One 'idiot' stops the trains to U2's show

U2 fans stranded on one of the delayed trains last night. Photo / AKT

One "idiot" who kept pushing the emergency stop button on a train nearly caused thousands of fans to miss last night's U2 concert.

Auckland Transport put on an extra 12 trains, leaving at 10-minute intervals, to handle the crowds going to Mt Smart Stadium.

But up to five trains were left standing near the Ellerslie station for 20 minutes after a traveller on one repeatedly pushed the emergency stopbutton.

"One idiot kept pushing it," said Steve Wade, general manager of train operators Veolia Transport. "Then we'd fix it. Then they'd push it again. Then we fixed it. Then they pushed it again and then we had to fix it again."

The train left Britomart at 6.12pm but did not arrive at the Penrose station until 6.50pm, 10 minutes before the concert was to begin.

Frustrated commuters emailed pictures and comments to the aucklandtrains.co.nz website.

"Good luck with the RWC," said one traveller. "This is a massive FAIL!"

Special events such as the U2 concert are being used as training runs for next year's Rugby World Cup.

Mr Wade said the incident was something rail authorities would be monitoring before the Cup.

"We didn't expect something like this, but we will be doing what we can do to make sure it doesn't happen then."

Mr Wade said no one was late to see the main act, but people who wanted to see the opening acts would have missed out.

He said rail staff had no way of finding the person who pushed the stop button because of the number of people on the train.