Same Direction Trains Gets Trial

 

Trains will run in the same direction on both rail lines for the first time after this Saturday’s Super 15 game at Eden Park.

It will mean trains can leave Kingsland Station every five minutes as crowds leave the game. Trains will also leave on both tracks towards the west from Morningside Station. Approximately 200m from the station trains will cross back to the track used for normal services.

The new set up is possible after Kiwirail’s major upgrades to tracks and signals in recent months.

After the game trains will be waiting at Morningside Station to take people west and at Kingsland to take people towards Britomart.

Approximately 50 extra train services will be in operation to help get people to and from the Blues vs Crusaders game.

Trains and special event buses are free to all Super 15 games at Eden Park with a match ticket. Residents only parking restrictions and road closures will be in place from 11am to 11pm.

The Blues vs Crusaders game will also see the beginning of operating ‘game day stations’ for major events at Eden Park.

Morningside is the Eden Park game day station for people travelling to and from the west. Kingsland is the game day station for people coming from and going back to Britomart, and using the Southern and Eastern Lines.

Auckland Transport Project Director Bruce Barnard says operating the stations like this means we get passengers onto trains and away from the station quicker.

“The improvements to signalling made recently gives us more flexibility and capacity for moving large crowds. It is the first time trains have operated like this so it gives us an opportunity to see what improvements can be made for next time.”

A number of free special events buses go to and from Eden Park. These run from North Shore Busway Stations, Takapuna, Auckland CBD, Newmarket/Mt Eden Village, Manukau/Botany/Pakuranga.

To allow the special rail services to be provided for the game some normal timetabled trains between Britomart and Morningside are suspended from 4.30pm to approximately 10.30pm. Buses will replace trains for those services affected.

Passengers are reminded that alcohol is not permitted for consumption on any of these public transport services.

Parking restrictions and road closures

Zone A of the residents’ only parking scheme will be in operation from 11am – 11pm.

Parking in Zone A will be permitted for vehicles displaying:

•      A valid Eden Park Zone A parking permit

•      A temporary visitor parking permit, which can be obtained from Eden Park Gates B and G in the lead up to the event during business hours, and from 9am on game days.

Some roads around Eden Park will be closed to the public. Every effort will be made to ensure access for residents and their visitors throughout the day. However depending on crowd size and movement, access may be restricted at the discretion of Auckland Transport and the police.

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10 Comments

 
  1. Andy says:

    Will be interesting to see how things run after the debacles which happened the last couple of times. Hope it all goes well!

  2. richard says:

    I trust they don’t forget the usual passengers and clearly label special trains and indicators on platforms that a train is a special and an express/limited stops etc.

    I was not impressed on Big Day out Day when the Papakura train I caught didn’t stop at my destination, Remuera. Veolia need to get their communications act together.

    If trains are travelling on both tracks in the same direction how does a regular timetable train go the opposite way?

  3. mickeymouse says:

    If trains are travelling on both tracks in the same direction how does a regular timetable train go the opposite way?

    They don’t,……………………….. Shuttle services are being run between Waitakere / Swanson / Henderson and Morningside and between Kingsland and Britomart. Rail buses replace other services between 4.30pm and 10.30pm as stated. AFAIK There will be no normal britomart / swanson / britomart services during this time..

    mickey

  4. john says:

    will wait and see with this trial with the trains not running in the west so far this year for any long weekends and now for the 1st eden park rugby ground we are expected to get off and embark at some distance from the park disappointing.I assume this is an early acceptance that the public transport system can’t handle current volumes going in and out of the kingsland railway station and so doesn’t have a hope in hell of handling the world cup volumes.

  5. richard says:

    So Rugby Football is totally taking over our public transport services during games. It’s fine running special trains but they shouldn’t totally take over at the expense of the railway’s regular travellers.

    Frankly I, and I suspect I am not alone, am fed up with the Rugby World Cup already which will be no bigger than First Division Football games which occur in European cities every weekend. There are many other sporting events bigger in the world and they don’t have “Party Central” and all this nonsense

  6. Andy says:

    @RIchard - Though I’m not really into sport at all I am happy to have the world cup in NZ if means all these things we have been wanting for Auckland PT happen faster than they would have otherwise.

  7. Nick R says:

    Richard, NZ has less people in it than Croatia, and it is 2,000km away from it’s nearest neighbour. You can’t compare it to Europe!

    While big sports matches might be a weekly thing in Europe the aren’t in NZ, the Rugby World Cup will be the biggest event held in New Zealand ever.

    In relative terms the spending on Rugby World Cup is a greater proportion of the New Zealand GDP than the Olympics are of the United Kingdom’s, and the number of international visitors anticipated is equal to about 2% of the population. London would need to see over 1.2 millon foreigners turn up for the Olympics to have the same relative effect.

    So yeah, it is a very big deal for Auckland to be hosting the final and pulling out all the stops with Auckland’s limited public transport system is probably a very good idea.

  8. Bruce hanley says:

    trying to get home on saturday night 19th Feb.We were told our street would be closed for another 10 minutes.This turned into an hour and a discussion with an Auckland Transport employee ensued. He said “you must have too much money to live here’. we had all the necessary permits but they weren’t interested.We waited and soon Police passed opened the road and let us return to our homes…where do Traffic Control get off keeping people out their homes….it is going to be a disaster!!…and for Eden Park rugby some people still live in the houses you haven’t bought out….

  9. GJA says:

    Eden Park is a commercial entity and need to look after their investment and comply with the RMA and all other bylaws.

    I also think that Eden Park was there before any of the residents purchased their houses. The locals should also expect that Eden Park will be expanded in the future (not in 5-10 years, but it will). We might have a stadium that can seat 80,000 to 100,000 in say 40-50 years…

  10. Nick R says:

    GJA if you take that line of thinking they you are basically saying “tough shit” to about 15km2 of Auckland city for the rest of eternity.
    Eden park was ok when it was just playing fields with a small grandstand, but they have taken a suburban sports field and gradually extended it into a monster than has no place in the middle of the burbs.
    Unfortunately we are stuck with it for several decades due to this upgrade, but one hopes that in 40-50 years we will have relocated the main stadium to somewhere more appropriate and returned Eden Park to being local playing fields.

 

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