Subscribe to RSSAuckland Trains: Hell Week II
Last week’s shocker of a week of breakdowns on the Dinosaur Train Service continues with Monday Mayhem. Tonight’s busy Waitakere - bound 4.58pm Western line service was cancelled because of a “mechanical fault.”
This led to the next scheduled service, the 5.13pm Swanson service being pretty much standing room only by the time it left the Brit full of disgruntled customers.
My carriage saw hearts sink when a false Chinese whisper began that this had morphed into the 5.13pm No Stop Til Brooklyn (or read Newmarket / New Lynn) Express service.
This morning it was all fun and games too. The 7.35am city-bound I think it was , also got cancelled because of a mechanical fault.
The train I finally boarded was so crowded because an essential rush hour service was skipped, I had to adopt the position of a French v All Blacks rugby scrum to push myself on board. I noticed that by the time we got to Mt Albert station and subsequent stops, some passengers couldn’t fit on or, for their own health and safety, waited for another train.
There was also talk on board of another train this morning whose doors wouldn’t open.
This is a nasty replay of last week’s run of endless breakdowns.
Don’t worry. We’re promised a world - class train service is just around the corner for the Rugby World Cup.
4 Comments
“I noticed that by the time we got to Mt Albert station and subsequent stops, some passengers couldn’t fit on or, for their own health and safety, waited for another train.”
You might have seen me at Morningside then, if you were lucky enough to be both near a window and not struggling for oxygen at the time.
I couldnt see my feet let alone the window. Glad you made it on board.
Actually I didn’t! But no harm done.
Believe it or not, this morning things actually went without a hitch. A bit full but timely and relaxing as the train is supposed to be.
Both trains I encountered seemed to be about three minutes late, but I’m actually now wondering if this might be my phone time being behind ‘railway time’, if there still is such a quaint-sounding thing in existence. Does anyone know (or care) who keeps the official time that the timetables are supposed to be based on?
2-3 minutes “late” is actually a pretty good time for a train to turn up in my opinion. A millions times better than a few minutes early.