Passenger boom sparks rise in rail services

Auckland's booming rail network will offer more passenger services from late this month, including an extension of evening operating hours on the southern and eastern lines.

Pukekohe will gain a major boost in services to and from Britomart, to 20 trains a day each way from June 29, compared with 12 citybound and 13 southbound now.

That will add to calls on the Auckland Regional Transport Authority from southern commuters to extend services to Tuakau, and on the Government to stretch rail electrification past Papakura.

Two more morning trains will run on the eastern line via Glen Innes, leaving Otahuhu at 6.50am and at 7.24am to reduce crowding on existing runs, and extra carriages will be added to some southern line services.

Homebound passengers will be able to linger longer in Auckland before catching new evening services to Papakura between Sunday and Thursday, leaving Britomart at 9.40pm via the eastern line and 10pm via Newmarket.

A new short-haul service will leave at 10.40am for Otahuhu through Glen Innes between Sunday and Thursday.

The last evening train to Pukekohe will leave Britomart at 7.10pm on week-day evenings, an hour later than the existing timetable, although weekend runs are not planned to start until 2011.

Trains will continue to run until after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays on the rest of the network.

Four new carriages from KiwiRail's Dunedin workshops have also allowed the regional transport authority and rail operator Veolia to plug a five-hour gap in off-peak services between Pukekohe and Britomart.

Pukekohe residents will wait no longer than 75 minutes for a train.

Although there are no timetable changes for the western line, night trains will be reinstated between Avondale and Waitakere, ending an era of bus replacement services during track duplication work, now largely done.

Transport authority chief Fergus Gammie noted yesterday that the western line received a major boost in services last year, and said the resumption of trains after 8pm past Avondale would be a welcome improvement.

He said the new timetable followed "phenomenal" growth in patronage, including a doubling in passenger trips from 3.7 million in 2005 to an expected 7.6 million this year.

Auckland Regional Council's member for Franklin and Papakura, Dianne Glenn, welcomed the boost in Pukekohe trains but said that would not stop her community pushing for more improvements, including the early introduction of weekend services.

She suspected many of the 500 people or so catching trains from Pukekohe drove there from Tuakau, and was pleased the authority had agreed to a survey to assess potential demand for extending services to that town.

The high demand also raised the economic efficiency of extending rail electrification to Pukekohe rather than having to use diesel shuttle trains between there and Papakura.

But at another extremity of Auckland's rail network, a trial commuter service between Helensville and Britomart will be reviewed by the transport authority next month to determine its future.

The service began as a 12-month trial in July last year, but last month carried an average of just 35 passengers on three daily trips.

TIMETABLE CHANGES

Service improvements from Monday, June 29:

Eastern line:
* Two extra morning peak services between Otahuhu and Britomart via Glen Innes.
* Two extra night services on Sunday to Thursday, one to Otahuhu, the other to Papakura.

Southern line:
* More carriages on some peak services.
* Extra night service to Papakura, Sunday to Thursday.

Pukekohe services:
* Extra morning peak departure, at 8.04am.
* Extra evening peak return service, leaving Britomart at 7.10pm.
* Trains to run every 75 minutes between peaks.

Western line:
* Resumption of trains and removal of week-day evening bus replacements between Avondale and Waitakere.