Agencies plot way through Auckland’s rail trouble, amidst more cancellations

Friday, 16 February 2024

Train disruptions in Auckland due to hot train tracks

200 train services were cancelled in the first three days of this week.
Mayor Wayne Brown met with executives of rail and transport agencies on Wednesday.
KiwiRail will fix 3.4km of track with heat issues by the end of next week.

While 78 train services were cancelled across Auckland on Wednesday, transport executives met with the city’s mayor in a meeting he described as “a bit like being called up before the headmaster”.

Wayne Brown called in executives from Auckland Transport, KiwiRail, Auckland One Rail and the office of the Minister of Transport to thrash out issues with train disruptions in the city.

“The hot rails was just the last straw on the camel’s back. There’s been quite a few things that aren’t right,” Wayne Brown told Stuff.

Auckland One Rail didn’t have enough train managers and an automatic point system had broken on Wednesday - “that didn’t help”.

Brown said KiwiRail is “having a big hard go” at fixing most of the 4.4km of rail lines that have caused disruptions from speed restrictions imposed when rail temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in vulnerable sections in recent weeks.

“They’ll be down to only 1km of that where they slow them down by the end of next week.”

Cancellations caused by problems with hot tracks have hit headlines this week, but staffing and signalling issues are adding to the headache, Wayne Brown said.

A list of actions was made and the group will meet again next week, Brown said.

The agencies were moving into combined premises in March, where they expected to be working closely together.

“I said ‘start behaving like that now’.”

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown will meet again with the transport agency executives next week.

Brown also wanted the agencies to look at reducing train services so that timetables are reliable.

“It would be far better if we had slightly less services and they all went on time. They’re cramming in too many and they’re letting people down.”

Auckland One Rail’s crew shortages are expected to be resolved by March 11, and all agencies will work to identify ways to fix delays caused by a new signalling system at Britomart.

The new signalling system was installed by City Rail Link teams in January in preparation for Waitematā Station (Britomart) being a through station, Auckland Transport’s director of public transport Stacey van der Putten said.

But delays from the system started affecting train services on January 22, adding one to two minutes each way for every train entering and exiting Waitematā Station (Britomart), she said.

Of Wednesday’s 78 cancellations, 24 were due to speed restrictions from heat and general track speed restrictions, 7 were caused by a train manager shortage, 45 were from a track issue with motor points, and two were due to driver absence.

19 services were pro-actively cancelled for Thursday due to speed restrictions, but there could be more cancellations due to the earlier motor points failure, van der Putten said.