KEY POINTS:
Auckland train operators have apologised for almost getting a public transport campaigner arrested, saying it was a case of mistaken identity.
Jon Reeves, 35, of the Campaign for Better Transport, was canvassing at Glen Innes station on Wednesday when a woman over an intercom demanded that he stop "harassing" passengers.
Mr Reeves used the station's emergency phone to ask for an explanation but was told he was banned from the trains for not having a ticket - even though he held up his rail ticket to the supervisor's CCTV camera.
He was then confronted by police as he waited on the platform for a train home even though he had already stopped asking passengers to sign his petition for the Get Airport Rail Campaign. Police said he should leave the station.
Yesterday, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, which runs the city's railways, said security staff at the station thought he was another man who ran from a train earlier without paying for a ticket. Train operator Veolia, which is contracted to ARTA, had asked security to keep an eye out for the man.
ARTA chief executive Fergus Gammie said staff went over surveillance footage yesterday and discovered they had approached the wrong person.
"We want to make it clear that ARTA and Veolia do not have a problem with people lawfully gathering petitions.
"We apologise for everything that happened, that humiliation that [Mr Reeves] felt. It was a case of mistaken identity. It's the sort of thing we would never want to happen again."
Mr Reeves said he had been contacted by ARTA yesterday and told he was allowed to campaign at Britomart outside peak times as long as he checked with it first.
Some good has come out of the incident for him however - 300 people had logged onto the campaign's website and signed the petition.
