Services are there but it is wanting from Auckland Transport and Transdev Auckland

A two piece story popped up in the Herald yesterday, one covering bus services and the other train services in Auckland.

Below is a passenger’s experience using the Southern Line (rail network) a line I am very familiar with (as I live in Papakura and use the line to go to the City Centre).

From The Herald

Roger Hall & Barry Jenkins: By bus or train, Auckland’s a pain

Barry Jenkins writes:

I live on a rural lifestyle block in South Auckland and work in the CBD. For two-and-a-half years I drove to work on the Southern Motorway but traffic snarl-ups were becoming an almost daily occurrence and I had to leave home earlier and earlier to avoid morning bottlenecks. A nose to tail would mean chaos.

So I switched to using Auckland Transport’s southern line rail service, taking a train from Papakura to Britomart each day. At the free park and ride at Papakura station, a jovial security guard kept watch over the cars all day.

Initially, things weren’t too bad. Occasionally there was a train failure or a staff issue which caused a cancellation, but on the whole the service was reasonably reliable and got me to work on time around 8am, by the time I walked up Queen St to my workplace.

Things have changed of late. All too often I get to the park and ride and see a shiny, new electric train sitting in the siding. Experience has taught me that this isn’t a good sign. That train should be halfway down the track towards Pukekohe by now, before reversing back into the Papakura station and becoming the 6.48am service to Britomart.

I tag on and then, sure enough, an announcement comes over the public address system. Sorry folks but your 6.48am has been cancelled due to a train fault. People around me groan. This has become an all-too-frequent occurrence of late.

The next train is the 6.58am on a different platform. We march en masse over the rail bridge on to the designated platform and wait expectantly for the next train to arrive.

People around me grumble to each other, “third time this week” … “this is ridiculous”. I get talking to the lady next to me who tells me she got to work yesterday over half an hour late and she is embarrassed about it.

Initially I would give up when this happened, jump in my car and drive to work, but I soon found that driving to the CBD at 7am was too late. I would end up not arriving until 8.30am or later. Remember I’m supposed to be there at 8am.

The 6.58am train duly arrives already 5 minutes late, and two trainloads of people scramble into an already full train. It’s going to mean standing all the way into Britomart cheek to cheek with other commuters.

The doors of this train stay open. This isn’t a good sign either. After another 5 minutes, the guard walks through the carriages to say that the train won’t be going any further as the driver is having trouble with the brakes.

The next service is the 7.06am. You guessed it, on another platform. All the people that normally catch the 6.48am train, together with all the people that normally catch the 6.58am train plus all the people that normally catch the 7.06am train are now all trying to board one train. Needless to say, it doesn’t happen.

I give up, tag off and get back in my car and drive home. I’ll book a day’s annual leave and stay home today. I get charged $1.80 on my Hop card for the privilege of waiting around in the cold and wet for half an hour for cancelled trains that either don’t arrive or don’t leave.

I feel sorry for the people further up the line waiting on platforms for cancelled trains which don’t arrive. They have no hope of even boarding a train by the time it gets to them.

The carriages are so packed with people that if people were cattle, I’m sure the SPCA would be taking Auckland Transport to court for inhumane treatment of animals.

Why is this happening virtually every day? Does Auckland Transport not have the staff or expertise to maintain its new electric rail fleet?

Senior management at Auckland Transport need a good rap over the knuckles over this fiasco and commuters want answers. If this is the future of Auckland’s transportation system then I wonder perhaps if it is time to consider moving to another part of the country and leaving the “Super City” behind.

Barry Jenkins of Ramarama is an electrical engineer.

………..

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11477763

Remember the May rail performance figures were shockers (May 2015 Rail Performance. In the English Language we call this an Omnishambles!) and June is certainly going to look much better.

Auckland Transport have said they have a plan to turn this around:

Will see how things pan out with full electric train roll out due July 20 at the end of the year.