Subscribe to RSSMt Eden Breakdown
A locomotive broke down at Mount Eden train station tonight, throwing peak time timetables into chaos.
In the end, passengers on the West-bound train were told to abandon ship and left standing on the platform with transfer tickets for when another train might come.
It triggered delays down the line.
Some of the many peak time passengers gave up waiting at Mt Eden and went to Mt Eden Road to get a bus into Symonds St and then a bus to their destination out west.
A locomotive arrived and pushed the stationary broken down loco to Morningside’s side track so services could resume.
A working train finally arrives for waiting passengers at Mt Eden tonight
Some passengers complained about the lack of information while waiting out the delays around the network.
4 Comments
So glad I wasn’t trying to catch a train out West tonight!
Good to see a story in the herald about this today-not only does it emphasise rail as more mainstream,but, more importantly, it makes these events look rare (if this was the usual, they wouldn’t report it)
My take on this is similar to the Herald story.
I boarded the 5:49 from Grafton last night. We departed but sat between Grafton & Mt Eden for maybe 15 minutes without any comment from staff. When we finally pulled up to the platform in our 4 car train, the staff put all the passengers from the broken down 6 car train on to ours, and our train was then supposed to push the broken one. After about 10 more minutes, this didn’t happen. Everyone from both trains was then pulled out of the 4 car train and made to wait on the platform. I was standing next to a Veiola office staff member who said (after a phone call to co-workers) that an express train would be coming directly to Mt Eden for us. After about another 10 minutes, a 6 car train (not an express, as it had passengers on it) came and seemed to fit just about everyone who remained at the platform. I went up to the 2nd car and even had a seat. No idea if there ever really was an express.
The funny part was the announcements saying ‘no stop at Baldwin Ave’ followed by ‘anyone who wants to disembark at Baldwin Ave, please come to the front car’. And then we stopped at Baldwin Ave. Seemed reasonable to me, but made us stop for a while at Mt. Albert to shift people. Also, this replacement service was extended to Waitakere, which again seemed reasonable to me.
I finally arrived at Ranui at about 7:10, so it was a much longer commute than I’d like. I didn’t see any compensation from staff to people who opted for a bus instead but I also didn’t hear anyone ask, though a woman who boarded at New Lynn and loudly complained about waiting 1 hr was still made to pay full fare.
“pushed the stationary broken down loco to Morningside’s side track so services could resume”
That’s why its good to have a such side tracks! We need more - we may not manage triple tracking for a long while yet, but they add much needed redundancy.