New Timetables Hailed

 

Despite some commuter grumbles, both ARTA and Veolia are today hailing the new train timetables, coming into effect September 19, as a great step forward.

On that date both Onehunga services start and the new New Lynn transport hub opens.

ARTA says it will mean 400 extra trips a week will be introduced across Auckland’s rail network. 

ARTA’s General Manager, Customer Services, Mark Lambert said that was a 25% increase in services, the biggest increase in train services in recent times in Auckland.

He says the timetables not only coincide with the introduction of Onehunga services but with the longer, six carriage trains being introduced to the Western Line which will provide more available seats, increasing the total capacity of the service.

But only two and four-car trains will stop at Baldwin Ave station until it is upgraded for six car trains early in the new year.

Baldwin Ave not ready for longer trains

Mr Lambert said: “The new timetable has been developed to include more services and longer trains in response to the significant increase of train users in the region. This year Aucklanders took more than 8.4million journeys on trains, a 10.8% increase on last year.

“Many of the additional services will be during the day, especially in the morning and afternoon which will benefit everybody using the service to get to and from work or school.

Graham Sibery, Managing Director of Veolia Transport Auckland Ltd describes the timetable changed as “the result of excellent work with our partners ARTA and KiwiRail. We look forward to transporting more people on more trains to more locations as Auckland’s rail renaissance continues.”

Tags:

 
 
 

6 Comments

 
  1. William M says:

    But no SA6 trains on the southern routes? Somehow I disagree with some of this raving excitement… we’re heading for a bad place with trains in the East and South running at crush load whilst the West gets the star treatment.

  2. James says:

    @William there is already 6 car trains happening on the south, I’ve notice the 5.28 service runs as 6 cars when waiting for my train

  3. karl says:

    Plus there’s more trains. How can one be down on that, current crush loads or not!

    If there’s one thing that increases patronage, its more services more often.

  4. joust says:

    such a big increase is great news, the Newmarket to Britomart timetable shows 10 trains bound for Britomart between 7-8am is just an example of the increases we can see around the network.

    It would be interesting to compare the current southern timetable to the one from say 5 years ago. The growth in such a short time is incredible.

  5. rtc says:

    Southern line stations have all been upgraded to allow for longer trains, it’s not just the Western line to get them.

  6. Phil says:

    Pukekohe seems to be being downgraded with losing the so called ‘express’ services and still no evening or weekend services. This is not the dark ages, with now being in the Supercity a growing commuter town and surrounding area should have expected much improved service. Pukekohe is expanding further with new retail parks and developments but where is the transport infrastructure to serve it. This seems a little short sighted of Veolia.

 

Leave a Comment

 




XHTML: You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>