Onehunga Trains Best Behaved

in Trains by Jon C — November 1, 2010 at 11:50 am | 0 comments

The latest Auckland train performance stats show that the new Onehunga train services are the best performing despite the initial speed restrictions.

The newly introduced Onehunga services recorded the best performance of the service groupings in September with 88.1% of services arriving within 5 minutes of their scheduled time. Trains on the line were subject to speed restrictions during the first week of operation as a precautionary measure given the number of level crossings on the line and while the signals were still subject to testing.

Services on the Western Line services recorded a slight decline on recent results with 85.5% of services operating on time or within five minutes of schedule in September. This compares to 88.4% last month and 88.4% in the same month last year.

Southern and Eastern Line trains continued to be impacted to a greater extent by the major incidents (detailed below) and the network upgrade works than were the services on the Western Line. For the month 79.4% of Southern and Eastern Line services operated on time or within five minutes of their schedule which is a reduction on the 83.9% recorded last month and 84.0% for the same month last year.

Auckland Transport describes September as a challenging month for rail service performance. The normal “teething” issues associated with the implementation of a new timetable that represented a 25% increase in service levels, and included the introduction of six-car trains on the Western Line, coincided with a period of extreme weather conditions which saw a decline in service performance in the latter part of the month.

In September 82.0% of services operated on time or within five minutes of their schedule during the month compared to 85.4% in August and 85.5% for the same month last year.

The following major incidents were reported during the month:

Signal, points and track failures – During the evening peak of 3 September a fault with a computer that controls the signals at Britomart resulted in delays to services operating on all lines.

Train faults – Two train faults occurred during the month that resulted in the train being disabled at critical points on the network causing extensive delays to services. The first occurred at Sturges Road during the morning peak of 22 September. All services were terminated at Henderson until the train could be recovered and bus replacements were arranged between Waitakere and Henderson. Shortly before midday on 29 September a train was disabled at Middlemore which led to extensive delays to services on the Southern and Eastern Lines, with consequential impacts on the Western and Onehunga Lines, which continued through to the evening peak.

Operations – The free travel offered on 5 September resulted in a large number of people travelling by train, including family groups with small children, and this increased the time the trains were stopped at stations to ensure that all passengers had the opportunity to board and alight safely. As a result delays accrued to services on all lines.

Other – Precautionary speed restrictions were imposed across the network on two occasions during a week of extreme weather conditions when there was a risk of the strong winds blowing debris across the rail corridor into the path of a train. These conditions caused part of the roof of the Lion Breweries building in Khyber Pass to lift which then landed by the tracks, narrowly avoiding a train. Speed restrictions were in place from the evening of 17 September through to the morning of 18 September and again from mid-morning through to the early evening of 22 September and these measures caused significant disruptions to planned services on all lines.

There are still the odd breakdowns

The reliability of train services, or the proportion of services that reached their scheduled destination and were not cancelled, was 98.1% for September, a reduction on the 98.5% for August and 98.6% for the same month last year. Faulty trains accounted for just under 70% of total cancellations with the two incidents detailed above accounting for 42% of these cancellations. Services on the Western Line were most affected by these cancellations with 97.1% of services reaching their scheduled destination compared to 98.7% of Southern and Eastern Line services and 97.7% of Onehunga services.

Infrastructure-related delay minutes fell by about 5% from August (4,222 minutes in September compared to 4,434 minutes in August). There were reductions in all areas except for a small increase in the train delays caused by track protection measures, most of which related to track work in preparation for electrification.
Graphs showing the above are here

Tags: Onehunga performance