Rugby World Cup: Rail gets it right to give a smooth trip to the final

Auckland transport redeemed itself on final night. Photo / Martin Sykes

Auckland's public transport redeemed itself on rugby world cup final night in welcome contrast to the tournament's opening day, with no serious disruption to trains, buses or ferries.

"We're very pleased because most people heeded advice to go early to the game - everything's gone very well," a relieved Auckland transport spokeswoman, Sharon Hunter, said during the All blacks-France clash.

Trains carried about 9820 fans to Kingsland station overlooking Eden Park, but when the last pre-match service left Britomart at 8.25pm there were only about 30 passengers dotted through its six carriages.

The train reached kingsland in a comfortable 15 minutes, leaving the stragglers ample time to find their stadium seats.

A much fuller train - but still with some seats to spare when Herald staff caught it an hour and a half earlier - took only 14 minutes, without even having to stop at the notorious Newmarket junction bottleneck.

There was none of the frustration and panic which marred the world cup opening day on September 9, when the public transport system buckled under overwhelming crowds flocking to the waterfront and then the park, making many late for the pre-match ceremony.

Neither were there any mechanical or signals faults.

Kiwirail drafted in even more maintenance staff and incident controllers than the large standby labour force it had in place throughout the tournament.

But pressure was eased by the 4.5km fan trail from Britomart to Eden Park, which tournament organisers estimate was walked by 41,000 people on Sunday, including thousands who went for the fun without having match tickets.

Tickets to ride

Rail:
* to the game 9820
* from the game 16,200

Bus:
* to the game 8510
* from the game 11,988.