Auckland Transport Blog

I got emailed an ARTA press release not long ago providing some pretty good news that the rail electrification project is edging closer and closer.

ARTA WELCOMES NEXT STEP IN ELECTRIFICATION PROJECT

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) today welcomed KiwiRail’s release of an Industry Engagement document as part of the process for the delivery of Auckland’s electric train fleet. The document was posted on the Government’s GETS website today.

In December last year, the Minister of Transport approved funding for Auckland’s electrification project which is due to be delivered to the region in 2013.

ARTA’s Chief Executive, Fergus Gammie says, “The electrification project is one of the region’s most exciting large-scale transport projects. ARTA is looking forward to working closely with KiwiRail on the project.

Mr Gammie says, “For the first time Aucklanders will have the opportunity to experience a fleet of brand new, modern trains. The project also opens the door to future transport developments such as the CBD Loop Tunnel project.

“Electrification offers a number of benefits to passengers, such as greater comfort, a smoother ride and one of the biggest bonuses for passengers, improved reliability of trains.

“Overall performance times will be improved which together with infrastructure improvements around the network will assist in reducing travel times for passengers.

“Electric trains are also better for the environment, reducing diesel emissions and are much quieter.

“All of these benefits will lead to much better rail services for Auckland, moving the city well on the way towards the world class public transport system we all want and expect.

Mr Gammie says, “Electrification is part of a wider programme of public transport infrastructure improvements for Auckland to take place over the next five years, including the achievement of 10-minute train frequencies in peak hours, new stations such as New Lynn, Avondale and Grafton stations, re-opening the Onehunga branch and Manukau spur lines, strengthened bus and ferry networks, integrated ticketing and real time passenger information.

“As a result of those improvements, rail patronage in Auckland is expected to more than double by 2016. For the calendar year from January 2009 to 2010 we hit the eight million passenger journey target, so we are well on track”, says Mr Gammie.

I guess the frustrating thing about this is that we were at this stage around this time last year before the government decided to change its mind on how electrification would be funded. So effectively we have lost a year in the process, which is unfortunate. However, looking on the bright side of things, at least we are seeing progress here. At least electrification is definitely happening.

Hopefully we will find out in the not too distant future the kind of trains that we’re going to end up getting.

Last week at Auckand City Council’s Transport Committee meeting, representatives from ARTA and KiwiRail gave an interesting presentation on the CBD rail tunnel. The whole presentation is available on the city council website. It doesn’t have that much actual information that we don’t know about already, but does include a number of interesting and useful diagrams.

One diagram that I find particularly noteworthy is a cross-section of the tunnel. This is included below: As shown in the diagram above, both the Karangahape and the Newton stations will be well below ground level – around 20m down I think, which should make for an interesting construction process. The Karangahape station itself is proposed to have the tracks at a 1% grade, which is a bit unusual as stations are often completely flat (or on a vertical curve to aid with braking and accelerating). Hopefully that won’t make it difficult for trains to pull away from the stations when they’re fully loaded.

There’s also some information on the three station locations, although it doesn’t seem that we’re at the point of working out possible entry points. I like the fact that particular emphasis is being given to tying in the stations with land development that will happen around them. It is this link between improving rail access to the CBD and the urban renewal that will bring, which provide the greatest benefits from this project.

So where to next? Well this is outlined below. It seems as though we won’t see a final costing, business case and other documentation until December. Seven years from now it would be great to have this built and operational.

ARTA has released the performance statistics for trains in February, and the result is predictably pathetic. Things have improved slightly in some areas compared to the January statistics, when punctuality on the Western Line was a mere 36%. However, in other respects the February results are even worse than January, as the system operated throughout the whole of February (as opposed to the last couple of weeks of January only). Furthermore, Eastern Line punctuality in February was below that in January.

The above poster says that “Veolia Transport, KiwiRail and ARTA are working together to deliver solutions to these issues”. Well quite frankly I see absolutely no evidence of that. Anecdotally it would seem that so far in March the trains on the Western Line in particular have continued to operate late, there continue to be breakdowns, regular signal failures, regular points failures and the like. Come on ARTA, please tell us exactly what you, KiwiRail and Veolia are working on to solve these problems. I would really love to know.

As an interesting point, a while back someone mentioned to me that in many overseas countries rail contracts are cancelled if punctuality falls below 90%. Crikey if we ever reach 90% in Auckland it’d be a miracle!

Last night I went to an interesting workshop, run by Auckland City Council, to help discuss important matters that should be included in a future District Plan for the Mt Albert area. This is all part of the Future Planning Framework that was supposed to inform the next generation District Plan for the isthmus area of Auckland City – until the whole Super City thing killed off that idea. Nevertheless, Auckland City Council continue to plough forwards with their work on this, I suppose hoping that the new council will pick up on the work that has been done and carry it forward into the new District Plan for the whole region that will need to be prepared eventually.

Anyway, the workshop was quite interesting, broken into three tables: transport, housing and main street. I tended to flit between the transport group and the housing group, as I was there for work reasons so couldn’t solely focus on my transport interests – although it was tempting given the number of ARTA staff there! Focusing on transport matters (as, after all, this is a transport blog) I tried to point out to a number of people that Mt Albert actually has a heck of a lot going for it: there’s a railway station in the middle of the town centre, there’s a strong CBD-focused bus route along New North Road and there’s also a pretty strong cross-town route – in the form of Carrington Road and Mt Albert Road. Sure, the bus frequencies on the cross-town route aren’t particularly flash,  but hopefully over time that will be improved as ARTA (and their undemocratic successor) get around to putting bus lanes along Mt Albert Road and Carrington Road and creating a property “Quality Transit Network” along that route.

As shown in the map below, in terms of transport accessibility, you can’t do much better than Mt Albert: Yet something doesn’t work here. The Mt Albert shops are a place one tends to avoid, rather than be particularly drawn to. The general quality of the shops seems surprisingly low when you consider that the residential areas surrounding them are quite highly gentrified, particularly to the east. The train station is reasonably well used, with around 1,500 passengers a day boarding and alighting (making it the fourth busiest Western Line station after New Lynn, Henderson and Newmarket), but considering Unitec is located fairly nearby, I would think that the patronage is slightly disappointing.

In the future, as our cross-town routes (hopefully) get better supported, and as integrated ticketing encourages people to make multi-leg journeys a bit more, Mt Albert could become a critically important transfer point in the Auckland transport network. However, I don’t think that’s going to happen unless significant improvements are made to the finer details of how this transport interchange will work, and also vast improvements to the Mt Albert train station and its site surrounds are made. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the station, but trust me it’s pretty dire – possibly the ugliest station left in Auckland at the moment. ARTA have some plans for a quick-fix upgrade, but really in the longer term I think that Mt Albert’s strategic location means that something extra is needed. If we get the train station upgrade right then hopefully it will have significant wider benefits for the whole town centre too.

An idea that I had, along with a number of other people at the workshop, was that we really need something that will help link the railway station with New North Road better, will help stitch together the two-sides of Mt Albert (split by the railway line) and will help “open up” the rear of the shops along New North Road to the train station. Another matter to consider was the need for the Woodward Ave level crossing (to the southwest of the map above) to be grade separated for safety reasons at some point in the future. This is likely to mean that the railway track will be lowered. If the tracks are to be lowered, then there’s the potential to do something similar to what is happening at New Lynn at the moment, with the line being put into a trench. On top of the trench, at least as it passes through what would be Mt Albert station, you could could a big public square – which would act as the heart of Mt Albert and have shops opening out onto it. There would be plenty of links between the square and the surrounding street network (so that it doesn’t end up hidden like the Newmarket Station Square). Possibly something like this: An upgrade like this would clearly link together the two sides of Mt Albert to a far greater extent. The new roading link would provide better access to the shopping area for those who live on the northwestern side of the tracks, and would probably make that area more suitable to the kind of intensification Auckland City Council envisages for the area (up to 3-4 level townhouses and apartments). Opening up the back of the shops that are squeezed between the railway line and New North Road would also improve their economic viability and performance, while the public square itself would provide a great focal point for the community – and would be reasonably safe and secure because of the proximity of the new road link, Carrington Road and the various other access points.

Of course this is all just a bit of a dream, but what it shows me is that it’s stupid trying to plan transport upgrades (like the Mt Albert station) without co-ordinating them with other land-use improvements or townscape upgrades. As I have said many times before, we need closer co-operation and integration between land-use and transport planning. It seems pretty crazy that instead we will be splitting them into two completely separate agencies.

After my post the other day, complaining about the lack of progress on building the train station at Onehunga as well as some concerning signs on the ProjectDART website, it seems as though some of my concerns have been alleviated. The ProjectDART website says this:

Work is now well underway on the rehabilitation of the Onehunga Branch Line, which is scheduled to open for passenger rail services in 2010.

Furthermore,  I was forwarded an email discussion between ARTA and a concerned local resident, which goes along the following lines:

Resident: will the the Onehunga line be operational by July 2010? I have seen no recent activity on this site for the new station.

ARTA: it is amazing how quickly a station can be built. You will see activity at the other end of the line which is where the project is starting.

Hopefully these are good signs that we will have an operational Onehunga Line by the end of July this year. As the line was originally meant to be open by the end of last year, it would be enormously frustrating if the opening date was pushed back even further.

I have asked various people from ARTA this question over recent times – “what’s happening at Onehunga, when’s the railway line opening?” I have received assurances on a number of occasions that the line will be opening in mid 2010. I must say I’ve been a bit skeptical of this, as when you visit Onehunga and have a look at where the station should be, you see this: This was taken a while ago, but I was in Onehunga briefly today and it didn’t seem like anything had changed. What is particularly concerning is to see the ProjectDART website now referring to the line opening in the first half of 2011, rather than in mid-2010 like has been repeatedly promised. Here’s what it says:

Work is now well underway on the rehabilitation of the Onehunga Branch Line, which is scheduled to open for passenger rail services in the first half of 2011.

I sincerely hope this is not the case. The Onehunga Line was meant to open last year. Come on ARTA, get it together.

This is a Guest Post by regular commenter Nick R. If anyone else wishes to submit a guest post please email it to jarbury[at]yahoo[dot]com. It is written as the executive summary of a (as yet draft) proposal to ARTA/KiwiRail. Once the proposal has been finalised it will be linked to from here.

Analysis of the proposed Auckland CBD rail tunnel project, and a potential modification to increase capacity and operational performance

The Auckland rail system is currently approaching capacity due to the limit on the number of trains that can fit through the twin-track approach to Britomart station. A CBD tunnel project is being investigated to connect Britomart with the Western Line at Mt Eden via the central city. This will provide two more tracks accessing Britomart allowing an increase in system capacity as well as shortening the route of the western line while providing greater accessibility to the rail system via three new stations under the CBD. The project represents the most significant investment in the history of Auckland passenger rail and will form the centre piece of the network for generations to come.

However, it is identified that the proposal connection to Britomart has some unnecessary drawbacks despite the substantial capital investment, namely that the expansion in capacity will be less than double the current limited capacity, and that the central capacity would still be only two-thirds of the capacity of the existing suburban system. Furthermore conflict between through-running and terminating trains for slots in the existing Britomart approach tunnel would greatly limit the peak capacity of the Auckland rail network, as terminating trains must necessarily occupy two slots on existing approach tunnel as they enter and exit via the same route. Other drawbacks include the inter-mixing of operationally different ‘rapid transit’ and locomotive hauled trains at Britomart, the reduction in the potential for Britomart to function as a regional terminus, and the need to retrofit Britomart to support rapid transit style services on platforms 1 and 5 at great expense. There is also a strategic drawback of the proposal. While the system is approaching capacity now, no new capacity would be available until the entirety of the project was complete at a lead time of 7 to 10 years and a cost of approximately $1.5 billion dollars. This represents a significant period of unrealisable potential patronage growth on the network.

A modification to the CBD tunnel concept is proposed to address these drawbacks. It is proposed that the CBD tunnel be extended a further 900m eastward connect directly to Quay Park junction via a cut-and-cover tunnel under Quay Street. The existing Britomart station and approach tracks would be bypassed, while a new pair of tunnel platforms would be built adjacent to Britomart and connected to the existing station concourses via short underpasses.

The existing Britomart station and its approach tunnel would be untouched and continue to operate in their current capacity as terminal station for diesel and electric powered services, while all services using the CBD tunnel would use the new purpose-built ‘rapid transit’ platforms adjacent. Connecting the eastern end of the tunnel to Quay Park junction via a new pair of tracks (rather than the existing Britomart approach tracks) would provide triple the current system capacity (rather than double), and would therefore match the capacity at the core of the system to that at the periphery. This would allow the CBD tunnel to be utilised to its fullest capacity for electric suburban rapid transit services while allowing the existing station to accommodate various diesel or electric express, regional and intercity services.

The modified proposal also allows for capital expenditure and capacity increases to be introduced in stages. As a first stage the initial 900m cut-and-cover tunnel and new platforms adjacent to Britomart could be constructed and opened first, allowing a doubling of system capacity with a 3-4 year lead time and a cost of approximately $250 million dollars. This would allow rail patronage to continue to grow while the second stage extension through the CBD to Mt Eden was being constructed.

The modification represents the addition of 900m of new tunnel and an fourth pair of underground platforms to the existing proposal at an estimated increase in total project cost of 15-20%. However, the modification would provide 100% more capacity over the existing proposal plus considerable benefits in terms of in operational flexibility and project staging. Therefore the relatively minor additional expenditure of the modified proposal may result in greatly improved outcomes in cost-benefit analysis, particularly if long term growth over the lifetime of the infrastructure is taken into account. Green & Yellow Lines – existing tracks into Britomart
Blue Line – track from Newmarket & Orakei heading into CBD rail tunnel
Red Line – track from CBD rail tunnel heading to Newmarket & Orakei
Black lines – indications of pedestrian access points to new station & station outline

In a typically well thought out comment on my recent post that ARTA should focus on getting the train system sorted before getting stuck into all these bizarre promotions they have going on, Nick R pointed out that I was perhaps being a little bit harsh on ARTA and that the problems being experienced by our rail system at the moment are – just like they’ve been for years – the result of decades of neglect. Furthermore, political moves have meant that ARTA appears to be receiving less money from NZTA than previously anticipated, which seems to have led to an $11 million cutback to their rail budget.

I certainly agree with Nick that the problems experienced on the rail network generally aren’t ARTA’s fault, and perhaps I was being a tad harsh on them. But certainly it seems as though things could be done quite a lot better in a number of areas – both to minimise the inconvenience of delays, to make people feel as though the various agencies involved are really trying their best to fix things up, and to also offer some hope that things will get better some time before 2013 when electrification is completed. Quite simply, I think people want to know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

A good example of how to do this was shown last year when the Central Connector bus lanes were being built along Symonds Street. The construction did cause chaos and mayhem, but there was pretty good signage around explaining what was going on, people knew well in advance when the connector would be open and what benefits it would bring. In particular I remember a sign that read “Road Works Today so our Roads Work Tomorrow” which I thought was quite clever.

And there is a lot for rail passengers to look forwards to in the next few months. Next month Grafton station will open, which means that the stretch of single-track between Newmarket and Boston Road will be history. This should improve reliability of the Western Line quite significantly. Beyond that, in July the Onehunga Line will supposedly open (I’ll believe it when I see the station under construction) opening up a whole new corner of Auckland to the rail system. Later in the year, around September/October the New Lynn station will be completed – meaning the complete elimination of single-track on the Western Line. Oh, and some time in there the new Avondale station will open in a far more convenient location to the town centre.

It also seems as though in July we’ll see a new and improved rail timetable, perhaps even with 10 minute frequencies on the Southern and Eastern lines at peak hour (that’s the rumour I’ve heard anyway). Hopefully we’ll also see trains running later at nights, and more weekend services on the Western Line in particular (this might only come after double-tracking is completed in October). Beyond that, the Manukau Branch Line will open some time next year.

The point being that there is a lot to look forward to, and also that many of these improvements (such as the elimination of stretches of single-track on the Western Line) will lead to greater reliability on the rail system. Yet outside of a pretty small circle of transport nerds like myself, I don’t know how many people know how close we are to completing many projects that have been going on for years now. They’re also unlikely to know about timetable improvements or anything like that. They can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I also think that ARTA needs to get together with KiwiRail and Veolia to work out exactly what’s causing the problems that seem to have been plaguing the rail system throughout this year. Obviously some of the problems won’t have an easy solution, but surely some of them might and effort should be going into eliminating those small issues. Even if we can reduce the number of problems by 20%, that’s well worth the effort. And ARTA should tell us about all of this, they should let the customer know that they’re working hard to fix the issues: that KiwiRail has analysed exactly where points failures occur most frequently and is doing something about it; that Veolia and ARTA are working to identify their most unreliable trains and using them as infrequently as possible or undertaking additional maintenance to reduce the number of mechanical faults; or ensuring that when staff on a train apologise for a delay they actually do so in a way that sounds like they mean it.

It’s annoying enough to experience problems on the rail network, but feeling as though none of the agencies responsible give a damn is like adding insult to injury. For this approach to work it has to be genuine though, ARTA really does have to get together with KiwiRail and identify why there are over 200 points failures on the Auckland rail network each year and establish a process of doing something to reduce this number, they really do have to find ways to communicate better to passengers when things are going wrong, how long the delay will be, what other options people have and so forth. Ultimately, I do believe that ARTA cares about its passengers – but they need to show that better.

What do others think? What could ARTA do better here, aside from the obvious of ensuring that the problems didn’t happen in the first place?

In another critical step forwards for what I consider to be Auckland’s most important transport projects, today ARTA have announced the preferred alignment for the CBD Rail Tunnel. Here’s the media release:

Prefered Route Chosen for Transformational CBD Rail Loop Project
11 Mar 2010

A preferred route has now been identified for Auckland’s proposed CBD Rail Loop tunnel. The route was chosen out of three shortlisted options identified by consultants acting on behalf of ARTA and KiwiRail.

The tunnel would run between Mt Eden and Britomart, taking in Khyber Pass Road, Symonds Street and Karangahape Road, with the opportunity for three train station locations at Symonds Street/Khyber Pass Road; Karangahape Road/Pitt Street and on Albert Street between Victoria and Wellesley Streets (Refer to diagram attached).

The chairman of ARTA, Mr Rabin Rabindran says the project is regionally based and the preferred option has been discussed with the Auckland Regional Council and Auckland City Council. It has also been discussed with the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).

Mr Rabindran said, “The next step in the study will be to investigate potential costs and economic benefits that the tunnel would deliver to the region.

“Naturally we need to ensure there is a sound business case to support the project and have a clear understanding of the level of investment required to bring it into reality before we proceed to the next step.

“The project takes into consideration management of Auckland’s projected population growth to well over two million over the next four decades, which is over 70 per cent of New Zealand’s total projected growth”.

Mr Rabindran said, “This project for Auckland, made possible by the Government’s decision to electrify Auckland’s rail network is a transformational project for the region with the ability to provide significant economic, social and environmental benefits. These benefits would accrue to the whole of the region”.

KiwiRail chairman Jim Bolger says the study currently underway is a first step in the process of identifying and protecting the route for future construction.

“If we are to ensure rail is able to play its part in Auckland’s transport mix, both now and into the future we need to ensure the network has reasonable reach and flexibility.

“There is still a long way to go with this project, but it is vital that we take the necessary steps to protect the route for the future.

“The option chosen has the three station locations under public roads with the locations optimising redevelopment and growth opportunities for economic productivity and patronage; the least number of curves which means lower costs for the tunnel boring machine and better operational speed for trains thus reducing operational costs”.

The Chairman of the Auckland Regional Council, Mike Lee said. “The CBD loop tunnel will not only radically boost the efficiency of Auckland’s commuter rail network and nearly double the throughput of trains through Britomart, but a metro rail really will be the making of Auckland, revitalising the CBD and giving Auckland a truly international feel. The suggestion of running the line under upper Symonds Street is a stroke of brilliance –and will certainly revitalise this wonderful old part of the city”.

Mayor of Auckland, John Banks said, “Excellent urban regeneration and economic development opportunities are available around the proposed three station locations. This is particularly important given Auckland’s projected population growth. Opportunities include redevelopment work around K’Road with the station centrally located on a ridge between Grafton Hospital and Ponsonby Road.

“Current population levels within 500 metres of the K’Road station are in the region of 7,000 employees and 2,500 residents. With future amendments to the existing zoning there is capacity to provide for approximately 20,000 employees and 7,000 residents. Similar opportunities exist around Newton while around the proposed Aotea Station there is the capacity to more than double the employment opportunities from 40,000 to over 80,000”.

“While further analysis is required, at this stage train patronage projections out to 2016 and 2041 for these three train stations indicate strong potential growth which is driven by the station locations in the heart of the CBD. This will provide easy walking distance to all the CBD’s commercial, tourist, residential and educational opportunities as well as allowing more trains to use the network by unlocking the constraint of Britomart being a dead end station and doubling its capacity”, said Mr Banks.

Mr Rabindran says: “The next step in the project will progress concept design work to identify a required footprint and a business case which we regard as a key piece of work to identify the value to the public and private investment required to bring this project into reality. Projects like this have the potential to lift land values and dramatically boost economic productivity through focussed regional and government sector investment in infrastructure and services. Earlier investigations have shown the potential benefits of this project are likely to significantly outweigh its costs. This work will be undertaken from March to September this year with Phase Three, preparation of the notice of requirement documentation, completed by December this year”.

Mr Rabindran said the total cost of the project had not yet been finalised. Funding for the project would need to be negotiated between the region and the government, however in light of Auckland’s burgeoning population growth of almost an additional million people by 2050; forward planning for the region was not only prudent but essential.

Before I get on to discuss the details of the actual alignment itself, it’s worth commenting on the press release above. I have underlined various parts of it which I think are particularly noteworthy, in that they refer to the significant benefits that will arise from this project, in particular the significant economic benefits that it will bring to the whole Auckland region.

I agree with Rabin Rabindran that the project is transformational for Auckland. There is so much benefit to be had from Auckland having a stronger core, as it will reduce the requirement for people to drive significant distances from one side of the city to the other, it will improve the viability of public transport in general if more than 12% of the region’s jobs are located in the CBD and it will also have other longer term benefits such as helping to create a more vibrant city centre and giving the CBD a critical mass that could eventually lead to significant economic benefits as more and more employment opportunities are available within close proximity of each other. The most successful cities at regenerating over recent years internationally, such as Melbourne and Vancouver, have a very strong urban core with lots of people and jobs creating a vibrancy that leads to massive long-term economic benefits.

The opportunity for significant urban regeneration in areas around the stations, particularly around K Road and Newton station, would also have massive economic benefits. As I explained in a blog post a few weeks back, putting a station in Newton means that whole area could effectively become an extension of the CBD. This kind of urban development in Auckland is exactly what our current growth strategies envisage – significant intensification in the CBD and in fringe-CBD areas where appropriate, as well as significant intensification in various other nodes along the rail corridor. But this kind of urban outcome is not going to happen by itself, we need the infrastructure investment to work with the development strategies to make it happen. Which is exactly what the CBD rail tunnel does.

Turning to the alignment chosen, this is shown in the map below:

This is pretty much what was expected, and the only real difference between the three options preferred by the previous stage of the study was whether the K Road station would be next to the corner with Pitt Street or the corner with Queen Street. While a Queen St location may have been better from some perspectives (linking with our main street after all) I think that technical factors made that option difficult. In any case I don’t think it matters too much, as the corner of K Road and Pitt Street does very much come across as the heart of that part of the city.

I await with great interest to see the results of the business case study into this. I would be extremely surprised if this project doesn’t come up with a far better business case than the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway”. In which case, there should be some serious questions asked why we’re spending $1.4 billion there instead of here.

As I noted a couple of days ago it has been a pretty horrific year for Auckland’s train system so far, with signalling failures, points failures and train failures seemingly occurring on a daily basis (quite literally actually). In that previous post I questioned whether the $11 million cutback to the rail contract was behind many of these problems (the train breakdowns, the daily signal and points failures are KiwiRail’s fault). It seems that trains running in Auckland this evening on the Western Line were subjected to another typical “day at the office” - a points failure leading to 45 minute delays.

I think it’s worthwhile doing a bit of a comparison between how the rail problems faced by Auckland and Wellington in recent weeks have been dealt with. Let’s start with Wellington, where a couple of weeks ago there were some serious problems relating to electric wires  that were not properly fixed during overnight maintenance, causing huge problems. KiwiRail got blasted in the Dominion Post Editorial, which had this to say:

On Tuesday 369 people were stuck on a train to Upper Hutt for two hours after a power failure halted all trains in and out of the capital. “No one told us anything,” complained a passenger. “We were locked up and were going nowhere. We were not allowed outside.”

The previous day 2000 commuters were delayed for up to two hours when another power fault brought services to a standstill. Some passengers waited more than an hour for replacement buses to show up. Others walked to work along the lines.

This week’s breakdowns are just the latest in a string of problems that have infuriated passengers over the past 12 months as historic under-investment in the commuter network and a $600 million upgrade have coincided to create what KiwiRail project manager David Gordon calls a “perfect storm”.

Passengers have been delayed by power faults, equipment failures, slips and contractor errors and, last winter, were left to shiver in carriages without working heaters.

Faced with such a difficult operating environment, KiwiRail might have been expected to do its utmost to retain customer loyalty by informing passengers of the cause and likely length of delays and having alternative forms of transport on hand to minimise inconvenience.

Instead it has operated as if its customers have no choice but to put up with its erratic services.

In response, KiwiRail actually did something. There was a free day’s travel as compensation for the problems and a real commitment to sort things out it would seem. Rail is taken seriously in Wellington and the trains are expected to work, so when something goes wrong because there’s only one agency involved (KiwiRail) things can be sorted out.

Meanwhile, back in Auckland, it’s arguable that we suffer (on a smaller scale, but far more frequently) significantly more problems with our rail network. As I have mentioned in previous posts, there were 406 signal or points failures on the Auckland rail network in the last year alone, and in January only 36% of Western Line trains reached the destination less than 5 minutes late, while 10% didn’t even reach their destination at all. And yet what have we heard from ARTA or KiwiRail about these horrific problems in Auckland?

Zilch.

Instead, we get bombarded with media releases about fun, nice to have, events and promotions that ARTA’s running. Like tomorrow’s Walk2Work promotion, which I’m sure is a good idea, but how about we sort those trains out? Or a “one-stop-shop” calendar for finding out about sustainable travel events, or some promotion with the Blues rugby team, or the refurbishment of the Maxx Website (without actually updating the horrifically outdated mapping system behind the scenes) or the bizarre “Make a Change” campaign. These are all “nice”, but once again please can we get the basics right first? Can we get more than two out of five trains running on time on the Western Line, can we ensure that 10% of trains don’t fail to make it to their destination? Can we get some progress updates on how integrated ticketing is coming along? Can we start implementing a paper-based integrated fare system like was promised “within a few months” back in 2008?

Now I imagine ARTA will throw their hands up in the air at all of this and say “but it’s not our fault, it’s KiwiRail/Veolia/ARC/City Councils/NZTA’s fault….” Which is probably true, but in a nutshell is the problem.

And having a massive Transport CCO is only going to make things worse, as they’ll be even less accountable while we’ll still have the dis-integration between KiwiRail, Veolia and the new Transport Agency. This isn’t throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it’s throwing the baby out but keeping the damn bathwater.