Since last year, passengers have endured the worst run of delays, cancellations and network meltdowns from the time the Britomart station opened in 2003. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Since last year, passengers have endured the worst run of delays, cancellations and network meltdowns from the time the Britomart station opened in 2003. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Just as more Aucklanders move to public transport, the rail system grinds to a halt — again — with the worst run of meltdowns so far. Geoff Cumming investigates why the trains don’t run on time.
Things often get worse before they get better, but for long-suffering Auckland rail passengers the prelude to electric trains is beyond a joke.
Patronage is booming as frustrated commuters abandon cars in anticipation of a smooth, quiet ride on shiny new trains. But experience of the city's long-heralded alternative to congested roads and parking charges ranges from disillusion to despair, with many people reverting to sitting in traffic jams.
Since late last year, passengers have endured the worst run of delays, cancellations and network meltdowns since the Britomart station opened in 2003. In March and April, the latest months for which figures are publicly available, a staggering 21 per cent of services ran more than five minutes late. That's not counting trains that were cancelled or broke down, which Auckland Transport measures separately. In April, 746 trains (7 per cent of all services) were cancelled and average lateness per train was 2.6 minutes - performance measures far worse than the hugely busier and more complex London overground train network.
The statistics only hint at the ripple effects of train breakdowns and signal failures at vulnerable spots which send the three-line network into meltdown. These have been happening almost weekly, on average.
In mid-April, three meltdowns in four days left passengers stranded on platforms as overflowing trains passed them by. Such problems can take hours to remedy before services revert to timetable. The pattern continued in May with three incidents near Britomart causing chaos during evening peaks.
"I don't understand it," says Ranui commuter Elaine Benn. "Surely they can plan around it or have a back-up?"
Benn, who catches the Western Line to and from Kingsland each day, says cancellations mean subsequent trains are overloaded so those waiting at stations down the line may have to wait two or three services to get on. That can take 45 minutes. "I feel sorry for the people waiting [further along the line] - they just can't get on."
She says electronic signboard information is often muddled and loudspeaker announcements often add to confusion.
In March, 2,667 trains ran "significantly late" (more than five minutes late), clocking up 32,000 delay minutes. In April, 2,242 delayed services totalled 27,351 minutes.
But Benn, who swapped her car for the train two years ago, is determined to stick with rail - not just because it is twice as fast as the bus on a good day. "I want people to catch the train so there is less traffic on the roads and it's better environmentally. There certainly seem to be a lot more people catching trains, which is great, but it needs to be reliable. I can't wait for electrification."
Last month, 214 services were cancelled due to train breakdowns. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Auckland Transport officials say the replacement of ageing diesel locomotives with electric trains will be completed in late July, when all services on the Western and Southern lines are electric. But they're not promising an end to the chaos anytime soon.
AT Metro general manager Mark Lambert says diesel engine breakdowns have increased in recent months and this is linked to the wind-down of the maintenance contract with KiwiRail. The engines are at the end of their life and KiwiRail maintenance staff have been leaving in anticipation of lay-offs. Last month, 214 services were cancelled due to train breakdowns.
But KiwiRail rejects the claim that the diesels are clapped-out and says there's been no downturn in maintenance. It plans to redeploy the diesels to its freight network and use them for a further 10 years.
Another "temporary" problem is crew shortages, as drivers and train managers are trained to operate the EMUs (electric multiple units). Lambert says the EMU rollout on the Western Line has been brought forward, increasing pressure on the training programme.
But electric trains won't solve all the problems - as their roll-out to date on the Onehunga, Eastern and Southern routes has shown. The trains need longer "dwell" times at stations because doors with disabled access take longer to close. Their electronic speed control system, used on European trains, has also had "teething" problems. "It's a whole new train management system for New Zealand which we are still bedding in," Lambert says. Glitches with new technology are to be expected and are being addressed, he says.
The EMUs can run at 110 km/h - 30 km faster than the diesel models - yet AT has had to "slacken" its new timetable, introduced last December, because trains were missing their time-slots at junctions such as Newmarket and Westfield, delaying services on other lines. The December timetable changes increased total services by 22 per cent but, in March, AT had to lengthen the Britomart-Waitakere run-time by three minutes to improve the network's "resilience". Further timetable easing is planned.
Track faults, signal and points failures continue to cause delays, despite KiwiRail - which controls Auckland's signals remotely from Wellington - spending $90 million on an upgrade which included a new "world class" computerised signalling system.
Key performance measures for punctuality and reliability have fallen drastically below internationally-accepted standards. Photo / Richard Robinson
KiwiRail makes decisions from its Wellington control centre to prioritise already late traffic - which can spiral into further delays as trains miss their time slots. It says its new signal system has a "fail-safe" which errs on the side of caution - delays are often recorded as signal faults when trains are stopped for safety reasons. KiwiRail says most delays are down to AT and the metro service operator, TransDev.
AT says the spike in meltdowns in April was in part due to an unprecedented four emergency services incidents, including two fatalities and one when an overhead line fell in high winds. Rail services manager Craig Inger says since the new timetable came in the network is "not recovering as well as it used to".
Key performance measures for punctuality and reliability have fallen drastically below internationally-accepted standards. Lambert says full-electric services will improve reliability by 1 to 1.5 percentage points but the EMUs will still need 6-12 months to "bed in".
The range of vulnerabilities - after a decade of heavy investment - must raise scepticism about the Auckland rail network's ability to provide a viable mass transit alternative for a fast-growing city which is over-dependent on roads. It also potentially undermines Mayor Len Brown's case for convincing the Government to bring forward funding for the planned City Rail Link.
But Brown stresses that the $2.5 billion underground, inner-city loop line would solve much of the pressure on the network by ending the bottleneck problem of trains entering and leaving Britomart using the same, two-line tunnel. The council plans to start the dig next year, but the CRL needs at least $1b in Government funding.
Brown notes that public enthusiasm for rail is self-evident, with half a million Aucklanders now using Hop cards. The past decade's investments - double-tracking, new stations, the new signals system, extra crossover points, higher frequencies (10-minute peak-hour services on the Southern and Eastern lines and 15 minutes on the Western line), weekend services and finally electrification - have seen double-digit annual patronage gains, despite line closures while work takes place. He is trumpeting the latest March year increase to 13 million passenger-trips - despite the recent chaotic months - but the Government is refusing to help fund the CRL until the CBD workforce has grown by 25 per cent and rail patronage approaches 20 million passenger trips. That pushes its contribution out to at least 2020.
Commuters wait to board the new electric trains at Onehunga. Photo / Jason Oxenham
But AT warned the mayor last month that patronage was already straining Britomart's capacity and is projected to exceed safety limits by 2018, "at which point there is no resilience to either further patronage growth or delay of trains departing from the station". The safety issues include limited escape options from narrow, overcrowded platforms if trains are delayed or cancelled.
Next year, AT plans to extend 10-minute frequencies to the Western Line, with Britomart accommodating 20 trains an hour - the maximum the current network can handle. A completed CRL would allow 48 trains an hour to pass through Britomart both ways, potentially lifting patronage to 48 million passenger trips a year, Brown says.
"At that point something like 25 per cent of the city's transport needs would be delivered by public transport including rail, buses and ferries and cycling, and that will significantly decongest our roads.
"Is the CRL a critical part of providing a city that moves much better? You bet it is."
But not if the problems plaguing the network aren't addressed. At the root of it all may be the number of players with a hand in network management. Monthly reports to AT's board blame KiwiRail infrastructure problems - including signals, points, speed restrictions and "network control" - for between a tenth and a quarter of monthly "delay minutes". KiwiRail also carries the can for diesel breakdowns.
Operational issues attributed to network operator Transdev have snowballed since AT's new timetable was introduced.
Communication with passengers is split between Transdev (responsible for electronic timetable information, platform and on-train announcements and text messaging updates) and AT (website, Twitter service and call centre).
KiwiRail says its infrastructure is to blame, on average, for less than 10 per cent of network delays this year.
For the EMUs, maintenance responsibility passes from KiwiRail to their Spanish manufacturer CAF - bringing a fourth player into network management. All parties accept the divided responsibilities make problem-solving more complex. Though all accept a share of the blame, they point fingers elsewhere.
Having signals controlled from Wellington is not ideal, says AT. Brown cites a past incident when "someone pulled a plug [out] in Wellington and it shut down the whole network".
"Every other major metro system has a control system right in the middle of the operation," he says.
Auckland Council infrastructure committee chairman Mike Lee says disintegrated management is contributing to a "ramshackle" system.
"There's a multiplicity of private and public managers - in other words, too many cooks," Lee says. "It results in significantly heavier transaction costs, admin costs and diminished accountability."
Lee has questioned the higher operational subsidies Auckland rail services require compared to Wellington - $125 million compared to Wellington's $85 million in 2014, when patronage was similar. "Wellington's vertically integrated system is much simpler, more cost-effective and more efficient."
AT last month attributed the difference to the Auckland network's expansion, maintenance on the ageing diesel fleet and interest costs on the EMU fleet purchase. Transdev's contract is due for re-negotiation next year and AT says it plans to introduce performance incentives.
Life at the end of the line
Jon Reeves became a firm believer in public transport while working in Switzerland. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Passengers worst affected by the Auckland rail service chaos are those at the end of the lines - Waitakere on the western line and Pukekohe on the southern line, says Public Transport Users Association co-ordinator Jon Reeves.
It has become routine for outbound services to terminate one stop short of their destination - at Swanson and Papakura respectively - to help late trains get back to timetable. Reeves says more than 1600 Waitakere services were cancelled last year, either in full or en route. Though service operator Transdev is required to arrange buses or taxis for affected passengers, these are notoriously unreliable.
"We had a tweet from a Waitakere passenger last month when every train [into Britomart] from 7.30am to 9.30am was cancelled. A bus finally turned up after 50 minutes but then there was a further delay at Swanson.
"You would think with the amount of investment that's gone on they should be managing the network a bit better."
Now, with electrification of the metropolitan network extending only as far as Swanson and Papakura, AT is using lack of demand to justify closing the Waitakere station rather than running a diesel shuttle service, as it does for Pukekohe customers.
AT Metro general manager Mark Lambert says only about 40 people a day use the single-track Waitakere service.
Reeves says AT's decision is based on outdated research and ignores "phenomenal" population growth occurring beyond Waitakere at Taupaki, Kumeu/Huapai, Waimauku and Riverhead. The association organised a "funeral train" into Britomart last month in protest at the Waitakere closure.
Reeves became a firm believer in public transport while working in Switzerland. Now living in South Auckland, he uses buses and trains to get around town in his job as an advertising account manager.
"Why is it Switzerland and other countries with multiple networks and providers can operate high-frequency services to timetable and Auckland, with three lines, can't? Non-arrival of trains is a significant issue and Auckland Transport hasn't really come up with compelling reasons why the service has been so abysmal."
Reeves is confident a diesel shuttle linking Kumeu/Huapai with Swanson would be well-used, particularly with a big commercial/apartment development planned at Kumeu and a Special Housing Area declared at neighbouring Huapai. These towns and Helensville have long been earmarked for growth to ease Auckland housing supply pressures.
But AT has ruled out double-tracking and electrifying the track beyond Swanson as too expensive. It's been the story of Auckland for 60 years - funders opting for the short-lived gains of roading projects over the longer-term benefits of mass transit.Geoff Cumming
