Subscribe to RSSRWC 2011 Trial Run : Photos
Saturday night’s Four Nations league test series at Eden Park was designed to be a further dry run for next year’s RWC 2011 games there.
How did it do?
Police say they made 6 arrests and complained empty plastic bottles made it to the field during the Mexican waves from the “large boisterous crowd.”
The packed Kingsland bars were a suburban version of Party Central even before the match…
Fans at Kingsland bars before they walk around the corner to the Park
I certainly encountered some very drunk people making their way to the game. The problem is people get tanked up before they walk into the gate.
An endless stream of trains came and went and officials marshalled those exiting to leave by the appropriate exit onto Sandringham Road.
There were certainly plenty of train managers acting as info officers.
And if you were still lost..
As previewed here the other day, the overbridge between Kingsland village and Sandringham Rd was forcibly blocked:
People were using the new walkway between Sandringham and the Walters Road Eden Park entrance. It was open for the first time and does save a few minutes walk. I was interested to notice people were also walking from the city either via Symonds St or Ian McKinnon Drive. This will be encouraged during the RWC 2011.
Sandringham Rd from the Kingsland end was closed to traffic as were several side streets:
Residents trying to get access to closed streets had to show their permit:
I admired the way a cyclist found a cheeky spot near the train station for his free parking despite the car ban outside:
Photos of how Eden Park looked here
17 Comments
I caught a train from out west that was meant to get to Kingsland at 5:33. The thing was packed by New Lynn and we had to leave people at Avondale for the next services. We really need more 6 car trains.
Also when we got to Kingsland a lot of people didn’t know about the underpass so got out and milled around as they thought everyone had to go towards the overbridge.
Also there we quite a few “ohhhh’s” when we got to New Lynn as most wouldn’t realise what it looks like.
I caught the Western line service which departed Britomart at 6:50, travelling all stops to Waitakere.
It was an SA4 set that left Britomart with an absolute crushload, the service would have really benefited from having 6 carriages if that was possible.
Unlike the specific rugby services this one travelled via Newmarket but still had mostly rugby goers onboard. In fact , if I’m reading the timetable right there were only hourly services from Newmarket to Kingsland (as well as other western line stations as is usual).
Of course, when the service arrived at Newmarket there was no room for anybody to get on. We ended up leaving at least 100 people at Newmarket (as well as 25 at Grafton) because there was no room. I hope those left waiting at Newmarket knew about the shuttle bus service provided and that it provided enough capacity, because otherwise they had an hour wait until the next train (If I’m reading the timetable correctly), which may have been too late for them.
Wasn’t there some way that could have been handled better? Those boarding at Britomart for Kingsland could have been told to wait for the 7:00 direct service which would have gotten them to Kingsland only 8 minutes later, or they could have run some Southern Line services on a Remuera-Newmarket-Kingsland pattern (Which I suppose is the plan for the Rugby World Cup, although the unupgraded signalling may not have the capacity yet).
@Matt L , @Kalelovil Thanks for the fascinating reports on how it went. This was a learning exercise so I’ll make sure it gets passed on.
Hopefully the Blues will have a good Super 15 campaign next year
We can then have a few more learning exercises before RWC, sadly I doubt we will see big crowds at Eden Park leading up to the Cup.
Having exited Eden Park after the game I headed for Kingsland Station along with possibly 20,000 others. What a mess, quite frankly from what I saw, the station cannot handle the large amount of people that descend upon it in a flash. On the other hand there looked like there were enough trains to slowly fit people in.
Coming into Eden Park I was dropped off at Sandringham Road, which was painless enough and used the new walkway which was an excellent addition. My brother reported to me that he was considering taking the train from Grafton but said that the trains were already full by then and had reached crush point. He even mentioned to me how much it reminded him of a video he saw on Youtube See Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeMpbQ0_aQ
The Park looked great, no hassles entering the park with the new gate system. All of the Food and Beverage points were busy but moved along quickly. Although 2 beers max per person is a little annoying.
I thought the organisation re trains and access to and from Eden Park was excellent.
Contrary to the earlier report that the bridge would be closed at Kingsland station and the subway use would be discouraged both were freely available to access the railway platforms at least. So no hassles there.
Eden Park was infinitely better to get in and out of and Sandringham Rd was closed to traffic meaning we could all get across the road with ease.
The only glitches I noticed was that the trains were supposed to stop at Grafton but didn’t and officials hadn’t counted on the crowd leaving before full time as happened because the Kiwi’s were so useless and unwatchable.
Having said that the we arrived at Kingsland at 9.40 PM, along with a couple of hundred other people and were told over the loud speaker that the next train was at 9.55 but then a 4 car train arrived 3 minutes later for Britomart and another going West. So either they saw the crowded platform and were flexible enough to have a train on standby or that was the 9.55 early.
Once loaded it left.
It was easily the most crowded train I have been on in Auckland but the direct trip to Britomart was quick and as far as I could see Veolia did a damned fine job.
haha classic clip
Kurt - I also had no trouble leaving the game. We left just a few mins early and headed to the station along with thousands of others. As we were walking out the gates we saw one train leave for out west and by the time we got to the station 2 mins later there was another one already there and filling up quickly. The front few carriages were already filled up with people standing but the back ones had seats available. The train was meant to leave at 10:05 but left at 10 due to being full. Good to see the flexibility.
One thought I had though was that trains shouldn’t be stopping at Morningside, it is so close to the stadium that it would probably be quicker for some people to walk.
My understanding is that for the RWC all westbound trains will load/unload at Morningside and Kingsland will be just for citybound trains.
That means both platforms at Kingsland will be able to load passengers, which should speed things up a lot.
This is exactly what worries me about the RWC and the Govt’s obsession about a boozy party central.
This brings out the worst in Kiwi hoons who will show off in front of the international cameras with their drunken antics and booing of opposition teams.
People entering the park need to be breathtested. I was appalled how many drunk people I also saw going to the game - including people parking their cars in back streets and staggering along with a bottle in hand.
@ William Ross - Unfortunately this is what you get if you have to pay $7 for a beer inside the stadium and you have a drinking culture in the country. So people “pre-load” before they go to the venue, the venue being either a sports ground or a “party central”. I’m all for the party central idea since I will not have tickets for all the matches, but would like to go to a central location for the vibe.
The reality is that we are a country of binge drinkers and people who abuse their children. :’(
You have to remember that it was a league game which brings in fans who seem to be a different bread. However it still needs to be looked at seriously, I’m confident we won’t have the same idiots turn up to the rugby matches.
But honestly if anyone boo-ed at a national anthem at a rugby match he would be decked by fans from the same nation. That was just not called for, and quite embarrassing for our country, the throwing of bottles etc emphasied that point further, it’s given NZ league fans a bad name, hopefully the same wont happen at the rugby.
Too be fair, I have seen worse behavior at the Cricket. The Mexican waves are just as bad in other places, see here. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/mcg-bans-mexican-wave/2007/02/01/1169919449788.html
I went to the Lions game back in 05 and it had zero atmosphere. Boring. Last night the atmosphere was electric, during the haka the crowd went nuts and I had a ball.
@Joshua Rugby fans tend to be a lot ruder than league fans from my experience. League fans drink more but from all the games that i have been to there has been far more community spirit at league games than rugby.
I was at a wedding in Gordonton that night and on my way home i saw a great stream of cars returning home from what appeared to be the game. It seemed apparent that a waikato train service is needed
San Luca - No offence but that is the first time I’ve ever seen a national anthem boo-ed, and quite frankly it’s embarassing it came from our country. I often attend rugby and league matches, huge sport fan but actually find the opposite. If anything Rugby fans are to subdued and need to be roudier than they are to create more of an atmosphere.
League fans this time took that way too far, I don’t know where you were sitting but a whole lot of fans need to grow up, noise is good at at the right times but you never see rubbish needing to be brushed off the field during a rugby match, nor should you.
As nearby residents, it was a shocker.
On Sunday morning there were beer and alcohol bottles all over the front lawn.
There was so much noise on Saturday night until very late from drunks. Good on officials you got your party central but not in your Queens wharf booze barns but in a nice quiet civilised neighbourhood.
It was ugly.
The new parking restrictions were messy and all the ban on streets has done is shift the problem to closer to St Lukes where those streets not affected off Morningside Drive got their precious street parking spots taken.
There were cops hanging around the Kingsland station. How come police presence in the actual stadium allowed a streaker on the field?
I cant believe how many drunks staggered back to their cars. Why was there no booze bus to catch them?
If anything this proves we should have listened to the plan for a waterfront stadium.
can’t we have what australian venues do and limit the drink on offer to 3.5% beer in plastic cups only. Should allow prices to drop as well. Not sure what to do about pre-loading.