Subscribe to RSSRWC Late Trains Planned
Late Auckland rail services will be provided through to 1.30 – 2.30am on Rugby World Cup match nights.
A report to the Auckland Transport board this week says train driver numbers for each day of the operation have been developed and Veolia and KiwiRail are working together to service these requirements.
The normal Friday timetable will operate on each weekday. More frequent and later services will also operate on Saturday and Sundays.
For bus users there will be “limited changes” to normal bus routes except for higher frequencies on specific routes on Sunday.
On match nights extended bus services will be provided on 9 high capacity bus routes through to 1.00am. Higher frequency services will be provided from 10.30pm.
Nightrider services will also be enhanced on Friday and Saturday match nights and will be provided on Sunday match nights.
But AT warns that if anything goes wrong, providing regular buses the next day may be a challenge.
The report says: “Driver hours are under control based on planned requirements, however if contingency plans come into place e.g. match delays, failure of the rail network, over demand for rail requiring more buses where more buses are required then there may be impacts to following day services.”
Although ferries provide no direct link to the venues, late and enhanced services will operate on the majority of routes on match days. There will be normal services except for match nights.
Britomart Station will operate differently on match days to normal operations. The Strand will be used as a contingency station should Britomart be unavailable. The Strand railworks and upgrades to the platforms will be completed and commissioned next month.
Work at Strand Station to make it ready as an emergency stop
The final pre-RWC test of transport arrangements will be at the Bledisloe Cup on August 6.
Six permanent electronic sign boards are being installed around Eden Park to pre-warn commuters of event and the need to take alternate routes.
As for the Cloud aka Party Central, Quay St will be closed from 10pm September 8 until 4am September 10 and such closure may be implemented during some of the finals. “At best it is expected that Quay St will need to be closed late at night for about 30 minutes to facilitate the safe exit of pedestrians from the FanZone.”
As for the other RWC2011 Fan Zones around Auckland, for Civic Lakes, bus services on Northern Express will increase through to Albany Busway Station. That makes a 400m walk to the venue.
Trusts Stadium- will see a bus shuttle provided from Henderson Station to the venue. For Mangere Arts Centre there will be no special services.
Taxis are presently going through a RWC accreditation. This will be designated with an orange sticker on the left hand side windscreen.
There has been an upgrade of the Auckland Domestic Airport forecourt but the report notes that “there are a number of operational issues that need to be rectified prior to RWC2011.”
Electronic real time signs are being installed on the main Airport to CBD road routes. Other superficial changes e.g. extension to merge lanes, moving bus stops away from intersections etc. is under review.
10 Comments
Well there is still thousands and thousands of tickets to be sold, In fact I heard only 4 All Black games are sold-out…
Considering there are only 4 All Blacks games scheduled so far, that’s pretty good then?
The trains should run this late every friday and saturday.
In Perth we have just managed to get 40,000 + to join a facebook page as a petition to have a train at 4am on saturday and sunday morning.
they are going to run a 3 month trail.
the last train in all directions leaves at 2:15am and starts again at 5:15 on saturday morning and 5:45am on sunday.
many people are stranded in the city around 4-5 because the taxi drivers (excuse my words) are just arse*oles and carry on like they will only do trips worth more than $40.
now that the trains will run at 4:15, they will be packed.
each train is stationed with 6 guards to make sure every one is behaved.
this idea is going to be rock solid when it happens.
Auckland should at least have a late night train on friday / saturday night, more drunk idiots off the road.
“The trains should run this late every friday and saturday.”
It’s very rare I agree with anything Carl says, but this is one of those times.
Does this mean there will be trains past Henderson on Sundays?
Hopefully this can be leveraged to help move trains later into the eve for regular service.
Fantastic, this is a great improvement to the service.
Quay St should become a shared space too more good practice there as well…
yay Auckland starts to grow up.
It’s great either way, that there’s plans to fix/upgrade the decaying former Railway station, however I’m a little worried by what “should Britomart be unavailable” means?…
@Cheryl It means if there some nonsense like a bomb scare which means the station has to be evacuated, people can still get to the game.
@ Cheryl The Strand station could be used for more than contingencies I think. Not everybody wants to go to the bottom of Queen Street anyway - some would like to go bypass Britomart and get off at the Strand or keep going to places like Orakei, Meadowbank, Glen Innes, Panmure, Sylvia Park. Lets put the Strand on the timetable guys!