Auck Electric Trains Not Til 2014

 

Auckland’s new electric trains won’t be running on the network until 2014.
That’s the latest estimate by KiwiRail in its update on the state of the electrification project.
The first units will arrive from mid-2013 but KiwiRail does not expect the trains to be operational for commuters until sometime in 2014.
The same has happened with Matangi trains some of which have arrived here but will not start running until some weeks time at non peak hours on one line only as training and testing of the new trains continue.

The tenders bidding to build them, expected to be a Chinese company, are still being “evaluated.”

For the technically minded and those interested here is their latest report:
Planning strategy:
Most OPWs obtained. Those awaiting finalisation of OLE design -Britomart, Causeway/ Orakei and Papakura
OLE clearances
Bridge raising and lowering at 24 sites. Completion ofremaining 3 bridges and 6 footbridges this and next year. Ameti involved with Mountain Road, NZTA with Ellerslie footbridge
Signalling
$90m contract with Invensys Rai. Onehunga, Newmarket -Morningside and Quay-Britomart finished. Newmarket-Penrose will be done at Easter. Westfield-Wiri finished in July. All work done by early next year.
Traction & Power supply
$150m contract. 25kV overhead power system form Transpower (2 separate supply points), AECOM 90% complete with overhed line design. Construction is a joint venture with Hawkins & Lang O’Rourke. The focus is on foundations. The masts across the causeway and Orakei will aim for some “aesthetic’ impact.
New train tenders
EOIs - being evaluated - a 2-envelope system.(a two-envelope system is composed of one envelope containing the Technical and Management Proposal and the second envelope containing the Financial proposal).

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17 Comments

 
  1. Vote National - Kill Rail says:

    Of course the Minister of Transport will order Chinese rolling stock - it’s cheap and …well, cheap.

    For his Puford Holiday Highway he’ll spend on the most deluxe construction for something the country does not need, nor can afford.

    Vote National - Kill Rail

  2. KLK says:

    I think you’ll find chinese-made rolling stock to be world class, much like their current (and ever expanding) network.

  3. Cam says:

    Yeah Chinese made rolling stock is no problem for me. Whoever it is i just wish the process would speed up.

  4. Matt L says:

    What a joke Kiwirail is making of this tender process, if they hadn’t pissed around adding more companies to the tender it wouldn’t have taken so long to evaluate them and we would probably be signing the contract now, now we are faced with even more time to wait and whats the bet it will end up being pushed back to close to 2015 due to more incompetence.

  5. Luke says:

    and in 2008 there was still some possibility a running RWC with EMU’s. really pathetic from the govt.
    also interested by the comments about the 2 envelope system.
    the mention of ‘financial proposal’ makes it look like its going to be a PPP. just means going to be more expensive in the long run, and will add another layer of bureaucracy.

  6. Vote National - Kill Rail says:

    Chinese world class - just like the DL locos?

    Vote National - Kill Rail

  7. dsadasgdf654645 says:

    I think the reason for the delays is more the governments fault, particularly it was them that were cancelling the auckland regional fuel tax and no longer having arta involved in the purchase of trains. KiwiRail was given this job by the government and was given it after about a year of delay, and the fact that the government is very hostile to the idea of giving any more money to rail and trying to get it making money as soon as possible then KiwiRail have probably been pressured into adding the chinese companies to the list.

  8. Kris says:

    I guess that the chinese will end up with the contract to build the EMUs.

    If you read between the lines of John Key address and his recent media on selling interests in SOE’s, you will probaly see a government/private partnership with the chinese in regards to rail in NZ.

    I suspect that 49% of Kwirail will be sold to Hong Kong based chinese equity companies.

    With regards to the the rail infra-structure, the Chinese will invest in the upgrading of the rail network possibility including the Auckland CBD rail loop and the airport line as a 50/50 partnership with the Government owning the land and track (to keep the cousie bros happy) and the chinese stumping up with the cash for the work.

    Ontrack would be re-established as a SOE (50% owned by the chinese & 50% by the government) to look after the land and track//signal infrastructure.

    The whole NZ rail network would end up with chinese technology and rolling stock & the 2 railway workshops would do the heavy maintenance.

    I would interesting to see if this going to happen, since the government has warmed (slightly) to the Auckland CBD rail loop concept.

  9. Paul in Sydney says:

    I believe it’s down two 6 tenders as 4 of them have with drawn

    Bombardier, one of the original 4 was not happy with the tender process being extended

    And 3 of the new additions have gone too

    Source nz rail observer mag - buy it

  10. Rocky says:

    Thanks for the update - sounds like Kiwrail are already miles behind their own project timeline which stated that by December 2010 the successful supplier would have been selected and a binding term sheet signed.

    Now its February 2011 and Kiwirail’s update is that they are evaluating expressions of interest (EOI)? That was done Sep-Oct last year! Shouldn’t Kiwirail be saying they are evaluating request for reponses (RFP’s)?

  11. Patrick R says:

    Any guesses what the price of oil will be by 2014? Good-one Joyce.

  12. Donald Neal says:

    Would it be needlessly pessimistic to wonder about the reliable working life of the ADK”s now in service?

  13. mark says:

    “What a joke Kiwirail is making of this tender process, if they hadn’t pissed around adding more companies to the tender”

    Well, if you are working for a government which is actively hostile to your very existence, and apt to throw screwballs in the works like Joyce’s sudden “let’s do train purchase as a PPP!” rush of blood to the head…

    I like the two envelope aspect though. That will make it harder to just go for the cheap price.

  14. Matt L says:

    There is no PPP for buying these trains, the government said they looked at that before confirming that they would buy them as a loan and decided a PPP would be unworkable.

    Also when you are in the position that Kiwirail is with a hostile owner, the best thing to do would be to stick your head down and show how good you can be rather than delaying things and stuffing them up which would just reinforces that believe in the owner.

  15. mark says:

    “There is no PPP for buying these trains”

    Please do not misinterpretate what I was saying. Joyce’s decision to INVESTIGATE PPPs for the train purchase stalled the process for quite a while.

    As for your second part, remember what the word “owner” means. It means the guy who tells you what to do.

    I do not consider that KiwiRail has much leeway to make decisions on their own these days. Every major call will be run by Mr Joyce, and you can be sure that he’s not the most positive about rail. And he has his own view of how rail should be improved, if at all.

  16. Anon says:

    I also thought that Chinese Trains were the best?.

    Anyway, when the CBD Tunnel opens, will KiwiRail need to buy more EMU’s?. If so how many more?.

  17. Matt L says:

    Anon - The study suggested that depending on the operating pattern we would need 4 or 24.

    The preferred plan was to 6 trains per hour from Papakura to Britomart then through the tunnel and out to Henderson with half via the southern line and half via the Eastern. There would then be 6 per hour from Manukau to Britomart then out to Swanson again with half via the Southern and half via the eastern. Onehunga trains be 6 per hour with them just running to Newmarket then around the tunnel and back out again with half going via Grafton and half via Britomart.

    The scaled back version only requiring 4 more trains was the same as above for the Manukau to Swanson line, same for the Papakura line but terminating the trains at Morningside. For Onehunga however it was suggested to have only 3 trains per hour but have them go to Newmarket then straight to Grafton and then out to Henderson.

    I think both of these patterns are quite inefficient and it seems to me like they are trying to put on services to avoid people having to transfer rather than running the system as a network. I think a better solution would be to run all western line trains down the tunnel and link that line to the southern. Then link the eastern up to Manukau and have it go through the tunnel and out to Onehunga via Newmarket. That way we only have two lines which will make it easier to understand and to operate but for some customers would require a transfer.

 

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