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Fingers crossed for the dress rehearsal for the RWC matches at Eden Park.
Rugby fans heading for the Springboks-All Blacks match are being urged to go by train, especially as extensive parking restrictions around the area will be in force and part of Sandringham Rd closed off.
All Blacks checked out the Kingsland station during the week
Match ticket holders will get free train travel on all rail lines three hours prior to the 7.35pm start of the match.
After the game free travel continues until the end of service. Normal fares will apply for passengers travelling without a valid match ticket or Eden Park membership card.
Additional special event rail services to the game from Britomart to the revamped Kingsland station will operate from 4:23pm, stopping only at Grafton. This special event service will not stop at Newmarket or Mt Eden.
After the game additional special event rail services will operate approximately every 5 to 7 minutes to Britomart, stopping at Grafton only, until 10.39pm. From 10.39pm, services will operate every 20 minutes until 11.39pm, stopping at all stations.
Passengers can also travel for free with a valid match ticket on special buses to Eden Park, which will run from the North Shore, Takapuna, Midtown Auckland, Newmarket- Mt Eden Village, Botany-Manukau and Pakuranga.
Full details at Maxx
The new underpass at Kingsland station will be open to the public for the first time at the Tri Nations match, giving passengers a new main access point to the northern platform.
The new Kingsland station underpass
This has been built to speed up passenger movements around the station, helping people get to and from major events at Eden Park.
Security staff will shepherd people as to where to go. How drunken rugby fans will react to being told what to do and where to go could get interesting.
The $3m walkway to Eden Park
The expensive new shared walkway from Sandringam Rd to the Walters Rd entrance to the park will also be open for the first time to pedestrians only.
Trains will stop at Grafton but not Newmarket. Newmarket Business head Cameron Brewer complained today about Newmarket being left out of the RWC action.
“Areas like Newmarket want to be part of the action, but we’re increasingly worried that it’s becoming an exclusively CBD-event, with express trains from Britomart to Kingsland now also set to completely bypass Newmarket and its new $35m railway station.
“We want to promote Newmarket as a great place to ‘park, dine and ride’ for those big late night games in the last couple of weeks of the Rugby World Cup. However it’s looking increasingly likely the Newmarket station won’t be playing much of a role at all.”
2 Comments
I have to commend the parties involved here. There’s a lot more work going into making this event work transport-wise in comparison to previous events. Good luck to the various organisations involved.
I’ve heard a lot of advertising over the radio encouraging training to the game. I like how they are doing this full rehearsal now… still over a year out from the main event. Hopefully their thinking is that if it doesn’t all work properly theres still a chance to throw millions of dollars at the problems!