This morning there was further disruption on the city’s passenger rail network, as all trains running on the Western Line between Britomart and Newmarket were cancelled until further notice due to “infrastructure issues” at Britomart Station. Services have resumed.
Onehunga Line services were also cancelled between Newmarket and Penrose, but have now resumed.
Commuters were told to expect further delays and cancellations to Southern and Eastern Line services. At 10am, Auckland Transport (AT) said train services across the network were experiencing delays of up to 20 minutes.
UPDATE 10:20AM
Clearance has been received. Platform 2 & 3 at Britomart station are open. Western Line services have been reinstated from Britomart-Newmarket. Onehunga Line remains cancelled from Newmarket-Penrose. Kiwi Coach buses still running from Newmarket-Britomart. https://t.co/Qq3KtFTTab
— Auckland Transport Travel Alerts (@AT_TravelAlerts) February 13, 2024
It comes after AT said potentially one in three train services will be cancelled and the commuter chaos could continue until March.
Brown told Newstalk ZB that representatives from AT, KiwiRail and Auckland One Rail are being called to a meeting this afternoon and “will be getting a bloody good bollocking”.
“I mean the rails get hot and that’s a worldwide problem and what they do is slow the trains down. It does not mean they should cancel them left, right and centre,” Brown said.
“AT blames KiwiRail, who blames Auckland One Rail, and all that needs to stop.”
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said Auckland was in a "bit of a shambles". Photo / Michael Craig
He conceded Auckland was in a “bit of shambles”.
AT director of public transport Stacey van der Putten said trains had not stopped, but potentially every third train would be cancelled at peak hours. An AT spokesperson said on some days, a third of trains might be cancelled, but on other days more services could operate.
Trains throughout Auckland this week have been disrupted due to the “heat” affecting the tracks and causing significant disruption to rush-hour commuters.
An NZME employee trying to get the train to work this morning said workers were confused about what trains were cancelled or delayed.
“I’m on the Western line, the train gets to Newmarket, we sit for a few minutes while AT people are trying to figure out what to do,” he said.
“A six-carriage train of people are told to get off the train, go up the escalator and get on the train coming on platform 4.”
This morning, commuters were told even more disruptions were likely due to the “KiwiRail track infrastructure issue at Britomart Station”. The Western Line had been cancelled and heavy delays are expected on the Eastern and Southern Line.
“Platform 2 and platform 3 at Britomart are out of action until further notice,” AT said.
AT confirmed a total of 80 train services were cancelled on Monday. Of those, 30 cancellations were related to temporary speed restrictions on the network. Twenty-four cancellations were related to heat that was in part caused by the other speed restrictions. Fifteen cancellations related to a temporary train manager shortage, and 11 cancellations due to a passenger alarm being activated and the train being temporarily disabled.
KiwiRail said the heat had caused the steel in the rail lines to move if the trains passed over them too quickly, leading to speeds on the line being lower and subsequently fewer services being able to run.
Van der Putten said with the present weather conditions, there will be restrictions on the lines until the underlying problems are resolved.
The issues could continue until March, van der Putten said.
She said off-peak trains ran at a frequency that was not affected by the restrictions, but during the peak hours when trains are running every 10 minutes, the services had to be staggered.
KiwiRail general manager metros Jon Knight said there had been varying amounts of heat-speed restrictions on parts of the Auckland metro network every day since its January 15 reopening.
Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.
