

Stuff has sought further explanation from KiwiRail.